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Thanks guys. I've always handled the repairs except for when they had the outside unit and inside coils replaced, so that kind of number shocked me a bit. Good to know it's in the ballpark. It was your basic 3 speed motor, manually selectable (have to swap wires at the furnace) - don't know if they got a single speed or 3 speed as a replacement, but it wouldn't really matter since it's kept on high for both heating and cooling. The $150 for the capacitor sounded way off (high), so did the $50 for the service call (low), but I'm assuming my stepdad flipped the numbers around. The furnace is in the attic suspended from the rafters (not too bad to get to since it's right by the stairs, but 100+ degree day, in an attic, throwing parts at a 26 year old furnace that's just strapped to the rafters and moving around a bit while you're swearing at it) so I'm sure there was a PITA tax included.
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Jul 11, 2020 14:17
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It sounds more like he'd want it to fail off; it sounds like it's pretty remote and doesn't see much use? I'd want the heat, at least some of it, to fail on, at a low temp, to keep the pipes from freezing and whatnot. Water damage is a lot more expensive than keeping the heat around 50ish.
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Sep 8, 2020 13:50
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Oh hey, that's pretty much identical to my furnace! Speaking of... ~2 year old Goodman HVAC install (matched inside and outside). It's still cooling fine, but it's muggy as hell inside. The drain is draining, it's not backed up (it drains outside). Any ideas? I tried cranking it WAY down (68, we normally keep it at 74) to get some dehumidification action going since we do keep it kinda warm, but it's still humid inside, just a cold humid. It ran for over an hour to bring it down that low, so there should have been a good amount of dehumidification. There's good airflow through the house, though only 1 return (in the center of the house). Side note: on nights when it's below 70 out, we do sleep with the windows open and the HVAC turned off, but that's only been a handful of nights this month. That's going to increase a bit with the cold front we're expecting. It's a Goodman 2 ton unit (GSX14 series, R-410a) with matching Goodman furnace and coils, ~1000 sq ft (Texas, 80s house with almost no insulation, I've had smaller apartments with larger AC units that didn't cool this well, but it does struggle to get below ~73 on hot days). Filter was changed yesterday, coils on the outside unit cleaned this summer (strong spray nozzle through the coils from the inside of the unit, no acid or anything). Evap coils drain into the back yard, and there's a steady trickle coming from the drain. I'm guessing the charge might be a little low? Suggestions? randomidiot fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Sep 29, 2020 |
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Sep 29, 2020 03:29
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It's on auto 99% of the time, though it runs for 15-30 seconds (never timed it) after the thermostat shuts off (built into the furnace control board, not the thermostat), which I think is fairly common these days anyway. The 1% is for when most of the house is comfortable except for my bedroom, I'll kick it on for 15 minutes or so just to get some cooler air in here. That's not a daily thing, though, and it's usually late at night when it's not running much (if at all).
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Sep 29, 2020 20:59
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I don't, but when a friend came over last night they asked why it felt like a cold sauna inside. I'll get a humidity meter and a laser thermometer to get some real numbers. The coils are on the top of the unit, as is the drain pan (standard for here when it's a closet install). If I look through one of the pipes I can see water draining fine from the pan, the overflow is dry, and there's definitely water coming out of the drain outside. Seems like a lot more than usual. Sorry for portrait, but this should give you an idea of how "handy" the installer was. Romex is being used as control wire for the outside unit, and runs inside the conduit for the 240V supply outside, so it's probably been handyman specialed since the place was built in 1981 (the romex used for the contactor looks to be as old as what's powering the furnace).  Pretty sure the insulation on the drain line is hiding some sins. Otherwise why would you insulate it when the line is within the conditioned space? 
