the HVAC repair guy just left my house a few minutes ago. my HVAC stopped pumping out cold air all of a sudden last night. the condenser unit outside was not moving at all. I called the HVAC shop this morning and they said it was probably a bad capacitor.(which turned out to be right) They scheduled me for first thing Tuesday morning, but the repair guy showed up half an hour ago anyway.(apparently he lives in the subdivision next to me)

Anyway, I was happy that she showed up and I didn't have to suffer another hot night. Last night the inside of my house went up to 87 degrees.(outdoor was 84 degrees at midnight, humidity 62%)

While she was packing up her tools, she told me that she replaced at least 15 capacitors today. (the other 2 jobs were clogged drain pipe from the AC unit and failed fan) I saw that on her clipboard as well... 3 of the jobs were in my neighborhood... all said "capacitor" under job description.

For my unit, the part was free under warranty, but labor wasn't... so I had to pay $205... which isn't that bad for my area.

I couldn't help but wonder if bad capacitors are built to fail... any chance that the HVAC manufacturers do that in order to help the HVAC repair shops/installer make money?

I live in an apartment and I am wondering if the AC is broken. It was cool the past few days but this has to mean it’s broken now. Not sure what to do and figured I’d ask here.

Unit is about a month old. So very new. Last unit was a Trane as well. Single stage though. I never heard it start up this way. Fan sounds like it seems to be struggling on startup and I think I hear bubbles??? Completely new to this. Thanks in advance!

Update: Thank you all for the reassurance! Spending a pretty penny on a new system would make anyone nervous. Especially when you have researched and researched and researched and pull the trigger and start to hear unfamiliar noise 😆. Love this community. 🙏

Need my Evaporator Coil replaced and I was quoted $470 an hour for labor. I've never heard of labor being so high before. Any thoughts?

I’m in North Georgia. It’s been a hot summer and on the hottest days, my AC cannot keep up. The attic is 140ish degrees and I have been trying to decide what avenue to take to fix the problem over winter so next summer isn’t so bad.

Here is a single picture of the attic. The baffles seem too narrow? I have hardie board soffits and the ridge is vented.

Should I try more baffles (they are only every other rafter bay and sometimes skip more than 1)? Should I also do attic foil? Should I entertain an attic fan?

My mother is not a preventative maintenance type of person, and we built this house for her in 2010. I don’t know what possessed me, or made me think about it, but I thought “Dang, I bet she’s never ever had her AC unit cleaned.” I couldn’t believe air was still able to flow through these coils. I got it cleaned, but my jaw dropped when I saw this.

Does this drain look okay?

Broke a copper line that is likely for refringent on my AC. Looks like I'll need to get a professional in here. Called three places for quotes so far, but two turned out to have the same exact AI phone operator and just don't want to deal with them.

One local place will stop on by later this week, but over the phone explained that my unit uses R22 and are telling me it isn't worth the repair. And I should be installing a brand new unit. R22 looks readily available online, and affordable, but only for purchase by certified techs or businesses that employ them. Was quoted about $300 per pound by the place coming out this week already.

Are these things just not worth the repair or is the upsell heavy already?

Context:
2400 sqft house in Oklahoma
New low E windows, new insulation, new soffits, new doors, solar screens on west facing windows
Humidity around 30% outside, 45-50% inside
85F low 103F high average the last week and next week.
16 year old unit
R410A
3 returns, 14 supplies
New filters
Condenser outside is clean
Coil has been cleaned and sealed well after
System has a leak, about 2-4lb a year.
Just had it topped off 2 weeks ago, was 4lb low after 15 months.

During the day I am seeing an average of 72 at the return and 65 at the supply. At the peak heat of the day it’s around 75-76 at the return and 70 at the supply. By 3-4 AM it’ll be 68 at return and 59 at supply.

I am sorta out of ideas other than the unit is just old and can’t move enough air when it’s so hot outside. Is it just time for a new unit?

Update in the comments, they are dead! Thank you all ✨ My plan is to spray tonight with the thermostat and AC unit outside turned off, and I've been instructed I need to knock out the nest after spraying + hose it off with water after. Should I wait until the next evening to knock the nest out? Logic tells me probably yes, but I'll need to run my AC during the day tomorrow because I have pets. To remove it, using a screwdriver and gloves is my idea, but what if it's knocked inside the unit? I just don't want to mess anything up, advice appreciated and I can call pest control instead if it sounds like I'm too worried or something 😁

We are selling our home. The HVAC died on the day of inspection. We are under contract and need a replacement ASAP. We got a solid bid from a journeyman licensed HVAC guy who did good work for several neighbors and friends. He states he is not able to pull a permit in Maryland as he is not master licensed (not sure if this is true.. I'm thinking I can pull the permit myself and just have it inspected after the fact). He will submit an invoice with the unit info, certification of working condition, and his license number. The contract states only that the unit be new and in working condition.

What are your thoughts?

