Damn A/c

[Rascal]

Go for a nice weekend trip to Dallas to celebrate our anniversary and come home to find out our A/C is out and it's a steaming 91 degrees inside the house. After using my engineering skills I found out after an hour of messing around that it's not actually the A/C unit but the blower in the garage. That explains the electrical fire smell. Anybody know how much those things typically cost? The fan looks to be questionable as well so I'll probably replace that as well (don't want an out of balance fan to mess up a brand new motor I'm going to have to put in).

Glad the house didn't burn down.

[watermock]

http://blog.codefront.net/archives/screenshots/homer-tabbed-browsing-zoomed.png

Maybe you should bring in an expert.

[TexanBob]

I'd stay off the computer as much as possible until you get the a/c fixed. They can overheat. Because it's your anniversary, you can approach the wife with "since we're already hot and sweaty..."

[Moon§hiner]

if it's just a blower motor on your furnace, the cost of the motor should be 80 bucks or less...replace the capacitor at the same time IMO....if you were nearby, with labor it'd cost you under 125 bucks if I did it.

edit...I will add, that I've seen some people pay as high as 300 bucks for the same service depending on where they live

[watermock]

(Moonshiner gets out his pipe wrench)"

"Crack"..."Yessir, looks like your going to need to redo this freon line, yep, this doesn't look like EPA approved refirgerant...your going to need a complete overhaul inclusing the lines, compressor, blower, capacitor and a complete fan overhaul...We have to also charge you an environmental fee for removing your nasty freon...you should be ashamed!"..."Don't worry tho, we should have it up and running after the weekend at a full 75 percent..."

J/K moonshiner. Ha!

[Moon§hiner]

amazingly enough you wouldn't believe how many guys out there that would take that approach mock....I take pride in my work.. I tell my customers I only fix them, that I'm not a salesman, if they want a price for a new system...Now I'm off to bed as I'm sure there are a lot of calls awaiting me tomorrow

[Rascal]

if it's just a blower motor on your furnace, the cost of the motor should be 80 bucks or less...replace the capacitor at the same time IMO....if you were nearby, with labor it'd cost you under 125 bucks if I did it.

edit...I will add, that I've seen some people pay as high as 300 bucks for the same service depending on where they live

Yeah it's the blower motor on the furnace. I checked the capacitor and it was working, but like i said the fan looks to be in bad shape as well. Makes me think that the previous owners either didn't replace the filter or had it installed wrong and the change in weight on the fan messed up the motor.

I called a guy and he said to replace just the motor it would be 425. I laughed at the guy and hung up. I know a new motor even installed by somebody else shouldn't cost more then 250.

I live in OKC BTW.

[DomCasual]

replace the capacitor at the same time IMO....if you were nearby, with labor it'd cost you under 125 bucks if I did it.
Yeah, but have you ever had to replace a flux capacitator? I've done a few of them - last one damn near set my hair on fire.

[DomCasual]

Oh yeah, and don't forget - it's all ball bearings nowadays. Now you prepare that Fetzer valve with some 3-in-1 oil and some gauze pads. And I'm gonna need 'bout ten quarts of anti-freeze, preferably Prestone. No, no make that Quaker State.

[Nuggets4]

I feel your pain Rascal. Third damn straight year my AC has gone out. I knew the unit wasn't the best when I bought this place, but I wasn't expecting this. I'm finally getting it replaced this year (instead of repaired like the last two), but they won't be able to do anything for another two weeks. I figure I've made it two weeks so far, two more won't be too bad.

[watermock]

Get some new filters. I don't know where you are, but we have a motor shop that can replace the bearings or exchange the motor. This is about a 150 job tops. I could do it myself and I'm criminally incompetent. You should change the belt while your at it. Pull the motor and have it exchanged if possible. Probably burnt up from....well...running all the time. Dust will eventually get in the bearings.

It's no big deal to swap out a fan motor, it's like 20 minutes but I am incredibily tedious and need numerous breaks. Still, I would Git R Done. I would probably lose a washer or something.

Problem is the compressor was probably constantly chugging while you were gone.

[Moon§hiner]

Yeah it's the blower motor on the furnace. I checked the capacitor and it was working, but like i said the fan looks to be in bad shape as well. Makes me think that the previous owners either didn't replace the filter or had it installed wrong and the change in weight on the fan messed up the motor.

I called a guy and he said to replace just the motor it would be 425. I laughed at the guy and hung up. I know a new motor even installed by somebody else shouldn't cost more then 250.