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Sep 30, 2020 |
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Sep 30, 2020 19:11
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I've tried it both ways. Originally that side was capped, with the middle one uncapped. I'll move it back for now, but I tried moving it to where it is now when I noticed how humid it was getting. The drain clogged a couple of months back. Notice the height of the left upright. You can probably guess what happened - the water level never got to the overflow (and thus, the shutoff).  e: you're saying I can cap both off safely though, right? It doesn't go into a drain, so no sewer gas to worry about - it just drains into the yard. If that's the case, I'll happily toss another cap on to prevent what I went through in August (my grandma's old rug is right on front of it... I was able to get it dry without damage thankfully) randomidiot fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Oct 1, 2020 |
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Oct 1, 2020 14:02
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All original ducting in the attic, no attic access (it's a duplex), and you can see how "special" the duct is with all that duct tape and zip ties. That was us doing that - originally it was just blowing into that duct with a 2-3 inch gap on all sides. And yeah, the upright has water visibly flowing through it, but it's just down at the T connection level. The only time it's come to the top was when the drain got clogged with slime. That is an actual trap, but that seems kinda pointless when it's draining directly outside instead of into the household drain - but I'm not exactly an expert. Roommate said it didn't feel like this last fall, though. He's been here about 2 years. How about if I just add a few inches to the vent, and maybe try to angle the drain a little more downhill? I think adding a bit to the vent will keep it from overflowing enough to trip the cutoff (I've verified it works by removing it and moving it by hand, but there's no water marks on it... definitely never been wet). It seems like it has 2 traps. The typical P trap (though very small compared to most P traps I've seen - the one without a cap in the photo that you say needs a cap), and then a purpose-made trap/vent combo - the one you see capped in that photo (pulling the insulation off shows the pipe is intentionally bent upward, with some lettering about AC DRAIN VENT on it, so probably a purpose built Home Depot/Lowe's handyman part). I'm tempted to just redo everything above the final elbow at this point. It's a clusterfuck of handymanitis.
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Oct 1, 2020 16:39
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Yeah... handyman special. This place is a slumlord special in general. I kind of want to cut that off and see what horrors are hiding behind the insulation - there's no reason to insulate the drain when it's within conditioned space, unless you're hiding poo poo. I moved the cap and uh... no more sauna. I remember moving it because it seemed really muggy inside, but I think we'd had the windows open all night.  The duct tape and zip ties on the duct itself are from my roommate and I. The duct going to the vents doesn't even begin to touch the output coming out of the furnace (a couple of inches on every side). That was our  solution. The AC could barely hit 78 before we did that (and it'd run nonstop all day), it can hit 68 if you let it run long enough now.** We're still hitting 90s during the day here, it's still very much AC season during the day
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Oct 3, 2020 18:17
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If they're anything like my landlord, they put those contacts at the overflow (which is proper, AFAIK), then add an air gap 6 loving inches lower (NOT proper) for a waterfall effect when the drain clogs. Then the landlord blames you for running the AC while the drain was clogged. I'm sorry for running the AC when I sleep, Mr Landlord.  I pulled the contacts off the overflow, they've never been wet. We had water almost to the front door (furnace/coils are in the hallway) w/a tile floor when it clogged..
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Oct 5, 2020 16:45
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My last apartment had 10x30 filters. I have no idea where maintenance managed to get those fuckers, but I always had to keep 2 or 3 on hand since maintenance would run out for a couple of months at a time.
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Nov 16, 2020 13:14
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With it being electric baseboard heaters, they're likely line voltage thermostats @ 240V. Kill the breaker/fuse for each heater before you pull covers off of thermostats (if unknown which is which, turn off all of the 2 pole breakers), but you're probably gonna find some beefy wires in there instead of 28 gauge thermostat/bell wiring. If I'm right on this, you'll need "line voltage thermostats". They're essentially heavy duty switches. They're switching the full current of your baseboard heaters. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Dec 31, 2020 |
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Dec 31, 2020 01:21
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Trabant posted:We had the building's engineer come through with some kind of handheld industrial device who confirmed the levels were higher than he'd like, although that was well after the balcony was already opened for a few hours so not an apples-to-apples comparison. I don't know if he took hallway/common area measurements, but I'll ask. I'll also see if he'll let us borrow it so we can compare readings from the two sensors. Why not get a few decent sized indoor plants and place them where they get some good sun? They help reduce CO2.
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Jun 1, 2021 10:29
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Definitely seal up that duct, unless you like wasting money cooling your garage. That flue also looks like it's either angled down or level - it needs to be angled up (I think roughly 1/4" per foot? though that may be on newer condensing furnaces - either way, it needs to be sloped up toward the actual vent). That furnace looks pretty old too - it would be a drat Good Idea to have a couple of carbon monoxide alarms in the home. It's not a matter of if, but when, the heat exchangers in the furnace will crack and start spitting CO into the air. Some furnaces make it 10 years, some make it 50+ - it depends on climate, how much they get used, how well built the thing is, and a bit of luck. The vapor barrier and insulation I wouldn't personally worry about, unless your garage is climate controlled. Hopefully Motronic will be along with more better words; I'm just Handyman Renter, he actually knows fancy stuff like code.
