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The common is going to be "neutral" in the AC transformer sense. And yes, connectivity from the r wire through the powered device to the neutral is what energizes the things your thermostat energizes. It could be energizing the gas valve directly, it could be energizing a contactor. And this is the other way to do it: install a new modern transformer and single pole contactor. Set up your new thermostat to that the common and R wires from it goes to the contactor control side (closes it when the tstat calls for heat). Then just connect the two wires from the furnace that used to go to your existing thermostat to the two sides of the contractor so it closes the circuit, same as what your old thermostat did when calling for heat. You can fit the whole thing into a small rated electrical box and power it on an outlet or direct wire it to whatever the furnace gets 120v. This completely eliminates any potential old weirdness concerns like what MRC48B mentioned. Motronic fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Nov 28, 2023 |
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Nov 28, 2023 18:18
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Someone honest and educated needs to put a set of gauges on it. Worst case they can recover the charge and see if it's right/weigh the correct charge back in. I'd like to hear the theory on why it's a restriction or a TXV issue (hint: I doubt there is one but the tech is likely thinking along the lines of if you need to recover the charge to weigh it back in may as well fire a TXV and a cleaning at it to pad out the bill and cover all your bases with the parts cannon since you don't know how to diagnose it amirite????)
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Dec 6, 2023 22:25
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Oh, that makes more sense. The high estimate on the TXV was their rope-a-dope into a unit replacement.
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Dec 7, 2023 23:56
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Shifty Pony posted:Going through the troubleshooting sequence for code 3-2 on pages 27-29 and ended up at step 44, which is the start of checking to verify that there is enough pressure present to close the low-heat pressure switch when the system throws the low-heat pressure switch open error. I didn't do it because I don't have a manometer, but it also seems a bit superfluous since the system running at second-stage heat indicates that the higher pressure high-heat switch (0.27" break) is staying closed so there's definitely enough pressure to hold the low-pressure low-heat switch (0.18"break) closed. If the high-heat switch wasn't staying closed then the system would throw code 31. Data good. Parts cannon bad. It would not be in the procedure if there wasn't a way for that exact situation to happen. Id' have to look it over/read the whole thing to figure out what scenarios that can happen in, but there's a reason the engineers that designed this thing are saying you should test it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01680C4C2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 But as MRC48B said, take a look at "big picture" things like intake and exhausts first. It's pulling more makeup air, creating more exhaust, producing more heat, calling for more fuel to burn and requiring more air volume over the heat exchanger to keep it from going off on high limit. Any of these things can be in states where they work when you need "some" (in low) but not "lots" (in high). That being said.......order both switches and have them on a shelf if you are now going to self maintain. And the start/run cap for the blower motor. They are by far the most likely things to go bad. You'll need to "stock the truck" yourself now. E: Probably the high limit and flame roll out(s) and an ignitor as well for stocking. Motronic fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Dec 8, 2023 |
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Dec 8, 2023 14:59
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The Slack Lagoon posted:What sort of power needs does a heat pump need? We have 100 amp service and I assume we probably would need a service upgrade. We do currently have central AC on a 30amp breaker, so not sure if heat pump would need more than the existing circuit. Pretty small 970sf unit. Very super generally......if your AC is appropriately sized the heat will be about the same in most climates. So you'd end up with the same size/capacity unit, it just has an extra part in it (a reversing valve so it can run heat and ac). So chances are good you will not need to make an electricidal service changes, perhaps even the very same breakers will work.
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Dec 8, 2023 18:52
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Lol sheer laziness to set the unit sideways. I wouldn't have accepted that job.
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Dec 8, 2023 19:07
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Shifty Pony posted:Edit: yep. Voltage is still supplied to the inducer motor when it shuts down but the motor stopped spinning. The infrared thermometer reads over 215° on the yoke. Welp. Sounds like you kept on diagnosing until you had an actual diagnosis. Nice. Now you put a label on that motor that says what it does and you KEEP IT as your emergency backup that will at least get you some heat while a replacement part arrives should this happen again.
