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Post by Woody Williams on Jun 19, 2007 16:21:36 GMT -5
My neighbor lady needs a new AC unit.
She now has a 4 ton Carrier that is on it's last leg. It is not quite 10 years old, so to me that hasn't held up well.
What brand do you all recommend and what kind of price can she expect for the complete setup of outside unit, lines and A coil?
TIA.....
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Post by gundude on Jun 19, 2007 17:24:26 GMT -5
Nuthin I hate more than to see a woman taken advatage of on home/car repairs...... If that unit is only 10 years old, I find it hard to believe that the compressor is shot BUT I have seen it happen. There should be NO NEED for new lines at all nor a coil if they are only 10 years old as well.( They try to sell you that stuff to make more $$$$$$) Nothing wrong with Carrier at all. They are a solid unit and if it indeed needs replaced, then I wouldn't hesitate with going with one again.
I would call about 4 or 5 independents and get quotes as well as brands they install. Let me know what you find out and I will run it all by my HVAC man. I worked for him for several years and he knows whats good and whats not. It some times changes from year to year.
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Post by Woody Williams on Jun 19, 2007 17:49:10 GMT -5
Gundude,
The unit will run for awhile and then it wont. If she lets it sit for about 4 hours it will run OK for a good number of hours.
I am not an AC expert by a long shot , but....
I told her I thought she had some moisture in her line and it was freezing when it hit the expansion area. The AC guy told her that her compressor was going out and giving off "something' (I don't know what) that was plugging the line?
Are you saying that they can use the existing lines and A coil and just purge it? That would be a lot cheaper..
This gal is a single Mom raising two kids (in college) so she needs all the help she can get.
Thanks,
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Post by gundude on Jun 19, 2007 18:02:04 GMT -5
Yep they can do that......... Nuthing more than a vaccume check to see if there are any leaks.
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Post by Woody Williams on Jun 19, 2007 18:28:55 GMT -5
So what is the best advice that I can give her?
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Post by mrfixit on Jun 19, 2007 19:16:23 GMT -5
I would recommend you call another reputable company and get a second opinion. I work for a Carrier dealer and it sounds like it could be a freezing evaporator or something along those lines, or it could just be a faulty thermostat if it only runs a few hours and shuts down. Heck, if the fella didn't check her filters it could even be something as simple as that. But several of the major manufacturers are having some issues with the indoor coils leaking refrigerant which leads to various other issues and problems, such as it's freezing up and stops working then she shuts it off awhile and it thaws out then the cycle starts all over again. Tell her to spend the $75 or whatever it is for a second opinion, it may save her thousands. I mean heck, the dang thing does run so there is a reason it's only running a few hours. Compressors generally as a rule just die, they don't run a while and come back on. It can happen but it's pretty rare.
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Post by gundude on Jun 19, 2007 19:28:42 GMT -5
yep
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Post by LawrenceCoBowhunter on Jun 19, 2007 20:25:05 GMT -5
Carrier is one of the best in the business.Anymore alotof different companies own more than one brand...Anyways,I agree with what has been said,and it could also be the fan motor kicking off due to a bad bearing or something which is causing it to pull more amps (over heating).
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Post by tenring on Jun 19, 2007 20:56:31 GMT -5
Have her check her filter 1st thing, a clogged or very dirty filter will cause an outside unit [ condensing unit] to freeze up, go out on overload, and shut down. The ice can get pretty thick in a short period of time, thus the 4 hours to suddenly come on again, only to do it again. Spent many years in the business, and it even happened to me. Just plain forgot to clean my EAC [electronic air cleaner] and the outside unit froze up bigtime. As I was not longer in the business, called a friend of mine to was still in to come over and check it out. Got by for practically nothing [butt chewing hurt worse than the bill]. Nothing but a clogged filter.
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Post by DEERTRACKS on Jun 20, 2007 6:09:00 GMT -5
Poor gal!
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Post by larryhagmansliver on Jun 20, 2007 8:21:03 GMT -5
I would definitely go with the second opinion as well. You get all types in the HVAC business. There are a lot of poorly trained technicians that go to the "You need a new " card just because they don't know what the problem is. I think most of the techs. are too proud to admit they don't know what's wrong. I have my independant guy who I trust and I will stick with him. He's also much cheaper then the big contractors.
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Post by Woody Williams on Jun 20, 2007 17:29:46 GMT -5
More and/or different problems..
Her HVAC guy said that her unit is "mismatched". Her inside coil is a 5 ton and her outside unit is a 4 ton.
Her home is 2,000 square feet give or take 50 foot.
The air distribution is terrble. Her bedroom (closer to the unit) can be 72 and her family room furthest away is 82. BUT - She has great airflow to the family room.
The AC guy is also saying that the unit is way too big and it is satisying the thermostat, before enough cool air gets to the family room. Not sure how much it is cycling, but if it is too big it would cycle a lot, right?
TIA...
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Post by drgreyhound on Jun 21, 2007 4:54:28 GMT -5
Hopefully she finds an affordable and good-quality system that works for her!
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Post by tenring on Jun 21, 2007 7:59:21 GMT -5
Sounds like a typical house to me. Airflow is parallel to electricity, it takes the path of least resistance. Years ago I lost track of how many systems I was involved with that were installed improperly. Hang a little bit of duct to get the air away from the air handler, then run the rest in round pipe to hurry up the job, cut down on cost, up the profit margin. It can really get complicated when sizing a unit to square footage, boils down to heat loss, heat gain. Believe it or not, when you start running metal, you start figuring it out from the farthest point from the handler. You never cut in a "run" closer than 18 inches from the "head cap", from a "duct reducer", from and "elbow", from a"riser". The idea is to maintain the same amount of positive pressure at any point in the system. Now if the builder allowed the plumber to "rough" the house first instead of the HVAC guys, you get to add elbows in the pipe, changes the pressure in the system, have to change the duct sizing to compensate, no can do, 'gotta get the job done, keep costs down, move on to next job. One 6" elbow in a pipe run is equal in resistance to 10' of pipe. Had to chew out many a helper who would use 2 elbows in a pipe run to get over a beam because he would use them in a 90 degree configuration instead of using a double 45 with a short piece of pipe in between. Easier that way, homeowner gets it in end in higher utility bills, and lower effieciency. I could use up this entire thread recalling all the screw-ups I found and fixed over many years. Did a favor one time though, went out to a house for an inspection, daughters bedroom at end of house was never warm in winter time, small bedroom, one heat run, went into dirty crawl space, saw short duct system, loooooong pipe run to room, hmmmmmm, went back to truck, got tools, moved pipe from side of duct to head cap, patched old take-off, back out to truck, told homeowner to fire up furnace, he darned near passed out. Daughters bedroom now more than warm. Absolutely no new materials used, just time and using proper HVAC principles. He was expecting a huge bill [new furnace, new duct work, etc.], company I worked for just charged him for 1/2 hour labor. 'Kinda like your heart and blood vessals, if yours ateries and veins aren't right, doesn't matter what your heart is doing, you're up the unsanitary tributary, without means of locomotion. Maybe drgreyhound can simplify my explanation a little better!
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Post by mrfixit on Jun 21, 2007 18:35:59 GMT -5
Yes a 4 ton unit is typically to big for a 2000 sq ft house.
How new is her house? is it well insulated ? Does she have double pane windows? How many windows is in the house? What kind of siding? What kind of doors does the home have ?
Things like that are real important as to what size she really needs.
There is time's when a 2 ton unit will walk away with a 2000 sq ft home and other times a 3 or even a 4 ton won't cool it. So much is dependent upon the construction materials.
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