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Jul 9, 2021 11:42
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That's more than surface. Looks more like one of them was getting (maybe a lot) more gas than the others. Possibly the others weren't even lighting off? My own question. Parents just signed a check for a complete HVAC replacement. I don't mean just the mechanical parts; ducts, lineset, returns. It's all getting done; install company is outsourcing a whole-house surge protector to an electrician (IMO very much needed, I fully agree with that). How bad did they get ripped off? New system is a Daikin 6 ton VRF heat pump, Daikin air handler (I believe with a gas backup for heat, not 100% on that, but there's not a 240V circuit remotely close to the furnace). All new ductwork (though it looks like they're doing flex, so who knows if it'll be any improvement), running at least 1 new return, adding automatic dampers to make it somewhat of a multi-zone system, smart thermostat. They're coming from an early 90s (original to the house) York gas furnace with a no-name R-22 coil and (18-19 year old) 11 SEER 5 ton Trane condenser and a single Nest thermostat. Part of the house has always been a sauna, the installer has promised to fix that with the added returns. They're dropping $15k. How bad did they get ripped off? I feel like with the added returns and all new ductwork, probably "not the end of the world, could have done a bit better", and they're getting a 12 year parts + 6 year labor warranty. It's too late to object, the installers are there now. Funny that it took me to talk my stepdad into agreeing to the $500ish (installed) whole house surge protector on top of all of that when he's dropping "very nice used car, almost basic new car" money on this. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 18:23 on May 9, 2022 |
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May 9, 2022 18:21
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TheLawinator posted:Flex duct runs better be short in general. How many returns in the house? Why are they changing out the ductwork? There are now 4 returns in the house; previously 3. It's a fairly typical 90s open layout house that was all the rage at the time - all the bedrooms on one side, kitchen/dining on the other, living room and den in the center. The original main return was above the master bedroom door just off the den (master bedroom being off on its own corner), another outside the hallway at floor level for the other bedrooms, and finally one on the wall at floor level right by the kitchen/entry. I was up there to visit last week. The new return is 2 feet away from the main one (and crooked, which drove my OCD nuts) - BUT, it's on the other side of a doorway (inside the master bedroom, and they usually sleep with that door closed). Their bedroom is a solid 10+ degrees cooler than it used to be; it's about the same temp as the rest of the house now, whereas before it could be 85+ in that room when the rest of the house was 72ish. The original ductwork was literally falling apart (it was from 1994). Several vents have also been added around the house.My own impression is the install was rushed, but it's definitely quality equipment, and it has a 12 year parts/10 year labor warranty as long as they add a whole house surge protector asap. Instead of changing out the 50 amp breaker in the panel, they replaced the outside disconnect with one with a 40 amp breaker (Challenger is long gone, so they likely didn't want to touch the panel - the previous disconnect was just a disconnect, no fuses or breaker). My biggest irk is they not only tore out the existing concrete pad, they also installed a smaller plastic one... and didn't bolt the outside unit down. Texas gets some strong storms, and being a side exit system, it's tall and narrow - that sucker will fall over the first time Thor gets angry. I was able to easily tip it a bit with one hand. They're supposed to be coming back out to bolt it down, but given the pad (it's just plastic), I doubt it'll do much against strong wind. I feel like he probably overpaid a bit, but he did go for all Daikin, all variable speed, some kind of Daikin air scrubber, with the fancy pants Daikin One+ thermostat (that fucker alone is $yikes$). That house was downright frigid when I was there (set at 68, hottest it ever got was 69... when it was 100 outside); the system does run nonstop during the day, but except for the hottest hour or two of the day, it was barely running - both the interior fan and the outside unit. At full bore, the outside unit was still pretty quiet, inside unit about as noisy as the circa 1994 York furnace it replaced (which wasn't loud at all). Looking at the day by day data from their smart meter, their electric bill looks like it's going to go down significantly. Also, 5" thick filter now, which should reduce how often my elderly stepfather has to go up into the attic to change the filter. What particularly bugs me about the new return is it's next to the bedroom smoke detector. I did change out all of the smoke alarms while I was there (they were all the original BRK models from 1994; replaced with the current version, interconnected AC w/battery backup, uses the same plug even), so at least they hopefully have less of a chance of dying in a fire. But if a fire starts in the master bedroom, I doubt that particular smoke will do jack poo poo until the smoke gets pretty thick unless the HVAC happens to be off. At least there's 6 of them...  (why yes, they do have foundation issues, whatever gave you that idea?) randomidiot fucked around with this message at 05:27 on May 22, 2022 |
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May 22, 2022 05:23
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Jerk McJerkface posted:Note that window units with this shape already kind of exist WTF are they thinking? Oh, it's Soleus... not worth the plastic the case is made of. I've never seen a window unit that doesn't either drain outside or splash the water onto the condenser coils to help with efficiency (where some will also drip out, but at least it's outside). Midea figured out how to do the U-Shape properly, condensation goes outside. 