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Dec 11, 2023 16:28
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Shifty Pony posted:I might actually just throw in the towel and call up the installing company to come out for a warranty replacement. It is a two speed unit and the cost of the motor assembly is significantly more than the callout fee. Makes sense. At least it's diagnosed.
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Dec 11, 2023 17:38
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And this is why I don't buy high efficiently equipment for my own use. There are certainly arguments to be made, but when it gets down to the actual numbers - realistic ones, not optimistic ones from lab testing - the payout periods are long if they even exist and crap like this makes it not worthwhile. You're better off spending the extra money on insulation or better windows or whatever. Then you can mostly use common repair parts and "universal" style boards and motors.
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Dec 12, 2023 18:01
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Sudden Loud Noise posted:I had three companies come check out my bad TXV, one got me a quote in 3 days, one in 6 days, and one, whom I paid $350 to come look at my heat pump, has yet to give me a quote after 18 days, which will likely turn into 30+ because of the holiday. It's only a scam if your not doing the actual diagnostics or overcharging for them. This is the constant problem with working for the public with things like this or car repair. People actually think all you do is plug in the code reader and it tells you what to replace - probably because that's what autozone/advance auto uses as a business model these days. It's still annoying. High speed parts swapping is something an apprentice can do. Actual diagnostics takes time and education/understanding and often a bunch of experience helps to triage the diagnosis.
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Dec 23, 2023 23:07
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Sudden Loud Noise posted:I’m not saying it is an illegal scam. The most likely scenario is not one of malice but of poor business practices and organization. That's a very different conclusion than the post I responded to. I get it...you're frustrated. This is all poor customer service at best. But no, diagnosing things for pay is not "a pretty good scam". It's literally some people's entire job/profession.
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Dec 23, 2023 23:26
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Sounds like it. Also make sure any bleeders or air scoops you have in the system are working as well as the water feeding system. In a well designed and properly operating system this should pretty much take care of itself.
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Dec 24, 2023 00:11
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a dingus posted:Thanks I'll have to check the air scoop/purge thing and make sure my water feed is on. I know I turned it on to fill the system but I don't know if I turned it off (now I assume it should be on). Hopefully it's just that and the air purge is sticky or something. Guess I'll just keep bleeding it. I'm not someone who leaves the auto feed on. But I think most people probably should and even I would be leaving it on for a period of time after draining and refilling a system. It's required to make your purge system(s) work if they happen to work at all. You should also just go ahead and check your expansion tank to see if it has any air in it/a broken bladder before you go through all this bleeding.
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Dec 24, 2023 01:30
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It needs to be diagnosed again. Check cap(s) on the blower motor, check amps on the blower motor and inducer for good measure. It should be going off on high limit after firing for a while if the blower doesn't start. The sensor for the blower could also be bad. On its own or in addition to the blower motor itself being bad. $1100 for a blower motor in a package unit sounds like an FU price. E: your update indicates the blower motor temp sensor if that's what your unit has.
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Dec 28, 2023 18:32
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Thufir posted:Yeah I think I'll find someone else to call. Also, when I set the fan to "on", it doesn't seem like the air that blows is as warm as I would expect, is it possible the furnace is lit but burning improperly and not reaching a temp high enough to get the fan limit switch to cut on? Anything is possible at this point. Some things are just more likely than others. Speculating without eyes and tools on it isn't really useful. If I were in your position I would also find a different place to come out.
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Dec 28, 2023 19:16
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So you have an old house with new windows/air sealing/insulation, right? And an old furnace that pulls it's combustion air from inside the house. I can't count the number of false CO alarms and CO2 calls the fire department responds to over this and people running their wood fireplaces. What you have is no makeup air. Basically every time this happens the air is at perfectly safe levels but dumb devices can't figure out that the air makeup has changed (very small decrease in O2) and freak out, or they're just uncalibrated toys.
