Airconditioner blunder

woodchucker

woodchucker

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I had a lot of people over yesterday. My son and dil brought my grand daughter down from CT, so all the more local people could meet her. I had tested the air conditioner the other day. I turned it on, made sure I got cool air, and then shut it down. Big mistake.

When I needed the air yesterday 92 out, it failed. I turned it on a few hours before everyone arrived to build some buffer. It froze over. I ran the heat to unfreeze it. I cut off the aluminum foil and blew the coils out as best I could on the A frame. starter it up again and again it froze over. There was no heavy accumulation of crud on the A frame, so I think I am low on freon... as far as I know it's never been serviced since 1987.. I bought in 99. So it probably has the older freon...

Anyway the blunder is assuming that it is working just because it came up cool. My advice... run it for a few hours if you are going to need it. We limped by with ceiling fans helping, but with all the people it was up to 85 for a while.

edit: wife corrected me, it reached 87..
 
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Ouch, and you were dreading that ...
 
So the humidity was high? Wonder if running a dehumidifier in the house would have helped?
 
Welcome to my world Jeff . I just all the heaters up and running down here . :grin: I'm running but always running behind . :eek: And YES , it was one hot and humid miserable day yesterday . I'm outside cleaning up the gas grill for tonight . Hope some storms come thru to cool it down a tad .
 
C-Bag said:
So the humidity was high? Wonder if running a dehumidifier in the house would have helped?
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yes it was.. Not sure that's the problem. When I look at the metering valve to the individual lines, they are all freezing over first. I think I am low.
I don't have a whole house dehumdifier. Only one small one that I use in the basement... I can try to run it..
 
The older AC systems run Freon-22 which is no longer available, or allowed to be used. A few years ago, I had to recharge my AC system and bought a 25lb bottle of Freon-22 for around $150, these days it sells for 4-6X and technically it is not allowed to be used. You can buy a smalle 5lb bottle if you just need to tank up the Freon-22. There are some substitutes Freon mixes that can be used, but are not quite a good as the Freon-22, down side is they are stupidly expensive and most AC repair services will stick you big time on labor. I got fed up with tech AC repair services, so have my own AC equipment and do most of the servicing myself. I use the Testo 557 which works well, I would avoid the typical mechanical pressure gauges.
 
If coils are freezing over a bunch of time, it needs more freon... My AC unit was doing that a lot so I kept adding it, then at some point I had gone and overcharged it (it blew cold air but not as cold as I like), so ends up having to recover some until it got colder. Ideal pressure in the suction line is around 60 psi (this is where it reads 0C on the gauge) but I really don't have the means to measure "superheat" as it's a mini split.

I'm in Taiwan and R22 here is plentiful.

I work on my own AC too because the repair guys in Taiwan also charge big for any routine or small work, and I need to work on them in the middle of the night should problems develop. No AC guy is going to come in at 3AM when it's still HOT to work on your AC.
 
My whole house AC has such a shoddy install it NEVER effectively cooled the house. When I had the money to replace it I went with Mini split systems throughout the house. Every room is the perfect temperature for the inhabitants and one room doesn't freeze while the next room is sweltering. I have never regretted going with mini-splits for a minute! Installing the mini-splits myself was a tiny fraction of what it would have cost to replace the whole house AC and fix all the ducting problems.
 
MikeInOr said:
My whole house AC has such a shoddy install it NEVER effectively cooled the house. When I had the money to replace it I went with Mini split systems throughout the house. Every room is the perfect temperature for the inhabitants and one room doesn't freeze while the next room is sweltering. I have never regretted going with mini-splits for a minute! Installing the mini-splits myself was a tiny fraction of what it would have cost to replace the whole house AC and fix all the ducting problems.
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Whole house AC is simply not a thing in Taiwan... the only time whole building/house AC was seen here is in commercial buildings or subway stations. Everyone either uses mini splits or window units. They still charge a ton of money for its install (not for the window unit, but for the mini split). Problem is the R value of most buildings here is crap because everything is brick and concrete which has poor thermal properties.
 
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