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re: So my ac is acting up
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:00 pm to Ray Penpillage
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:00 pm to Ray Penpillage
I'm not an expert, but when my capacitor went bad, the fan wouldn't work. It sounds like his ac is operating, but just unable to keep up during the hottest hours of the day.
My best guess is poor insulation, lots of sun exposure, dirty filter and/or coils, aging unit or some combination.
My best guess is poor insulation, lots of sun exposure, dirty filter and/or coils, aging unit or some combination.
1
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:03 pm to WDE24
The air handler will still push air even if the compressor is down.
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:06 pm to Ray Penpillage
But the fan wouldn't work, right? I assume if he had someone out to check it, that would have been diagnosed pretty quickly.
Again, not an expert just lived through some of these issues before.
Again, not an expert just lived through some of these issues before.
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:10 pm to WDE24
The compressor and/or compressor fan wouldn't run. The air handler would still circulate air throughout the building, but it wouldn't be cool air.
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:11 pm to Ray Penpillage
quote:
The compressor and/or compressor fan wouldn't run. The air handler would still circulate air throughout the building, but it wouldn't be cool air.
presactly
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:11 pm to wareagle2007
quote:
but you need to clean the outside coils too.
I have to do this about every other week. Why? Well, I'll tell you. The numbnuts who built our house... guess where he put the dryer vent? Yup. Right behind in between the upstairs and downstairs condensers.
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:13 pm to SSpaniel
quote:
I have to do this about every other week. Why? Well, I'll tell you. The numbnuts who built our house... guess where he put the dryer vent? Yup. Right behind in between the upstairs and downstairs condensers.
wow, that's fricking genius, does he own an ac repair bidness too? can you re-route that dryer vent?
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:14 pm to tigersownall
quote:
It's just not holding temperature. I'll have it set on 71. It will stay there most of the day. I actually just checked it around noon. Just now it's reading 78 inside. I can understand the heat but that's ridiculous. It's even doing this at night so I know it's not just the weather. I immediately thought it was a freeon issue. Called the landlord about this the other day Had someone out here that day. Said everything was fine. But like I just said it's still fricking up. Just not consistently. Thoughts?
Since it's intermittent, your best bet is to get a tech out when it's fricking up. That is often easier said than done, so a couple of pieces of evidence you can easily collect are the air temps at the return and the supplies. To do this, let the AC run for 30 minutes, then stick the probe part of a digital thermometer into the grilles and wait for it to stabilize. Do this for the supply closest to the unit, the one with the shortest duct. You should do this when it's holding temperature and when it's not. When it's holding, the difference will probably be 15-20 depending on how hot your attic is and the insulation on your ducts, and when it's not, less than 15, probably a lot less. That said, even 13 or so could be normal with crap insulation on your ducts in a 140 degree attic.
You could also measure the temperature rise at the condenser. Measure down low where it's drawing in air and at the top, above the fan. Also measure the indoor humidity. This guy goes into a lot of detail:
LINK
This is probably above the heads of a lot of techs, but there's a chance it could help them find the problem if they can't manage to be there when it's happening.
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:19 pm to Clint Torres
If it's the fan side of the capacitor, you might be able to push start the compressor fan to get some relief until a tech can fix it.
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:21 pm to Ray Penpillage
quote:I understood the op to mean the house is being cooled, but during the middle of the day it can't keep up with the outdoor heat. Circulating warm air is unlikely to do that.
but it wouldn't be cool air.
Eta: I almost always say capacitor in these threads first. Hopefully that is it because it is cheap and easy.
This post was edited on 8/6/14 at 3:25 pm
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:28 pm to tigersownall
Go out to your condenser and grab the big copper line running into the house(not the little line) If the copper feels like a cold beer, your AC is doing all it can do
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:29 pm to WDE24
Totes missed that it was intermittent. All my suggestions would result in loss of cooling ability. I'll see myself out now.
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:38 pm to Ray Penpillage
The thing is this is not normal. I've lived in this place since last summer. It didn't do this before. Just started last week. I put another call into the landlord. Thank God he is actually a good dude. Probably have someone out here tonight.
Posted on 8/6/14 at 3:58 pm to Ray Penpillage
This was happening in my house also, and eventually the compressor ending up shorting. I was forced to do a forklift replacement on the entire system. Good thing is though I also went up to the next ton because my house was right on the borderline of 4 and 5 tons, and now I have no problems cooling the house to a decent temp.
Posted on 8/7/14 at 7:39 am to jdd48
quote:
Good thing is though I also went up to the next ton because my house was right on the borderline of 4 and 5 tons, and now I have no problems cooling the house to a decent temp.
Sorry to resurrect the thread... but quick question...
Can you get too much A/C capacity? If you got a bigger unit than you need, wouldn't it just not work so much? Other than costing more, is there a downside?
Or am I just asking a stupid question that I should know better than to ask, but obviously don't?
Posted on 8/7/14 at 7:47 am to pwejr88
quote:
Home a/c units are meant to have the temp. in your house 20 degrees colder than outside temp so keep that in mind.
this is false. there should be a 20 degree difference between whats going into the intake and whats coming out of the vents. if it was 20 degrees of the outside temp then everybody would be sweating their arse off.
Posted on 8/7/14 at 7:52 am to SSpaniel
quote:
Sorry to resurrect the thread... but quick question...
Can you get too much A/C capacity? If you got a bigger unit than you need, wouldn't it just not work so much? Other than costing more, is there a downside?
Or am I just asking a stupid question that I should know better than to ask, but obviously don't?
yes, the downside is that the unit wont run long enough to remove the humidity in the home which can make the home uncomfortable and also can cause mold issues.
Posted on 8/7/14 at 7:55 am to diat150
quote:
yes, the downside is that the unit wont run long enough to remove the humidity in the home which can make the home uncomfortable and also can cause mold issues.
Ahh.. gotcha. Makes sense.
Posted on 8/7/14 at 7:59 am to diat150
Good Answer. 
Bigger is not always better.
Bigger is not always better.
Posted on 8/7/14 at 8:04 am to SSpaniel
quote:
I have to do this about every other week. Why? Well, I'll tell you. The numbnuts who built our house... guess where he put the dryer vent? Yup. Right behind in between the upstairs and downstairs condensers.
I thought mine was bad venting into the garage. I ended up using one of these, but they make different types that would catch everything before it messed up your condenser.
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