I live in OKC BTW.
I was finishing my beer and smoke and had to look in......unless your wheel came off the shaft, it probably just needs a good car wash treatment after being properly disassembled....if you have any mechanical ability and want to try it (remember time is money) take the motor off and see what horsepower it is and go to an hvac shop....they will sell you one for a reasonable cost...get the cap to match....it's not brain surgery but you would be surprised how many people think they can do it and it ends up costing them even more money for me to fix their screwups....now I am indeed off to bed...nite all

[Raider Bill]

I pay the Elec and gas co 11 bucks a month to come out and fix my HVAC when it inevitably breaks (a 2-3 time a year occurance) with this rickety old Carrier. :giggle:

[manchambo]

While we're on the subject of AC, I thought mine had gone out the other day, but it turned out the breaker had tripped for some reason. Is that a sign of a problem with the AC, or just some type of surge? No other breakers were affected

[Raider Bill]

You drew too much current for some reason.

You may need a hard start kit for your compressor if you have a lot of nuisance trips. If it doesnt happen again, I wouldnt worry about it.

[heydensmom]

That happened to me Memorial day weekend....sucked big time.

[Moon§hiner]

While we're on the subject of AC, I thought mine had gone out the other day, but it turned out the breaker had tripped for some reason. Is that a sign of a problem with the AC, or just some type of surge? No other breakers were affected
Could be a number of things causing it....could have been a burp in power from your elec. company...could be a dirty outdoor unit causing the compressor to over amp on a hot day. Having a digital stat from most companys would eliminate the burp in power. Having your a/c serviced would solve the latter....another possibility is a breaker that is getting weak, or sitting in the sun direction on a hot summer day. Visual inspection of your coil and an ammeter can answer a lot of your question.

[Rascal]

I was finishing my beer and smoke and had to look in......unless your wheel came off the shaft, it probably just needs a good car wash treatment after being properly disassembled....if you have any mechanical ability and want to try it (remember time is money) take the motor off and see what horsepower it is and go to an hvac shop....they will sell you one for a reasonable cost...get the cap to match....it's not brain surgery but you would be surprised how many people think they can do it and it ends up costing them even more money for me to fix their screwups....now I am indeed off to bed...nite all

Dang mine had a big problem. The people I called said they would show up around 11, and come noon they still weren't there so I started dinking around myself. I opened the cover on the circuit board to discover that the motor had blown that out as well as the transducer further up the board. I didn't feel comfortable replacing all that so I waited for the guy who showed up around 1. He replaced all that and then checked the A/C unit outside. He took the cover off and I'm suprised the thing had worked at all. The entire cooling coils were covered in cotton seed/dog hair/etc you name it. The effeciency of that thing must have been close to zero. He cleaned that off and then topped off my R-22 as well.

He said my unit was old (12 years old) but barring any major malfunctions should last 3-5 more years which time I will be forced to replace the entire system with the new 401a refrigerant (which I kind of new about..thanks Bill Clinton). He said to replace the entire system (furnace, A/C, etc) with the new 401a would cost about 4-4.5k. I guess I'll start saving up for that.

He said I might have a slight freon leak but I should check the one line with insulation around it every two months and make sure it is cold and sweating. If it isn't then I probably do have a leak.

For those that don't know most of your A/C units will start needing to be replaced by 2010 when they switch from R-22 to 401a, similar to what they did with the cars (R-12 switch). So when I get a new unit I'll make sure it has that.

Thanks Moonshine!!

[Moon§hiner]

Don't be afraid of buying an r-22 unit...yes new systems can't be sold after 2010, but it's going to be around to keep your new 22 system going until it's 20 years old and time to buy another new one. By then, I expect a drop in replacement for r-22 that is eco. friendly. This is all scare tactics and r-22 systems are much cheaper....take my advice for what it's worth...free

Edit...also gotta ask, did he access your indoor coil and make sure it was clean also?....if it had any obstructions in it he would get a false reading in his gauges and adding gas is the quick fix but only overloading your compressor with refrigerant and shortening its life even more..

[Rascal]

Don't be afraid of buying an r-22 unit...yes new systems can't be sold after 2010, but it's going to be around to keep your new 22 system going until it's 20 years old and time to buy another new one. By then, I expect a drop in replacement for r-22 that is eco. friendly. This is all scare tactics and r-22 systems are much cheaper....take my advice for what it's worth...free

Edit...also gotta ask, did he access your indoor coil and make sure it was clean also?....if it had any obstructions in it he would get a false reading in his gauges and adding gas is the quick fix but only overloading your compressor with refrigerant and shortening its life even more..

Which indoor are you talking about?

He took the cover off to access the freon ports but other then that no. Considering he didn't charge me for that, the freon, I wasn't going to complain.

Well hopefully I won't need to replace it for 3-5 years, by then who knows what the prices may be. But right now the R-22 (both system and gas) is cheaper.