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Dec 29, 2023 18:39
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H110Hawk posted:Put the device outside and see if it's closer to the same number. What are the absolute numbers on the device before/after/outside? One is just make up air like Motronic said, another, much much higher number, is an exhaust leak. If it was exhaust every CO alarm would be going off. It's not exhaust.
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Dec 29, 2023 18:51
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pro con posted:I think I can do you one funnier - when they replaced the ancient smoke detectors it doesn't look like they did it with combos like I'm pretty sure I was told they did, and I don't see standalone co detectors, so... Well, definitely get that CO detector situation sorted. At least one per flor and put one in the room/area with the furnace as well (to catch an actual leaking smoke pipe/combustion chamber). Under like 300 ppm of CO is totally within guidelines for fossil forced air heat at the supplies. You're not even anywhere close to a heat exchanger issue (which is how exhaust would come out of the vents). You likely have detected "high CO2" because there is no ventilation in your house. It "spiked" when you turned on your forced air heat because you stirred up all the air in the house - not every room has this issue because of reason like: there is a door to the outside in that room, or people are walking from the areas with better air into the areas with staler air and stirring it by doing so. "Bad" areas are like.....bedrooms when there have been no windows open and no heat or air on to stir air in a room where perhaps 2 people just spent the last 8 hours. Then you turn the heat/ac on and mix all of this air in the house together. If you want to improve this situation in any meaningful way (I'm not saying it needs to be - that would require a lot more information and real equipment/testing over time in multiple rooms simultaneously) you're probably looking at something like an HRV: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_recovery_ventilation If it's really just spot issues you can consider running the air handler periodically to stir the air in the house. Lots of programmable and/or "smat" thermostats can do this on a schedule. This is my problem with these devices like airthings.....they are mostly toys, suspect on calibration and accuracy, put into the hands of rank amateurs with no training or understanding with software/alerts written by software developers with no subject matter expertise or context. It's a recipe for people to be alarmed and jump to irrational conclusions. Motronic fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Dec 29, 2023 |
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Dec 29, 2023 19:40
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It's a great time to be in the trades.
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Jan 10, 2024 15:16
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MRC48B posted:Its a great time to own/operate a trades business. The help is still paid poo poo. Yes, very important distinction.
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Jan 10, 2024 15:57
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I'm not designing/advising on replacing your system. Get capacitors from supplyhouse.com, test/replace the one in your blower unit before you concern yourself about anything else. Meter so you can test the capacitors: https://www.amazon.com/GOLDCHAMP-Mu...r+tester&sr=8-3
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Jan 11, 2024 15:40
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M_Gargantua posted:With the industry turnover, what are the odds of most of the installers staying in business long enough to honor any warranty work other than fixes due to installation or early failures You can find another installer that will at least be able to honor the parts warranty. You get no parts warranty at all on a self install like this because it has been voided by the manufacturer because of being installed by someone who is not "certified". How much the parts warranty is worth to you depends on a lot of factors, but it's a thing.
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Jan 13, 2024 00:34
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Wanderless posted:just trying to get a sense for the options around and what is technically available versus actually practical or makes sense. What HVAC contractors in your area are willing and able to do is what is actually available to you unless you're going all full on self-install and self support. We can't know what's available in your area specifically for obvious reasons.
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Jan 14, 2024 05:33
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Sounds like the gas valve. Give it some light percussive maintenance and see if that clears it up. If it does, it's time to order a replacement to have on hand.
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Jan 24, 2024 13:55
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Also, absolutely nobody wants to work on a minisplit because they are unmitigated poo poo shows of mostly proprietary parts that nobody has on their truck and probably not even at the supply house. (speaking from a US-centric perspective. Mini splits have been popular in other places a lot longer so maybe there is some sort of repair supply chain elsewhere.) But good ones that are properly installed are reliable and worth it.
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Jan 25, 2024 01:45
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lol it's that dead battery in a smoke detector chirp kind of frequency where it's basically impossible to figure out which direction its coming from.