I bought this house 3 years ago and it passed inspection with no mention of the way this furnace vents. I’m selling and the inspector wasn’t sure, the new buyers are questioning it and want me to consult a licensed hvac tech. I’m just wondering what the code is on the venting of the gas furnace that’s located in the crawlspace. Is there a code on how close to the house this vent can be or near windows? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

I noticed this corrosion in my laundry room ceiling where the furnace/ac unit is. The pictures are taken from above the furnace between the joists. There is a lot of corrosion but no obvious leaks. I do not belive that it is coming from the floor above, that is the middle of the living room, and there is no evidence of water on the ceiling of the basement.

We had a local company come by today to swap out our failing hot water tank and we are concerned that they left the job incomplete and that there may be serious issues with what was done/not done. Any insight and advice would be welcome.

We are in Okotoks, Alberta and had our 50Gal Rheem PDV replaced with a Bradford White RG2PDV50H6N. The existing intake and exhaust pipes to the outside were 2”. The installer replaced the exhaust pipe with 3” as the unit would not fire up when connected to 2” but I am unsure if a permit was pulled or not. I suspect it wasn’t as this was an on the fly decision the installer made, I plan to check with the company tomorrow though. Instead of replacing the intake pipe with 3” he just cut off a couple feet from the 2” previous intake pipe and left the unit to intake from the room. My initial research indicates that this is improper and possibly dangerous, and could void my unit warranty, can anyone confirm?

The installer also did not seal the house back up around the larger area he cut out for the new pipe, the PVC blocking was not replaced either. The outside end terminates in a 90 degree elbow facing down instead of the existing snorkel that was on the 2” before he removed it.

What do I do now? Is the way the unit is installed safe, as we have children and small pets? Was a permit required? How do I seal the house back up? For now we just shoved some aluminum foil in the gaps around the exhaust pipe to prevent pests from entering the house.

I am worried that the way this was handle may void warranty or even house insurance, possibly causing issues when we eventually go to sell the house, or even worse create serious health and safety hazards.

Pictures added for the 2” cut off intake pipe, the exterior hole and 90 degree termination and the remaining 2” snorkel that is on the furnace exhaust that was the configuration on the prior 2” exhaust termination.

Any advice from those with knowledge will be greatly appreciated.

Hello everyone - my apologies for such a basic question, but I want to make sure I’m not losing my mind 🫣. I had a new packaged heat pump installed today which replaced a 20 year old heat pump that was on its last leg. I believe the brand of the new heat pump is MagicPak - I am unsure of the model # and am not currently at that property so cannot get a picture unfortunately. After the install team left late this evening, I noticed something odd during the cooling cycles that I did not pick up on while they were there - I believe the fan came on a few seconds before the cooling, and stopped immediately when the cooling cycle stopped. This is different than my old heat pump, which started the fan and cooling at the same time, and ran the fan for a few seconds after cooling stopped every time.

My question is - this behavior is not normal for a heat pump cooling cycle under any circumstances, right? I’m wondering if they wired it wrong? I plan to call them tomorrow morning to have someone look at it, and have already turned the whole unit off remotely, but would like to start the unit cooling again tomorrow very early in the morning before it gets really hot outside - I just don’t want to damage the unit if it’s not set up correctly. Thanks in advance for any insight!

I have 2 speeding tickets one that expires on November and one that expires in 2028 I think and have a driving with no registration I am from the Bay Area

Hi all,

At about 8pm last night my compressor and fan stopped running. I did some troubleshooting but ultimately called a technician. He came out at 2pm today, and it finally started working at 430..this was due to a new fan motor. At the time the unit started working again, the downstairs was 80 and the upstairs was 86.

Right now, after almost 4 hours of running, the downstairs is 77 and upstairs is 81. Not bad, however my concern is the temperature of the air coming from the vents. Right now I'm only getting 70/71 degrees. This is below the delta of 15.

The technician said it would take all night for the coils to cool down again and the vent temperature to be 15-20 degree delta. Does this sound right? I would assume after 4 hours the coils should be cool? Is this because the house is extremely humid since no air was working for almost 24 hours?

Thanks!

Can’t get my HVAC guy out for 2 weeks. Basically I just want to know if I need to keep this thing breaker powered off or if I can run this thing despite the god awful noise. Noise happens regardless of whether the unit is on.

Looking to measure supply and return T and RH from some ducted VRF indoor units. I don’t just want data loggers though, I want the ability to remote monitor. I was looking into:
UbiBot - WiFi lower cost
Monnit ALTA - seems more commercial/higher quality

Anyone have experience with these or any other recommendations?

I'm looking to install a surge protector on my out door condenser since one wasn't installed when I had the system replaced about 12 yrs ago what type and brand would you recommend. Thanks for the input.

Just had my system replaced because the 10+ yes old system wouldn't hold refrigerant anymore. New system is a 3 ton York. Install seems alright for the most part, and is cooling. However, this filter install seems like an afterthought and extremely sloppy.