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Home A/C question -- My HVAC system is about 16 years old. should I look at replacing the contactor and coil on the outside unit as periodic maintenance, or should I not worry about it until they fail? Unit was inspected last year and pressures were fine. Other than the fan motor, I haven't replaced anything on it. Analogue question -- what parts of the gas furnace should I replace? Igniter and flame sensor? Anything else?
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May 14, 2015 15:50
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EVERYWHERE 
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House A/C chat -- I finally got around to replacing my contactor and capacitor on the outdoor unit. Both were obviously original, about 16 years old. Can replacing those two things make it run smoother and quieter / start up smoother? It seems like it does. I can understand the startup being smoother, the capacitor was probably fully poo poo, but would that make a difference during actual operation?
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Jul 18, 2015 14:13
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2005 Cadillac Escalade with main and rear AC units. Unknown history. Tepid A/C, but functional. Put gauges on it, static readings were where they should be. High side had a bit of oil out upon connection, so I'm pretty sure there's plenty of oil. 82-84*F Ambient. I am using an old set of gauges without R134a markings, just PSI and R12, but it started out low, ~30psi low/150psi high. Took two cans of R134a and gauges are at 45psi low / 200psi high. Nice and cold inside now. From the OP, it looks like everything is in line, anything else I should be concerned with? meatpimp fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Jun 23, 2016 |
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Jun 23, 2016 21:04
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Motronic posted:Newp. Rear A/C has HUGE barrier hoses so more space to leak out of faster. You done good. Had my first GM problem last night. 89*F outside and running the AC front and rear in the truck. No problems on the way out. On the way back, the rear was blowing nothing but blowtorch hot... no setting changes made a bit of difference. At first I thought something with the AC was hosed up, since I was just loving with it. But, as I did a quick bit of googling, looks like these have GM blend door issues, too. What was the fix (probably temporary)? Turn the ignition off, then on again... bingo, cold air in the back again. Makes me really start thinking about getting a Tech2 clone to troubleshoot that poo poo.
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Jun 28, 2016 11:40
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CommieGIR posted:
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Jun 29, 2016 16:01
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meatpimp posted:House A/C chat -- I finally got around to replacing my contactor and capacitor on the outdoor unit. Both were obviously original, about 16 years old. Can replacing those two things make it run smoother and quieter / start up smoother? It seems like it does. It's been running perfectly since then, until last night. It is starting and running fine, but the sound has changed. Instead of kicking on with a "hmmmmmmmmmmmmm," it's now kicking on with a "HMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm." The startup noise is about twice as loud, but only for the first second or two. Should I look into this, or see how it develops? Could the starting cap that I just replaced last year be bad already?
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Jul 15, 2016 11:23
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Geirskogul posted:Has it been hotter/cooler recently? Pressure in the system (or parts of the system with multiple valves) different? Could it be corrosion on plugs causing a higher resistance, slowing startup? Wind recently that could knock things about? Pump/compressor finally taking a poo poo? Nothing in particular changed. It's been running more, since it's July, but nothing out of the ordinary. I have no idea about the pressures, but after the louder second or so of startup, everything sounds fine. It runs nice and quiet... Edit: Man, for only a year old, the capacitor looks like poo poo. This was a Dayton, supposed to be the best... but this cannot be the best.  Specs on the cap: 2MD4U 460-552MFD, 110-125V... should I just buy the same Dayton, or is there something else I should be looking at? meatpimp fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Jul 15, 2016 |
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Jul 15, 2016 12:09
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revmoo posted:FYI you can test those with a multimeter. Yeah, but  . If it could be the cause, I'd just throw another $20 cap on it.I checked all the connections and wiggled them a bit to make sure there weren't any corrosion issues. Seems to be starting fine today, it only did it a couple times last night, something to watch I guess. kastein posted:That looks like rust. Rust from steel. Something has been dripping rusty water on top of that thing and it's been drying out there. Either that or the top is steel while the sides are aluminum which seems odd.  Must be the top is steel? There's nothing above the cap, the screw you can see above is positioned directly between the cap and contactor (and no water spots below that would indicate the screw has been dripping). It does seem odd for that much corrosion when everything else in there is dry and fine. 
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Jul 15, 2016 14:44
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kastein posted:Maybe condensation is forming on the underside of that top cover, dripping down the bolt, the droplet collects rust from the tip of the bolt and then drips onto the capacitor? I can't quite tell if it's a straight shot from the bolt to the cap. Definitely not dripping from the bolt onto the capacitor, the bolt would drip between the cap and the contactor. I must have explained it poorly.
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Jul 15, 2016 14:58
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ExplodingSims posted:It's totally possible for the cap to go bad within a year. For the most part they're not all that long lived. I'll keep that in mind next time I replace it... which will hopefully be not until next year. I removed and reconnected the push-on connectors and it seems to be working fine now. Best guess is that at least one of the connections was corrosion-inhibited. Hopefully the cap makes it through this year and I'll just plan on replacing with a higher grade next year.
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Jul 16, 2016 18:58
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My brother sent me an email at 12:30AM this morning saying no a/c in his house. We troubleshot this morning -- condenser fan wouldn't start on its own, but it would if he gave the blades a push. Capacitor. I'm a couple hours away, so he called around... the big places were quoting $250 just for a capacitor replacement. That's not free market, that's just taking advantage of the market. He found someone to come out this afternoon that would replace the capacitor for $75-100, which is perfectly reasonable for a part that retails for $20 and a half hour of time.
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Jul 20, 2016 15:02
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angryrobots posted:My condenser cap blew last week and it was $13.01 for the more expensive one....you've gone this far just pop a new one in it? I would have, if I was close. He found someone on angies list and got the cap replaced for $115. That's not unreasonable, plus, it's working now.
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Jul 21, 2016 00:25
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 17:00 |
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meatpimp posted:2005 Cadillac Escalade with main and rear AC units. Motronic posted:Newp. Rear A/C has HUGE barrier hoses so more space to leak out of faster. You done good. Okay, so I may be overthinking things, but I wanted to double-check and found this: Similar ambient. 90psi static, both gauges. ~60psi low side ~200psi high side. I bled some off to get it down to 55psi low side, high side stayed the same. The only difference is that the humidity is now much higher than when I checked before. Cooling is still fine, 55* out of the center vent. I'm just worried that the low side is too high. Should I be concerned, or am I overthinking? Also, the compressor never cycles, it just keeps the pressures almost dead-on. Is that normal?
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Aug 1, 2016 17:11
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