ANY AC MECHANICS ?

jwb267

i have had central air in my home since 1986. in 2003 i decided to put in a whole new complete unit to help save money. that is where i made a mistake! from that point on i have had nothing but trouble. about every year and a half to two years i have to have someone replace the coil in the unit in the atic. the mechanic that instaled the first unit and has been my service tech.has no idea why the coil develops a leak. the coil is covered for three years, but i still have to pav labor . any ideas as to what could cause this problem.
i can think of NOTHING that has changed since i built the house

dcon12

quote:Originally posted by jwb267
i can think of NOTHING that has changed since i built the house



The AC unit. Don

Topkick

If your coil comes with only a 3 year warranty, you bought a very low-end unit. Most Trane, Carrier, Bryant, Rudd, Rheem, Goodman, come with a min 5 year parts warranty and many have 10 year replacement warranties.

What brand did you buy?

jwb267

i bought a two ton york. never had no problems the first 15 yrs. or so. the service tech. said the coil looked like it was 30 or 40 yrs. old when he removed it

Topkick

If the coil is excessivly dirty, you have filter issues. ie not changing the filter often enough, poor quality filter, bad sealing of the filter rack etc.


If the coil is leaking, you might have vibration issues ie the blower fan out of balance.

Hard to see from here!

Marc1301

Vibration like Topkick mentioned is a possibility.
Often where the metering device branches into the distribution manifold you can run into an issue. Quite a number of small copper tubes go from there to feed the coil per se, and often rub against something. With enough time they simply wear through.

Manufacturers can also have "bad" runs of coils from time to time.
I remember a number of years ago I was replacing American Standard evap coils right and left.

I have also seen old units installed in a garage that has air leaks on the return side. If you store certain chemicals in that space, the fumes can cause a reaction with the copper and aluminum over the years. Shouldn't apply to you since it is in the attic though, and that would also rule out another thing I have seen. Some guys think pouring bleach in the condensate pan is good,.......wrong!

I doubt you crawl up there to do that.[;)]

peon

FYI: I recently had the repairman replace the capacitor on my unit. He was telling me, that after Jan. 1st, 2010, a new energy-efficiency bill will require some folks to buy entire new units if their current unit completely fails. That will include new duct work and interior unit. Look to spend some big bucks if something happens to your outside unit.

Topkick

quote:Originally posted by peon
FYI: I recently had the repairman replace the capacitor on my unit. He was telling me, that after Jan. 1st, 2010, a new energy-efficiency bill will require some folks to buy entire new units if their current unit completely fails. That will include new duct work and interior unit. Look to spend some big bucks if something happens to your outside unit.



I believe that the requirement is to install 410A refrigerant systems. They are not much more expensive and I've been installing them for years. Duct repacement is not nessesary, but should be inspected for deficiencies and replaced as needed.
The new systems work very well and do increase efficiency a lot, especially with variable speed blower motors.

R-22 is going away very soon.