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Jan 25, 2024 15:17
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If no CO is detectred (not CO2) then it is still safe to run. But if pieces of the heat exchanger are falling apart it's only a matter of time before it fails in a way where it will let combustion gases into places they shouldn't be, so yes.....it's likely trime to replace it.
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Jan 31, 2024 18:11
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devicenull posted:Spray foam the bottom of the floor would help with the dust in the house, but I'm not sure what you can do about the basement. Not much when you've got raw concrete and sandstone walls. Cover or coat are the only realistic options for the surfaces that are producing 99.9% of the dust while being rough enogh to make it basically impossible to clean.
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Feb 9, 2024 15:53
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eddiewalker posted:Should I be looking at a mini split instead? They just seem way more expensive You should absolutely be looking at a minisplit. A window shaker in there is going to be noisy and miserable.
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Mar 15, 2024 19:18
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eddiewalker posted:How should I be shopping for a minisplit? Looks like 12k btu is about as small as I can buy. If you're willing to buy/rent a vacuum pump and flaring tool there are plenty of units that will allow you to install them with a standard lineset, flared fittings (so you don't need to nitrogen purge while silver soldering) and a pre-charged condenser that is going to be "close enough" to the correct charge if you're anywhere in the 20-40 foot of lineset range. Bonus points if you really want to get into this and pick up a manifold gauge set and a couple of thermometers to make sure it's running right.
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Mar 15, 2024 20:26
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They're probably talking about the A2L mandate in 2025. R-454B is pretty much gonna be the thing for residential fixed install cooling. I don't see why you'd have to wait until 2025 to get that - the equipment already exists. Perhaps they are aware of a specific model line coming out? You should probalby ask them. But I agree that at this point, I probably wouldn't buy any fixed system that isn't A2L compatible unless I needed to replace something right right now. Older stuff simply isn't and won't be compatible ever, since these new refrigerants are slightly flamable, which means 22 years from now you will be paying top dollare for R-410A or some drop in replacement blend just like you'd have to pay top dollar for R-22 today.
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Apr 1, 2024 22:02
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Invalido posted:I'm not questioning your knowledge about this, but I'm seeing a lot of buzz about R744 (CO2) systems. Not much available in the market though from what I can tell, a few industrial units and a couple of residential sized Mitsubishi models. From what I've gathered it's high performing in most applications and doubtlessly environmentally and fire safe, but more expensive to build for due to higher pressures. Oh there's a lot more out there, and you're going to find different stuff in different applications. You're likely to see a lot of R-32 (another A2L) in windows units and I've heard of it being used in some mini splits already too. There's a lot of propane (a.k.a. R-290) in restaurant refrigeration equipment now too. And yeah, it looks like 744 might end up in some fixed industrial uses to start. I'm gonna guess package/roof top units to begin with because of their self contained nature. Would be interesting to see the line set for the resi stuff - I'm guess no more flare fittings. So yeah, we're all gonna need new gauges and new recovery equipment.
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Apr 2, 2024 15:43
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Chunderbucket posted:Hell, 410 is ALREADY $4-700 a jug depending on who you are, I really wouldn't advise a 410 install. Yikes I fortunately haven't had the need to buy any in a long time. That's absurd. At this rate I'm going to be able to retire on the 16 lbs of R-12 I have squirreled away.
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Apr 2, 2024 20:12
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Shifty Pony posted:Household voltages really won't cause a cheap meter to explode. Even if you do something really bad like measure across the incoming 240V while the meter is hooked up in un-fused 10A mode, the flimsy plastic case of a HF DMM is enough to contain the melted copper bits that will result. I have literally melted the leads on a cheap DMM that was set to continuity rather than voltage on a 120v circuit while helping someone figure out a switch loop. If I hadn't realized this pretty immediately the insulation on the leads would have failed badly enough to have exposed wires underneath, which were now live with 120v. Cheap meters should not be a thing we recomend for line voltage. While I was the cause for using the meter incorrectly, it did not fail safe. Good meters do and that should bne considered a bare minimum.