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Jul 1, 2022 02:14
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FWIW I've had one Soleus air unit. The condensate pump sounded like a million mile Iron Duke with no rod bearings left. The compressor didn't sound much better. It didn't last very long... The no name ("Cool Zone") window unit I have now is far quieter, you only have to yell over it instead of shout. Tl;dr Soleus is loving garbage
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Jul 2, 2022 17:59
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Any gaps to outside need to be sealed with foam tape. FWIW my window unit also came with (adhesive-backed) foam board that goes over the slide out sides.
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Aug 14, 2022 02:53
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meatpimp posted:4 ton AC / 100k btu furnace (2 stage, I didn't notice that at first), with 10 year parts and labor and lifetime compressor warranty, including 4" filter, humidifier and Reme LED was $11.2k. From what I've seen, that's price competitive, Carrier and Trane would be about $14.5k for the same spec. FWIW my parents dropped over $15k on a Daikin 5 ton system. Variable speed fan with 2 stage gas furnace and straight AC, 4" filter, some kind of air purifier, communicating thermostat, some duct rework. Thermostat refuses to connect to the internet, app for it has solid 1 star reviews (all pretty much for the same reason, thermostat itself won't connect to 99% of routers apparently), turns into a single stage and runs flat out with any other thermostat. 
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Aug 22, 2022 01:27
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H110Hawk posted:They paid for that? Because until you see it working properly it sounds a whole lot like the installers problem. The latter. It works fine, the thermostat just won't do the internet. I got it to connect long enough to download a firmware update (and it pretty much wouldn't let you bypass it, couldn't even change the temp once the update notice popped up), and it hasn't been able to connect to their router since.
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Aug 28, 2022 22:27
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Motronic posted:This. Also they should be recovering and using the same refrigerant that came out of your system. Or I mean, they WILL be doing that and will only need to top up a few ounces at the end with new stuff. But they're gonna charge you for your own refrigerant. They pretty much all will. They shouldn't be reusing the same refrigerant on a compressor burnout - that refrigerant is very likely contaminated. I agree on not fixing R22 systems though - at best, patch it together long enough to limp it along until it can be replaced. But a residential swap out should be fairly easy to get, though it may not be your preferred brand right now.
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Sep 25, 2022 23:39
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A 50S RAYGUN posted:i mean, if someone else already did all the complicated work, and all I'm doing is putting in a new 24v thermostat, fair play makes my life easier That's... something special. This is where I would back the hell up and measure (with a good multimeter, not a Harbor Freight one) what kind of voltage you have there. If it's 120 or 240, you need an electrician out there to unfuck that.
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Dec 19, 2022 13:40
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I would do nothing until the HVAC company is out, if it's under warranty. They can try to pull the "you ruined it, that'll be $500" poo poo. Unrelated, I heard some of you guys like splits, so I got you some condensers for your splits. I counted 18... (single floor commercial-ish building) 
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Mar 3, 2023 |
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Mar 3, 2023 17:00
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Wait, do you have a window-style through the wall unit (like that Koldfront), which needs a wall sleeve.. or a proper PTAC unit? Your first link doesn't work, second one shows what looks like a modified window shaker. Most name brand PTACs are relatively quiet - GE/Hotpoint, Amana, etc - if you can enlarge the opening enough for a small PTAC, you'll have a much quieter unit, but you're obviously limited by the condo board (the whole "you own everything inside of the walls/roof" bit...). 56dB is on the louder side for a bedroom, IMO. If you can find a unit with an inverter compressor, it'll be a lot quieter except on the hottest days. Check compactappliance.com - they have a lot of through the wall units (both PTAC and modified window shakers that need a separate mounting sleeve). You'll probably find more informed reviews there vs Amazon (and Amazon tends to lump multiple models and even lines together in reviews). fake edit: okay, your first link should be https://www.gadgetreview.com/quietest-wall-air-conditioner. I'd at least find out how many BTU your current unit is - if it seems to do a solid job on the hottest and coldest days, stick with that size - otherwise, go up a size. (running nonstop is fine if it maintains your set temp, and is preferable for an AC - that way you dehumidify too). Midea supposedly makes very quiet units, though that may only be their u-shaped window units.
