Help needed with troubleshooting my home A/C

Is the outside fan running?

Is inside fan running?

Is your compressor outside running?

If one of these are not working, you may be able to fix.

Could also be a leak. Spray soapy water on inside of outside part and look for bubbles.

What do you mean drained the pan? The drain was clogged?

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Is the outside fan running?

Yes

Is inside fan running?

Yes

Is your compressor outside running?

How do I tell if it's the compressor or the fan that's running?

If one of these are not working, you may be able to fix.

Could also be a leak. Spray soapy water on inside of outside part and look for bubbles.

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Which part should I spray?

Thank you for the advice

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What do you mean drained the pan? The drain was clogged?

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I am probably the village idiot when it comes to A/C repair but when I was younger and the A/C when out in our home my Dad always sent me up to the attic with a bucket and a stadium cup to drain the pan. This worked liked 90% of the time. Maybe that trick is obsolete now.

Thank you

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Which part should I spray?

Thank you for the advice

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My advice is this.

If you have to ask this question, call a professional who knows what they are doing to diagnose your problem.

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What do you mean drained the pan? The drain was clogged?

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Was the drain pan full of water? If so, was the drain line plugged up? IF the drain line was plugged up, did you get the drain line unplugged?

Next question---- Most likely your problem.

On the outside unit, you said the fan was running. Did you check to see if the air coming off the fan is fairly warm.... say 100F. If the air is the same temperature as the outside air, the compressor is not running. Another thing to check, is the temperature of the 2 freon lines connected to the outside unit. The smaller line [discharge] should be hot and the larger line [return] should be cool. IF both lines are about the same, the compressor is not running.

If the compressor is not running, it is likely that the capacitor is bad. On the outside unit---take off the cover plate near where the freon lines are located. Danger: do not touch anything inside the unit, just look. The capacitor will be mounted on the side and have 3 or 4 wires connected to the top. If you see any thing that looks burnt or swollen, it is bad.

These are easy to change, but you must watch a Ytube video to know how to discharge the very high voltage in the capacitor. New capacitors only cost $ 15 to $20 for a cheap one or about $40 for a made in USA. To get a new capacitor, there is information written on the capacitor that tells you was size to get.

Another possible problem is that your a/c unit has a leak and is very low on freon. You said that air is coming out of the air vents in the house, but the air is not cool. It could be that the unit in your attic frozen up with ice and only allowing a little air to blow out of each vent. But I would think the air coming out would still be a little cool. Can you take out the air filter and look at the cooling coils to see if there is any ice. If there is ice, tune off "cooling" cycle on your thermostat and set the fan to "run". This will help to melt the ice. After all the ice is melted, you can try to see if the a/c will run and cool the house. If the air coming out of the vent does not cool down after 15 minutes, it would be best to turn it off.... and call a repair person.

Your coils are freezing up and thawing out if you are collecting that much moisture, just may be a matter of a filthy filter that is causing it to over work.

Is the outside unit venting hot air? If not, you have a possible capacitor issue.

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Called someone out tonight and they said the condenser is busted and it is out of freon. He said I will need a new outside unit. Does that sound right? Just trying to be sure I'm not getting the runaround.

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He wasn’t more specific other than saying it was “busted”? That wouldn’t give me good vibes if that was the extent of his diagnosis. But a leak in the condenser will drain the unit of Freon pretty quickly as it is under high pressure - not as common as leaks in the indoor evaporator coil, but certainly common enough.

How old is the unit, you the original owner?

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I'm the original owner of the outside unit but not the indoor one. The outside unit was replaced about 8 years ago. I asked the repair man if he thought the old unit could still be under warranty and he said "no because the r 22 units stopped being made about 10 years ago". He also said "they stopped producing r 22 refrigerant in 2020

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Well it is true R-22 units have not been made for some years now, and R-22 refrigerant is no longer made in the USA nor can it be imported; it is still available but expensive as hell b/c of the limited supply.

A skilled experienced tech would find the leak and try to repair it but that isn’t always possible, particularly with micro-channel coils. Sounds like he would replace the condensing unit with a R-410A unit and existing indoor evaporator coil is compatible with both R-22 or R-410A.

You can always get an second opinion but fact is outdoor condensing units can develop leaks. And with the expense of R-22 even if a repair was made to your current unit, it’s possible a repair plus the R-22 refill could cost as much as half as a new R-410a condenser.