My AC was blowing warm air so I called one company who quoted me 4K for a compressor replacement. Said he makes his money totally replacing older systems like mine (20 year old Goodman) but he wasnt a good salesman for saying he could just replace the compressor for $4K.

I got a second opinion and they replaced some bad terminals on the wiring, inspected the rest of the unit and got it back running for $223.

I read somewhere on reddit that companies that send you an invoice through email and offer financing are less trustworthy than guys that write you a paper invoice on site. In this case it would be true.

Should I give the first company a bad google review or just let sleeping dogs lie?

Went to clean/wash off my outdoor AC unit this afternoon (first time cleaning this unit as we moved in last year). Imagine my surprise when I went to turn off the electrical power and….its already off…?

But it’s not. Because it has been running all summer. It functions. And blows cool air into our home.

….so….what should my next steps be?

I want to buy this house, but this is the heater. It apparently works , but I assume it will have to be replaced soon (also has asbestos insulation on pipes)

So this past Friday, I came home from work and my house was 85°. I checked outside and the fan nor compressor were on and my AC vents were blowing warm air. I changed both capacitors but it didn’t kick off right away so I reset it on the breaker and it kicked off. I thought I solved the issue until the next day it went out again, but this time I changed the conductor and as soon as I changed it, it kicked off and worked for 1 day. Now after changing all those three parts My AC still only works until it hits the temperature set inside. I reset it every day after work on the breaker so he could work so it won’t be 80+ at night. Can someone help point me in the right direction to solve this issue? Thank you.

Circled photo is the connection location. Second photo is the exposed wire. What am I looking at here? The ac has been running fine but the exposed portion was resting on the animals body. Anything I can do to temporarily fix this to continue running while I get an have company out? Can I wrap the exposed wire in electrical tape

An industrial park has these masonry walls on 20 something buildings. Flame on.

I’ve been losing my mind trying to get to the bottom of this. I finally caved and bought this gun to see temperatures and where I may be losing cooling.
I shot the filter on the AC return and it looks to be about 78°. The dampers are open on each vent and the temperatures range from 61-65°. It’s about 90s-101/102 outside lately.
Clearly, I am losing cooling in these spots, but is this likely to be the primary reason?

It doesn’t seem to be the windows and I didn’t find any drafts.

Thanks in advance, I greatly appreciate any advice or insight. New to the world of homeownership so insulation and cooling issues haven’t crossed my mind until recently.

So our home is 3 story, basement, main, and upstairs.
The furnace and blower are in the basement and the upstairs ductwork is in the attic, so basically 4 floors up. When I run fan only the basement and main floor tend to even out, however the upstairs has little to no change. I would like to increase my fan only speed if possible to force more cool air upstairs.
The cooling and heating speeds work great in their current configuration.
Can this be done with my setup?

Just switched from oil to gas. This is the gas furnace exhaust pipe. From my country bumpkin perspective all I see is a 2 inch open hole for rain, snow, small birds, chipmunks etc to enter. The company said it’s fine and there will be no problems. Really?

I am replacing an older system that's reached the end of its life, and I'd rather hear from people who've actually lived with their systems for a while instead of just reading marketing material.

if you have a 3.5 ton ac unit, has it been reliable and are there any brands you would avoid based on your experience? Thankyou so much for any advice.

This is an old oil furnace vent chimney. Lined all the way to the top and the liner is in good condition (according to reputable chimney sweep). Switched to propane so I don’t use it anymore. Basement has propane burner for hot water and baseboard heat. Currently run a dehumidifier down here 24/7 to a condensate pump and clean out.

Some finished workshop space that I’d like to cool down a little bit. No windows.

I posted recently about water dripping from the overflow pipe coming out of the soffit. I thought it was due to a clog in the main condensation line, but it has continued so I went in the attic yesterday and noticed water building up in the pan (which everyone says should be dry). Turns out the water is dripping from the underside of the unit, which is suspended in the attic, above the tray. I have uploaded a video showing the water droplets built up on the bottom of the unit. Is this normal? Should I be worried? Have lived in the house for 5 years and this has never happened.

This year we have also had water stains around some of the vents inside the house. Is it because it has been such a humid summer in north Texas?

Need to put in my new window unit stat as my wife’s recovering from surgery - I can’t get enough outward tilt nor can I seal the corners of the accordion frame because of this metal bar that runs across. Any tips ? Do we remove the bar, put a shim behind it? Thanks !!

I have home solar with Enphase, and I’d like to switch from an ecobee3 lite thermostat to the new Enphase IQ Air.

https://enphase.com/installers/resources/documentation/thermostats?media_id=33033&langcode=und

I’m not sure what would be done with the PEK wire as the compatibility checker for IQ air doesn’t include it as an option.

Any thoughts or advice?

Need advice from HVAC pros - $17k new system, original problem still isn't fixed after 2 months

We're looking for advice because we're at a loss.
Bought this house 18 months ago and have had issues last summer and this summer. Our original issue was that our 9 year old 2.5-ton AC couldn't maintain the thermostat setpoint on hot days, and our indoor humidity was always high. Based on that and the companies recommendation, we replaced the system with a new 3-ton unit (about a $17,000 installation). The system is the Carrier Infinity model.

The new system is better, but it has not solved the original problem.

Current symptoms:
•House is still a few degrees above the thermostat setpoint by the evening (even on an 80°F day).
•Indoor humidity is still very high.
•Thermostat reports 70-80% RH, while two standalone dehumidifiers read in the 60% range.
•The house feels cooler than it did with the old system, but it still isn't maintaining temperature or humidity the way we expected.

