Home A/C problems

Just in time for the hot weather my home AC has started struggling. It is still blowing cool, but it isn’t performing how it used to and can only keep the house around 79, even at night. Inside blower is working, outside fan works, compressor kicks on.

I took apart the outside unit, cleaned some helicopters out, and sprayed the coils from the inside out. The filter is only a few weeks old. I let the fan only run for a while in case something was frozen. I think it might be time to get someone out.

Any recommendations for service? It is a Trane xl14i (r410a) AC and a XL 80 furnace. I’m in Shoreview MN.

Do you have a clean filter?

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Do you have a clean filter?

The filter is a couple weeks old. Looks new.

You have a slow leak and Freon is low.

I should probably also add that this is a 2004 unit – is it worth chasing fixes vs replacing?

bigcrappie wrote:

You have a slow leak and Freon is low.

+1
You can have it recharged and depending on the leak it will be a 1 or 2 year fix.

We tried fixing ours a couple years ago. We had the old style freon. I believe it cost 600 – 700 to charge. It only lasted 2 weeks. We had a new unit installed for about 1600.00. Wish we would have just got a new unit right away. Our old unit would have been new in 2001.

bzzsaw wrote:

We tried fixing ours a couple years ago. We had the old style freon. I believe it cost 600 – 700 to charge. It only lasted 2 weeks. We had a new unit installed for about 1600.00. Wish we would have just got a new unit right away. Our old unit would have been new in 2001.

How did you get a new unit installed for $1600?

tindall wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>bzzsaw wrote:</div>
We tried fixing ours a couple years ago. We had the old style freon. I believe it cost 600 – 700 to charge. It only lasted 2 weeks. We had a new unit installed for about 1600.00. Wish we would have just got a new unit right away. Our old unit would have been new in 2001.

How did you get a new unit installed for $1600?

X2 – If you can share who did the work for that cost. Unless it is a window unit that seems really low.

With the price increases lately, it will be hard to find someone to install one for $1600.

I’m in the same boat as you. Ours started having issues late last summer/Early fall last year. We had a repairman come out and look at it. He originally thought it was going to be a easy cheap fix but after troubleshooting it he said it would cost about as much to repair as a new unit. He said it may last a day, week, or year. First time we used it this year it seemed to work fine ( A little noisy ) since then its been working, but really seems to struggle. I’m sure at some point its going to die. Probably during this or another heat spell. For now I’m just crossing my fingers and hoping it will get thru the hot part of summer and I’ll see about replacing it this fall or early next spring. Its only about 6-7 years old. The repair man said the average age of them these days seems to be in the 6-8 year range. That seems odd on a piece of equipment that does not get used all that much a year here in Minnesota. He said all appliances life span are rather short these days. Like a lot of things these days they seem to building things as throw away units rather than repairable units.

Inspect the A coil inside the furnace. Make sure it isn’t built up with frost or dirt/debris.

Mine just died yesterday it seems. Terrible timing but it is 17 yrs old. I’ve tried flipping the breakers and changing air filters but the AC unit itself will not turn on.

Try a new capacitor lindyrig79

lindyrig79 wrote:

Mine just died yesterday it seems. Terrible timing but it is 17 yrs old. I’ve tried flipping the breakers and changing air filters but the AC unit itself will not turn on.

Did you check the outside fuse? I know my ac unit has a breaker in the panel and a pull-out fuse by the unit.

I feel for the people whose AC is not working. I have had the heat on in my office for the last week set to 80. My wife just laughs at me. I have the AC and Heat on. I wish I could find a good rod epoxy that would cure at a lower temp.

We just got a new AC installed this spring.

Bought the unit last fall for $1500 (same unit cost 10%-15% more now per our HVAC guy) and he installed it for $1000 in May. Total $2500. I thought that was a decent deal.

tindall wrote:

I should probably also add that this is a 2004 unit – is it worth chasing fixes vs replacing?

If you get a good tech that knows his stuff, you usually can do a repair. Untrained tech are so fast to say you need to replace it. My case I was told to replace my 1990 unit in my old house. Had a guy come out to get a 2nd quote and he took his snuffer out and checked all my connections and told me all I needed was to the replace the screw fittings with soldered connections because no matter how tight you tired to get them they still leaked. He recycled the Freon sweated all new connections put back my Freon and it worked great when I moved out 5 years later.

bzzsaw wrote:

We tried fixing ours a couple years ago. We had the old style freon. I believe it cost 600 – 700 to charge. It only lasted 2 weeks. We had a new unit installed for about 1600.00. Wish we would have just got a new unit right away. Our old unit would have been new in 2001.

The bids we got last year were between $2800. and $3400. and if anything inside the furnace needed replacing it went up from there.