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Apr 5, 2024 18:26
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That's how I hooked mine up at the unit. There should be a return duct mounted humidistat that came with it. This need to be wired in to have fan control of your air handler (you break the G wire and loop it through the stat - if will fail closed if there is no power to the stat so everything will work just as if there was no humidifier present) as well as an outside thermometer signal (also included) and to the unit itself where you have those 2 wires landed. You then turn on the unit and set the desired relative humidity lefel on the humidistat and walk away and never touch it again.
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Apr 8, 2024 19:45
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There are a lot of optional ways to hook these things up, and the instructions are very complicated because of that. Someone who doesn't understand what it does and the desired outcomes very well make absolutely incorrect decisions about how to install this thing. We had a goon in a well situation a while back where someone just had to get this thing connected to their internet of poo poo thermostat and wonders why the humidity control is so bad/imprecise: it's because you're supposed to measure it at the return, not where you stat is at. I've alse seen these things hooked up without fan control, which means they can only run when stat is calling for heat. This is typically not enough runtime to satisfy a house of the size those units are designed for. If you install it "the hard way" (humidistat, outdoor thermometer, fan control) it's is a 100% set it and forget it device. The thing simply won't turn on when it's too warm out, it will figure out eh correct relative humidity based on external temp + internal humidity, and when it's not had a call to humidify for long enough it will run a purge cycle to dump its water and basically go into standby until the stat calls for humidity again. It's an exceptionally well thought out system. The only reason to install it differently is if you've got something well beyond a standard comfort air setup in your home. Motronic fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Apr 8, 2024 |
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Apr 8, 2024 21:03
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Ohhhh....boy, yeah....I see now. They absolutely hooked up the humidistat to the wrong terminal. I didn't zoom in at first, sorry. I have no idea what the alarm terminal is for in that thing but it's sure not gonna make it produce steam. If the other end of that brown cable is the correct humidistat it probalby just needs to be moved to the stat terminal. All the oter stuff will need to be verified with the wiring to the stat and ait handler.
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Apr 8, 2024 21:27
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Rescue Toaster posted:I noticed the insulation on the cold return from my AC unit has completely disintegrated. It was probably bad last year and I didn't notice. There's some tarnished (green) areas of the copper pipe, but nothing that I think looks like deep corrosion, and the unit seems to be working fine. Are you talking about the suction line? The larger of the two copper lines that go between your compressopr unit outside and the evaperator inside? If so, just buy some split pipe insulation of the right size and replace the damaged section. If you want to go around shining brass first you can do that but it's doubtful it will have any impact at all.
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Apr 15, 2024 17:15
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You shouldn't make it "play" at all with your smart thermostat. It appears to have a detector and humidistat in the return duct, which is where it needs to sense from. If it also has an outdoor thermostat (and if it was installed properly it should) that is a set it and forget it device. There is no need to control it further and without measuring humidity in the correct place it will wildly over and undershoot.
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May 3, 2024 20:16
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Hungry Squirrel posted:Given that, is there a reason that the humidity (measured by separate sensors) went from 35% to 60% within 24 hours of installing the new unit? Serious question, not being combative. I swapped in mid-March, and maybe my timing sucked and the weather changed that week to warm enough to change things? I really just want my house to not be swampy. I'm fine if the answer is that this is what summer is like and I should get a dehumidifier. I do'nt know how it was installed or if it's working properly. If it's still running when it's above 50 degrees outside it's broken or has no outside thermostat. If it's still running at 60% humidity in the return duct it's broken or set wrong. Did you replace the humidistat? If not, did you pull the onld one off the duct to make sure the sensor is clean and clear? You need to figure those things out first, not add more complexity. You can turn it off. If it's still 60% humidity and you can't catch when it's on, just literally turn it off and see if your humidity goes to something senseible. I don't know if you're still in a heatng season or what, or if it's off and it warm and humid enough out to explain this.
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May 3, 2024 21:57
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