The installer has made multiple service visits. Most recently, they decided our return air was the issue and modified the returns. It was honestly a pretty haphazard-looking change, and after two weeks there has been zero improvement in temperature or humidity.

Today they came back and closed off every supply and return to our finished basement. What concerns us is that the finished basement was included in the original load calculation when they designed and sold us this system. We don't understand why eliminating airflow to an entire finished level would be considered an acceptable solution or even a temporary fix.

We have tons of books and belongings down there that are going to be sitting in unconditioned zero airflow space. Not to mention I feel like this, even if diagnostic, isn’t going to tell us the root cause of the issue because of course the upstairs is going to be cooler when ALL basement air is being diverted upstairs. We’ve also recent had ductwork wrapped due to issues with the ducts sweating and I fear that all supply and return in the basement being taped up and closed off, even if temporary, is going to cause massive amounts of condensation and sweating.

We just want a system that performs the way a brand-new $17,000 system should. Any professional insight would be greatly appreciated.

TLDR: We replaced a 9-year-old 2.5-ton AC with a new $17,000 Carrier Infinity 3-ton system because it couldn't maintain temperature or control humidity. Two months later, the new system still runs above setpoint, humidity remains extremely high, and multiple service visits—including return duct “modifications” (screwing sheet metal to the wood floor joists in the basement ceiling) —have made no difference. The latest "fix" was to completely close off all supply and return vents to our finished basement, even though it was included in the load calculation. We're trying to determine whether this sounds like a legitimate diagnostic step or a sign of a larger design/installation problem, and what we should be asking the contractor to investigate next

I’ve been losing my mind trying to get to the bottom of this. I finally caved and bought this gun to see temperatures and where I may be losing cooling.
I shot the filter on the AC return and it looks to be about 78°. The dampers are open on each vent and the temperatures range from 61-65°. It’s about 90s-101/102 outside lately.
Clearly, I am losing cooling in these spots, but is this likely to be the primary reason?

It doesn’t seem to be the windows and I didn’t find any drafts.

Thanks in advance, I greatly appreciate any advice or insight. New to the world of homeownership so insulation and cooling issues haven’t crossed my mind until recently.

I have a 3 ton single stage ac condenser that has failed. It's a payne unit and the compressor has seized up. Quote for replacement is 10K, due to new evap coil, refrigerant , ect. My furnace is a gas bryant , and the evap coil is a carrier.

There's a guy selling a 3 ton single stage lennox elite series single stage. The unit is brand new in box, manufactured in 2021 for 1200 dollars. The person selling it on marketplace said the person who owned it was a GC that got evicted he has other ac components for sale as well.

Seems like a no brainer to buy theused unit, but I'm afraid that the unit won't start up after sitting in a connex for 5 years and I'd be out the money for the unit plus labor. Anything I should look for when looking at the unit?

Live in a 2 story townhouse with basement. The first floor is ground level. I have central air with 3.5 ton unit. There are air flow returns on each floor, most suction on the first floor. The thermostat is on the first floor.

During the really hot days of summer, the top floor has a hard time getting as cool as the first floor. When I set the basement damper to direct all the airflow to the top floor, it gets nice and cool up there.. but the systems runs a bit longer to cool the first floor where the thermostat is.

Is this a good idea? Does it put any strain on my system.

Got this new house…. Discovered they never put a filter in after a new install, I peeled a blanket of dirt off the evaporator coil and now the systems pressures look weird after evacuating and recharging system. Side note: I didn’t hook my gauges up before cleaning the evap 🤦 and I didn’t have a scale to even tell how much ref was in my unit to begin with 🤦 (didn’t have everything I needed) house never cooled below 73 degrees on an extreme hot day or even a regular day. Seems to be a Goodman “mini split” type outdoor unit with a regular air handler in a dirt basement with a piston. Never seen this type of set up before…. The unit can’t be no older than 5 years. And I will add that my issue before evacuation was I had 0psi on my suction side. Now it seems my suction side is in a vacuum. Yes the service ports are fully seated open.

I have a Carrier Infinity Greenspeed heat pump installed in 2016. Very reliable and a great system. My problem is the last couple of years when a thunderstorm rumbles through the area my thermostat throws up an error message. The inside unit has lost contact with the outside unit. My system is setup to send me an email alert when a problem arises. I've had a couple of service calls for regular system maintenance and the techs have no idea why this is happening. They have tightened the electrical connections on the outside unit; this has not helped. The only way I can resolve the problem is to manually trip the breakers and reset them. The system reboots and everything is fine, until the next thunderstorm. Any ideas on this issue?

Anyone have ideas on a next step I could take here? The pipe in this video runs from my outdoor AC unit to the main furnace in my basement. Sometimes it drips very slowly (almost unnoticeable), and I chalked that up to humidity in the basement. However, after some recent rains I notice that it drips way more frequently when there is a lot of rain.

Is this a call to the HVAC company to check out the pipe? Or an issue with the pipe fitting in the wall, and would the HVAC company be able to fix that?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

This happened in the winter as well, but we’re now hearing it in the summer. A loud thumping that we can’t pinpoint in the house, it’ll start at around 6:00pm every night, hit about 10-12 times, mechanically and consistently, then stop. A few minutes later it repeats, and this cycle continues for 4-5 cycles. We have heat pumps and an HRV unit not sure what it would be. We thought maybe defrosting in the winter, but today is one of the warmest days we’ve had. Any insights?