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Mar 5, 2023 01:57
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Let's talk proprietary communicating thermostats. My parents have a Daikin One+ thermostat, with a Daikin 80% (wtf? 80% in this day and age?) 2 stage gas furnace w/variable speed blower, and a Daikin 5 ton variable speed inverter type condenser (straight AC - dunno why they did that instead of a heat pump, but whatever). Everything installed last year. It's a great system - the house is far more comfortable (vs the nearly 30 year old York furnace + 15 year old Trane single stage R22 5.5 ton they had), the electric bill is much lower in the summer (somehow the gas bill is about 50% higher in the winter, but they only need heat 1-2 months out of the year). But they, and I, hate the thermostat. The app is absolutely horrible, the thermostat's UI is horrible (especially for people in their 70s with cataracts). I'm in my 40s and consider myself tech savvy, and I want to take a sledgehammer to the thermostat anytime I have to look at it, chainsaw if I have to actually interact with the stupid thing. Is there any kind of thermostat that would work with their system and retain most of the features (specifically multi-stage AC and fan - the furnace is used rarely enough that it can be run on the 1st stage, it's an 85k BTU furnace in TX), or are they stuck with this expensive wart on their wall? I'm guessing they're stuck with it, since it's a communicating thermostat. Had it been a simple 2 stage system I think they'd be able to go with an Ecobee or something similar, right? randomidiot fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Mar 22, 2023 |
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Mar 22, 2023 08:01
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His Divine Shadow posted:I had to buy a chest freezer in a hurry when our freezer failed last week. Fastest/cheapest way was craigslist/facebook / equivalents. Got a 1980s 400 liter chest freezer, I have been looking it's energy consumption and it pulls about 180-200 watts when running, the thermostat didn't work so it wanted to go down to -31C, but it was just bad connection and after that it's hovering around -19 to -20.5 C and doing that it seems to use 1.6 kWh per day. My freezer is less than 1/3 of the size, but it's a much newer one using unscented propane (R-290). Best Buy store brand. It pulls 55 watts running @ 120V, inrush is about 150 watts. The larger ones really don't pull that much more - once they're down to temp, it doesn't take much to maintain temp, but the newer ones take a full day to get down there. It's plugged in to a Kill-A-Watt, and it's in a garage that's NOT climate controlled. In the summer it runs a bit more, but as long as I'm not opening it often, not THAT much more. It does take a very long time to recover if I load up stuff that isn't frozen, or if it's open more than a few minutes. I think in a month or so, mine is pulling about what yours does in a week. Maybe less. That out of the way, yours will still be running after I've replaced mine 4 or 5 times. I do make sure to check it every few days.. really need to put an audible alarm on it. If the power flickers while it's on, it takes a solid 10 minutes for the pressures to equalize enough for it to restart (otherwise it goes off on thermal overload). randomidiot fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Mar 30, 2023 |
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Mar 30, 2023 12:58
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High heat/low humidity and Texas has me thinking far west Texas - most of Texas is pretty drat humid. And vents of any kind at ankle height suggests a crawlspace. This is good in some ways - it'll make running new stuff a lot easier. I would bet those lower wall vents are from an old system though - did the house ever have a boiler? Is there a basement? OTOH did the house ever have a swamp cooler? That could be what the ceiling vents are for. If you want central air, it can utilize your existing ductwork for the furnace, but be ready for the HVAC company to suggest a full gut/redo, including the ductwork (and that furnace will be going too - I'd be loving shocked if the heat exchanger isn't cracked). Like Eldarion said, you need to look at your insulation situation first. OTOH it'll be easier for the HVAC guys to redo everything before insulation - unless you're blessed with insulation containing asbestos. You're looking at a large chunk of change, and we're going into the most expensive part of the year for HVAC work. If you can through the summer with those existing window shakers, fall is a good time to get an AC installed. You're more likely to be able to haggle a bit on the price since they won't be as busy, and the weather will be mild enough that you can get by on just window shakers during the day, maybe blankets at night. Before you even THINK of touching that furnace, get at least one CO detector, and replace all of the smoke alarms (they're likely all over 10 years old at this point; ideally you'll have one in the hallway plus one in each bedroom, but in reality you probably only have one in the hallway right now). You should have CO detectors anyway if you have any gas appliances (betting your stove and water heater are also gas), and the HVAC company will likely be replacing your furnace with another gas furnace. With it being a 60s house, you'll also want to check for aluminum wiring, and you'll want to make sure you're not blessed with a Zinsco or Federal Pacific Stab-Lok breaker panel. That big living room window unit is almost certainly 240V, so when you do get central AC, they can probably repurpose the breaker spot for it for the outside unit. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Jun 19, 2023 |
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Jun 19, 2023 15:06
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H110Hawk posted:Pressure in the ductwork or atmospheric? I'd assume refrigerant pressures on the high and low side. Those will vary depending on both outside and inside temp.
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Jul 18, 2023 03:12
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