/r/hvacadvice
A place for homeowners, renters, tenants, business owners or anyone with a general question about their HVAC system.
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/r/HVACadvice exists to offer insight from people who are experienced in the HVAC field. If you are experiencing issues with your Heating, Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Refrigeration system PLEASE call a professional. While the mods do their best to make sure information is accurate, you should ALWAYS take internet advice with a grain of salt.
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Related Subreddits:
/r/HVAC (mother and father to us all)
r/hvacporn (for those sweet, sexy mechanical rooms and installs)
r/askanelectrician (for basic electrical questions)
r/ProHVACR (questions about owning or operating a HVAC company)
r/refrigeration (commercial refrigeration stuff)
r/airbalance (for Test, Adjust and Balance professionals)
r/kitchensuppression (for commercial range hood/restaurant fire suppression)
r/airconditioners (window units, wall shakers and all related equipment)
r/construction (for the lols and the hahas)
There's also the HVAC discord that seems like a pretty chill place to hang out, but it isn't affiliated with Reddit. The mod crew is forever on call here.
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/r/hvacadvice
I’m considering replacing my Bryant Single Stage system with a new Carrier Infinity system. I’m waiting on estimates for various models in the infinity line. Can any professionals in here tell me what kind of prices I should expect? I’m going to be getting a quote for new indoor and outdoor unit (zoned system), 2 infinity thermostats, and the controller. Conditioned space is 2600-2700 square feet.
Does anyone know how to disable the fan running every hour at a LEED property? Apparently it's something they do for the LEED certification. They do it to pump in fresh air every hour but it runs for 10 minutes and now that it's cold outside, its causing the apartment to constantly get colder. I am looking for anyway to disable this feature.
My fan started squeaking recently. Any ideas? (Unit is ~12 years old).
Getting ready to purchase a single zone 1 ton mini split for living room and kitchen area. Any recommendations on an affordable 1 to 1.5 ton unit? Completely DIYable if possible.
TIA
First time homebuyer. Live in North Carolina. Pretty humid from May to November. I went into the crawl space initially to find where some ants had made a home but was surprised by the water. Is this from condensation? Who do I call to mitigate this problem? Can I just shop vac the water out or is that a bad idea because it’s near electrical equipment? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Three weeks I installed the Amazon Thermostat. It worked perfectly for about 10 days, then it became unresponsive. I read other people had issues with these and by unplugging the faceplate from the wall and plugging it back in that it should work. That worked after about 3 times of receiving the “unresponsive” notification. Today it turned off and I tried unplugging it twice and now it just doesn’t light back up. Nothing is loose, nothing changed, except that it just doesn’t work.
Has anyone had good experience with these? Based on reviews I had read it seems units just stop functioning after a few months. Are these just POS? Is there any WiFi units/brands that are known for working well ?
Thank you.
I got a quote from a local hvac guy for a replacement gas furnace for my 3BR condo. He is offering three options:
“Remove existing 90% gas furnace. Purchase and install one new 60,000 BTU 95% gas furnace. Connect system to existing duct work, flue pipe, drains, line sets, air conditioning system and power wiring.
One year installation warranty. Installation warranties not honored until final payment is received. Factory parts warranty after one year. Warranties do not cover misuse, neglect, or natural disaster. Account past 30 days are subjected to 1 1/2 % service charges per month. 10-year parts warranty-20 year heat exchanger warranty
50% deposit required prior to ordering equipment. Paid in full when equipment is installed. This may qualify for South Jersey Gas $650.00 rebate and South Jersey gas loan. Trane model: TS9X1B060U4PSBA $5,280.00 RunTru: RA951X060BU4SAB $4,350.00 Payne: PG95ESAA36060B $4,140.00”
My neighbor is going with a Lennox 96% from another contractor for $6550.
Any recommendations? Thanks in advance!
Has anyone ever received an error that their brand new in the box part (evaporator coil for instance) is tied to another warranty registration already when trying to register for a new install? Makes no sense unless the other customer/dealer somehow mistyped the serial number, or the coil was returned as new/un-installed to a distributor and then resold. Have a case open with Trane already. Just curious to get any input or feedback in case anyone has encountered this issue before.
Brand new install. Can’t get my subcool up. 80 outside. 53 at supply 67 at return. Tstat is reading 72 degrees. Added 38 oz already.
TLDR: Is around 103-120F on the intake side, around 90F on the outlet side of the compressor itself measured with an IR thermometer at different places of the compressor unit reasonable, normal, good for long term reliability?
