Home A/C question.

[billybek]

Daiken also acquired the McQuay brand of heavier HVAC equipment and water chillers.

If you are going the route of replacing all the equipment in the next year or two, make sure that the components are matched well and that the line sizing is adequate for the new refrigerant that you will be running. Saving a buck at install time will cost you over the life of the unit.
Keep the suction line as short as possible and well insulated.
As was already mentioned check you supply system for leakage. A few days scrambling around your ductwork with a few rolls of foil tape (not duct tape) will do wonders for sealing up the system.
If the ductwork is in a high heat area (ceiling space) make sure that it is well insulated after sealing.

Handle the start capacitor with some care. It may offer you a little jolt if you don't!
You can discharge them by shunting the terminals.

[Rick Lee]

Just got an HVAC buddy on the phone who never answers his phone. Whew. He said, if it's running fine after replacing the fuse, then chances are very slim any of the capacitors are bad and it's most likely I just had an old fuse than was ready to go. This is comforting, but I'll be keeping a close eye on it from now on.

[nota]

Originally Posted by 95avblm3

We just went through this... 30 year old house that had never had central AC... So add the price of running ductwork and new copper lines and your $5700 quote suddenly looks like a bargain. Ours came in just under $10k for a 2.5 ton system. We are in Florida.

As far as your immediate problems, have you checked your coil to see how dirty it is? IIRC correctly, dirty coils can cause the system to run harder due to lack of airflow through the coil. System runs harder, current goes up. Or maybe I'm just making that up. I guess my point is you're on the right track checking/replacing the cap but also check the cleanliness of the system to keep it healthy and prolong its life too.

As for brands, Daiken recently bought Goodman to gain a foothold in the US market. Daiken is a Japanese company and supposedly the largest refrigeration company in the world, or so I was told. It was explained to me that the Goodman line will be maintained as the entry level line, and Daiken will be marketed as the premium line. Daiken is supposed to be working wonders for increasing the quality of Goodman. We had Daiken, Trane and Carrier quoted. Daiken had a better warranty and more features for the price but the contractor didn't run a heat load calculation on my house (I did) and our sizing didn't agree. I've had Trane's in past houses I've owned and never had an issue with one other than a capacitor but again, same Contractor as Daiken. I had two other contractors quote the job, both of which were Carrier dealers. One of them did a proper heat load calculation and arrived at the same size and me. They won the job. I would have gotten more quotes but we were tired of sleeping in 85+ temps (window shaker had failed). So we have a Carrier. So far so good, but we are only 3 weeks since turn-on. It has a variable speed air handler with controllable humidity setting which is pretty sweet.

Good luck nursing yours along and may it last the rest of the summer for you

I did it my self for a used/looked new unit at 2.5 ton under 1k total in 99
paid a buddy to do the el to code
and went to a A/C parts place and hired a kid with a A/c repair van in parking lot to do line solder and the vac & gas fill after work for $100 cash
did the unit install and ducts myself
that was in a non-A/C house so everything from the slab to drip line inc for the 1k total

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by MBAtarga

FWIW - my AC guy says Goodman is the laughing stock of the industry. It's a commonly installed brand by home builders for a reason - it's cheap and it's working when the house is sold.

Originally Posted by Don Ro

What I heard about Goodman units is that the contractors I spoke with placed Rheem and Goodman in the same box...good price but not the highest quality parts.

This is very interesting to me. Since I dropped $6k just 6 years ago on this Trane POS I'm not looking to spend the cost of getting another complete unit installed. Still, this does raise the question of what brand out there really is of high quality. I've talked to multiple AC techs (including the last one, who was finally able to diagnose and fix the issues with my Trane) and they all recommended Goodman. Maybe the 10-year warranty biases them because they don't have homeowners yelling at them about parts cost?

[Don Ro]

Did/do you trust the installation contractor/dealer?
Maybe you got a lemon?
Bad deal if a big problem.
.
Who ever is doing your repair, did they trash the Trane? ...bad-mouth the brand?

[95avblm3]

Originally Posted by nota

I did it my self for a used/looked new unit at 2.5 ton under 1k total in 99
paid a buddy to do the el to code
and went to a A/C parts place and hired a kid with a A/c repair van in parking lot to do line solder and the vac & gas fill after work for $100 cash
did the unit install and ducts myself
that was in a non-A/C house so everything from the slab to drip line inc for the 1k total

Initially, I really wanted to do it myself but several issues compounded to lead me to have a contractor do it, not the least of which was permitting. Permitting in my county is a b@#&^. I suppose I could have done it w/o a permit but there could be some unintended consequences of going that route. That and my AC repairman/firefighter buddy who was going to help bailed on the project. It's possible that he wasn't interested in crawling around in my attic in July. In the end, it took two guys 3 solid days to do it. I'm all for DIY projects but in this case, I don't regret not doing it.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by Don Ro

Did/do you trust the installation contractor/dealer?
Maybe you got a lemon?
Bad deal if a big problem.
.
Who ever is doing your repair, did they trash the Trane? ...bad-mouth the brand?