One thing my HVAC guy has said is to not use the expensive filters. They make the furnace work way too hard because they are too restrictive. The cheap blue filters are what I have been using and change the monthly.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Mine just died yesterday it seems. Terrible timing but it is 17 yrs old. I’ve tried flipping the breakers and changing air filters but the AC unit itself will not turn on.

Like Nitrodog said, try a new capacitor. 9 times out of 10 it’s that. Typically around $20.

tindall wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>bzzsaw wrote:</div>
We tried fixing ours a couple years ago. We had the old style freon. I believe it cost 600 – 700 to charge. It only lasted 2 weeks. We had a new unit installed for about 1600.00. Wish we would have just got a new unit right away. Our old unit would have been new in 2001.

How did you get a new unit installed for $1600?

My cabin neighbor owns Northern Air Corp (NAC) in the cities. It helps to have good friends. We also have a couple guys in our walleye league that install new air conditioners as side jobs. I remember when I had mine installed, they said I got a great deal. They typically charge more doing them as side jobs.

Price will be tied to brand, installer, efficiency level, unit size (needs to match size of home) … timing can impact price too … as can purchasing both the furnace and AC together vs. one at a time.

Get a few bids. Compare. Decide on what efficency level makes most sense.

Some brands have better warranties than others … Some installers have added warranty programs built into the cost … those are not free through.

If the outside condenser is running check the large copper pipe covered with foam. If it is warm to the touch you are low on freon. If it is cold and sweating the freon charge might be close . You might have a plugged A coil. And your not getting enough air across the A coil. Or too restrictive air filter. My son has a heating and A/C company based out of
Moundsview let me know I can give you his contact info. Right now there’s not enough time in the day.

munchy wrote:

Inspect the A coil inside the furnace. Make sure it isn’t built up with frost or dirt/debris.

Generally when A/c fails, few things happen. Compressor outside is weak and no t pumping as it should. The new crap isn’t as efficient as the old Freon, but leaks do develop. If leaks develop, it’s not uncommon to have corrosion or debris enter the system. The fine tubing in the fins of the exchange outside and the coil inside the furnace to become plugged internally. That is nearly impossible to clean or fix without replacing.

Dust and debris does get past your filter and will accumulate in the coil. If I read that right, your system is from 2004. That’s 17 years of it accumulating and slowly making the system run longer and harder than usual. If your seeing any debris come out the condensation line, it’s a sure bet you have a dirty coul

You may think your condenser is clean but it could be packed full of cottonwood. They make foaming coil cleaner that expands on the coils and help push the stuff out. The A coil inside could be a solid block of ice and not letting any air through, I’ve seen it so bad that they have taken a whole day to thaw out with just the fan running. If you know how to run a meter you can take the cover off the compressor and check power there and checks ohms between the 3 prongs coming off the compressor. That’s how you will tell if the compressor is good or bad. You take the 3 ohms reading across the prongs and 2 of the readings should equal the same as the highest reading. For example you may get a reading of 4,6,10 ohms. You can also test the capacitor to see if it’s bad before you buy parts you don’t need.

My inside coil is a pita to get at because there is other ductwork running in front of it. My initial glance was that I might end up with the unit entirely out of comission if I start pulling it apart – maybe I need to make a better assessment. I may have a lead on a hvac friend who could at least check the puron level and charge it for not $600.

munchy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>lindyrig79 wrote:</div>
Mine just died yesterday it seems. Terrible timing but it is 17 yrs old. I’ve tried flipping the breakers and changing air filters but the AC unit itself will not turn on.

Like Nitrodog said, try a new capacitor. 9 times out of 10 it’s that. Typically around $20.

You guys were right, it was the capacitor. Thanks!

I thought mine was taking a poo yesterday but think it was just having trouble keeping up in my old house. Seemed to run forever to only cool a few degrees. Online said vent temp should be 14-20 degrees cooler then intake temp. House was 74 degrees and temp from vents was 51.6. Should it be colder then that?

Nope, that sounds like a good temp.

JEREMY wrote:

I thought mine was taking a poo yesterday but think it was just having trouble keeping up in my old house. Seemed to run forever to only cool a few degrees. Online said vent temp should be 14-20 degrees cooler then intake temp. House was 74 degrees and temp from vents was 51.6. Should it be colder then that?

blackbay wrote:

One thing my HVAC guy has said is to not use the expensive filters. They make the furnace work way too hard because they are too restrictive. The cheap blue filters are what I have been using and change the monthly.

Use the filter type listed in your O&M manual for your unit.
Cost doesn’t = more restrictive. There’s benefits to more expensive filters, and expensive is relative. What a hardware store charges for a quality filter vs what a commercial HVAC supplier vs. what a stocking rep charges is all different.

posted by a guy standing in a warehouse with 30,000 plus HVAC filters…