I have one of these "value priced" ($600ish) Chinese 12V DC mini split air conditioners on my camper van. I want to know what temperatures are normal/healthy for the compressor to be? I just measured around 103-120F on the intake side, around 90F on the outlet side. Seems to be running ok. It's about 90F in the sun on the surface of my white van. This was using the optical IR thermometer on my multimeter, pointing it at various places on the compressor.
Listing of the actual unit, but there's a billion variations on essentially the same type units sold by a billion different sellers on Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, for a range of prices from $300(plus $100+ shipping) to $800ish depending on how much you want to risk, how long you are willing to wait to get it, if you want a reasonable experience if you get a dud on delivery, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C33BKLS5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
In the past I had the "E05" "Compressor over-temperature" error and shut downs. I didn't have good batteries in my multi-meter with IR thermometer on it, so I don't know exactly how hot the compressor was getting, but it seemed HOT and even on the outlet side it was very hot to the touch.
I had the pressures checked and the hot side was 250psi! My fault for using an auto parts store R134A valve with a green/yellow/red zone pressure gauge, not actual PSI readings on it to check/add refrigerant when I thought it might be leaking/low on refrigerant. After removing refrigerant until it was reading 175-180ish PSI on the high side (35PSI on the low side). I believe this is what the rather lousy, poorly translated manual for the unit specifies, 35ish low side, 175ish high side.
At another time in the past I was getting a lot of build up of frozen condensation on the compressor, mostly or entirely on the outlet side, more so or entirely on the top given the outlet pipe is on the top of that side of the compressor. And at that time there was frozen condensation building up on the lower portions of the heat exchanger core in the inside airbox unit. I can't accurately say what the pressures were at that point, it's been a while since then. Should be keeping written notes!
When I got this unit I got gauges and a vacuum pump on loan from an O'reilly's and decided to give it a go of filling myself. Let's just say it was educational I suppose! Mostly it's been working fine, but obviously not perfectly all the time! And I made the mistake of not weighing the actual refrigerant originally put in precisely, but rather by guessing based on the weight of the can of R134A used. I should have used an actual scale and weighed the can before/after, etc! Once I find a shop that I trust to really know what they are doing and charge reasonable rates I want to have the thing entirely evacuated and refilled with a known quantity of refrigerant rather than just check/adjust pressures. And these do not come with a dryer/receiver? Ideally I'd like to find a shop that does custom AC systems and have them cut my hoses to a shorter, more ideal length, and if possible, add an inline dryer receiver.
But in the meantime, and for future reference, I'm curious what people think is "normal" or healthy for the long term reliability of R134A compressors? Granted this may vary by design, type of unit, whether it's under a car hood on the front of an engine, etc. But curious if anyone has thoughts or experiences around this subject? I'd just like to have good ways of judging if the unit is working well/correctly and not just pay random shops that may or may not know that they are doing, may or may not want to just soak me for things that may or may not actually be needed as I travel around North America. And I'll be putting one of these on my 13" camper trailer too, so I'd like to know as much as possible about using, maintaining them.
Title. He was trying to allow condensation to leave but drilled through refrigerant line. He’s asking me to wait a month to say anything so it doesn’t look suspicious and so he doesn’t get in trouble at work. I don’t want to get the guy fired but at the same time I also don’t want to end up getting blamed somehow if a different maintenance guy comes out to replace it and sees a drill hole and thinks I took a drill to it or something stupid.
Whether is cold for the next while and heater is separate so shouldn’t need AC.
What would yall do?
I want to connect my ac to a new Sensi Smart thermostat, and I don't know how to connect it. The actual connection of my thermostat is shown on picture. My ac is a water source heat pump. Help needed, thanks
Replaced the control board.
Bypassed pressure switch.
Jumpered the thermostat.
Inducer motor spins up, spins down and infinitely repeats.
Error code states normal.
Im not sure how to proceed with next steps troubleshooting.
Any suggestions would be appreciated so much.
I had our hometown furnace repairman come look. He did not even try troubleshooting because “it wasn’t his brand” and gave me a quote for a new furnace installation. I really don’t want to purchase a new furnace. I would love to fix this one to save the money.
Specifics: Tempstar forced air gas furnace. Was running for 15-20 minutes at a time and would recycle. Furnace quit working a few weeks ago. Noticed some rust on the control board components so it has been replaced.
I live in Ohio and want to install an exhaust fan in my bathroom. Should I run hard pipe then wrap it with insulation? Or insulated felx, or hard pipe no insulation? 1 story house running it in my attic.
We were told by our Landlord to only replace the filters once per year but I just checked the filter I last changed in January and it looks like the above. This seems significantly darker than the one I took out back in January.