The install was 6 years ago--it's possible the installer isn't even in biz anymore. AZ is such a huge market for A/C services that anybody with a pulse can set up a business, work for a few years, and sell the business to someone else. At least, that's the only excuse I can come up with for the first two knuckleheads who effed us over on this.

No bad-mouthing of Trane from the guy who fixed it. He's definitely on my X-mas card list; stayed up on our hot roof for 3 hours fixing the screw-ups by knuckleheads #1 and #2.

[Don Ro]

Had the same issue here.
Guys showed up w/business cards with Contractor's lic. #'s...I checked w/the state and no such # or name.

[VincentVega]

Why does this stuff cost so much?

2.5t consdensor is ~1k. Shouldnt be more than a few hours to install.

https://www.acwholesalers.com/Goodman-Air-Conditioner/GSX160301-2-5-Ton-16-SEER-Air-Conditioner-Condenser-R410A/32685.ac?catId=cat1000&mainCat=&subCat=

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by VincentVega

Why does this stuff cost so much?

2.5t consdensor is ~1k. Shouldnt be more than a few hours to install.

https://www.acwholesalers.com/Goodman-Air-Conditioner/GSX160301-2-5-Ton-16-SEER-Air-Conditioner-Condenser-R410A/32685.ac?catId=cat1000&mainCat=&subCat=

In my case I have an air handler in the attic that's the size of a small car. It has to be disassembled to come out without taking part of the roof off. Then add the new duct work in the 140 deg. attic. I can see how some guys wouldn't want to work for peanuts in such conditions. And all the ones in AZ are pretty busy around this time of year.

[Don Ro]

Here are the units you see in AZ...big bucks.
.
Trane-American Standard Gas Rooftop Air Conditioner Casa Grande, AZ

[VincentVega]

Good info, thanks.

Looks like they are at least twice what we use around here.

For example,

https://www.acwholesalers.com/Goodman-Air-Conditioner/GPG153709041-3-Ton-15-SEER-90-000-BTU-Gas-Electric-Package-Unit/14836.ac?question=ROOF

[rick-l]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Is that capacitor still in the box?

[Rick Lee]

Yup. BTW, a/c is blowing ice cold now.

[LeeH]

Rick - this company put in our AC in 2011.

https://plus.google.com/113187055363579032108/about?gl=us&hl=en
Paid $5200 otd for a 13 seer Carrier. The guy really seemed to care about what he was doing. Our AC died in the middle of summer and he understood that the new unit had to be installed asap. His assistant wasn't available so he told me he had no choice but to wait a day. I told him I could help and he jumped right in.

Our air handler was also in the attic of our single story house. We ended up cutting through the drywall and studs to get it out then just put it all back together when we were done. I took care of the drywall repair the next day.

[Rick Lee]

Thanks. I'll give them a call when it's time, but they're pretty far from me.

[madmmac]

My Trane heat pump is celebrating 25 years this November. Zero---problems.

I know, I probably just f'd myself.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by madmmac

My Trane heat pump is celebrating 25 years this November. Zero---problems.

Wow, if my experience is any indicator, they sure don't make 'em like that anymore.

I wish you many years of continued coolness!

[wwest]

Our 2 heat pumps were installed in 1988. No longer use the heating aspect and generally must cycle the breakers 2-3 times the first time cooling is needed in the summer. Most A/C compatible thermostats have a "restart" delay so the compressor is not commanded to start while head pressure is still elevated.

If some reason the compressor motor tries to restart with high head pressure a CB trip or blown fuse is a given.

You need to be very carefull regarding adding a HARD START capacitor, you need to be certain/sure that the compressor motor is a capacitor START type, NOT a capacitor RUN type.

Oh, capacitors are NOT used to store energy between starts, they are used to provide a START phase shift for a second motor winding when operating on a single phase supply system 120-240 VAC. That second winding is only powered during the motor start period, a few hundred milliseconds..

[wwest]

Originally Posted by BlueSkyJaunte

Wow, if my experience is any indicator, they sure don't make 'em like that anymore.

True, the newer compressors are 10 times more reliable than those built pre-1975

I wish you many years of continued coolness!

Just gave away a still working freezer we purchased in 1978.