We've been suspecting that there is mold in this house for a while. Would this indicate that or does it look pretty normal for that period of time?
We're in Austin, TX.
Our current heat pump system that is 12 years old needs a new valve to regulate pressure (system doesn't work right now without it) which we were told would be about $1k to replace. At that price and the age of our system the maintenance tech told us it might be worth it to get some quotes on replacements first. Our house, about 2500 sq ft, is unique (at least to me coming from the Midwest now in NC), in that the system is in a closet on the 2nd floor (more on that later) and all of the ducking is run between the floors such that downstairs vents are on the ceiling and upstairs vents are in the floors. Current system is a Lennox system installed by the builder with 2 zones, 1 upstairs and 1 downstairs, and is 2.5 ton single speed. All quotes came back for a 3 ton system, which I'm completely fine with. I will say that I don't have many complaints about our current system, outside of it being a little loud and I do feel like we have to switch over to emergency heat sooner than I've been told we should (anytime it's below 35 degrees and I have to manually switch it over).
Company A: Our current maintenance company who we like and trust provided us with 3 different options, but 2 of them are for single stage and I'm not really considering those if I'm going to replace the system. I will say that the guy who provided us the estimate isn't my favorite (have to nag constantly to get back to me and always over promises on dates), but the maintenance guys and the guys who installed the mini split for my office (above our garage and separate from our house) are great!
Company B: They were recommended to us by a friend in the area. They use Lennox and only offered us 1 option for a single speed, which I wasn't thrilled about, but the guy seemed knowledgeable and was the only one to get back to me when he said he would (plus the only one who showed up right on time for our appointment). The guy also told me that they'd have to install the unit in the attic, as the system really shouldn't be in the closet on the 2nd floor since there isn't proper drainage and it wasn't installed correctly to begin with.
Company C: This company was recommend to us by multiple neighbors and seems to handle most of the business in the area. Was a little annoyed as the guy completely missed the appointment time and didn't call us back until an hour after apologizing that there was a meeting he got called into, so ended up coming over about an hour and half later than scheduled. However, the guy seemed super knowledgeable. Took one look at our current system and immediately gave me the backstory on a prior lawsuit that occurred with the builder, but said unfortunately the system was "technically" installed to code so there's nothing that I could really do at this point. He did tell me that they have an agreement with our town for replacing these units though, and he has to install any new systems in our attic using a variable pump so there isn't really many options that he could provide to me regarding equipment. He also said that they'd include providing an additional supply to our primary bedroom (only room which sometimes has issues with heat/air as it's the furthest away from current system), cut in space for 2 returns, and took measurements saying that they'd need to drop the pull down staircase to access the attic in order to get the new system up. Basically, he was upfront and said this will be all expensive, but it seems like they'd do it right and provide us with the best long term solution... potentially...
My Thoughts: Basically, I think Company C is probably the best for a long term solution and making sure everything is up to code and done right. That's just a big price difference, as if I went with Company A I'm looking at $13,444 since I can afford that cash price, but going with Company C is going be closer to $44k with the current financing offer since I can't currently afford almost $28k in cash right now. Now Company C did provide that with approved credit (not worried here) they could offer a 24 month 0% financing (with fees), so I'm guessing that's more like $30k all in. Still more than double the price of company A, but done right and with better equipment. Company B also offered 36 month financing at 0%, but I keep hearing bad things about Lennox and it's single speed, which seems like a poor investment at this point. All of the companies said if I wait until next year pricing is going to go way up with new DOE code changes, so it's best to get this done this year. This is the only thing keeping me from saying let's just replace the valve for $1k now and go with Company C when I can afford a cash price next spring...
It's my first home and I really don't know anything about heat pumps coming from the midwest, so I'd love to hear some other opinions about these quotes if anyone would be kind enough to share.
I noticed water leaking out of my furnace today and when I opened it up, I saw that there's a water leak in the upper compartment that's dripping down to the lower compartment, coming dangerously close to the control board (see the areas circled in red). It's a gas Goodman furnace and it appears that the water is leaking from a manifold just under where the gas jets are (apologies, I don't know the proper terms for the parts).
I figure this requires professional repair and I plan on setting up a service appointment for early this week. I'd appreciate some insight into what could be wrong though, if only to understand if the tech is trying to take me for a ride. Any ideas?
In case it matters, earlier this year I swapped out filter types, from MERV 8 to MERV 13. The filter size is 20" x 25" x 5". Could the additional stress put on the system from the more restrictive filter be a contributing factor here?