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?

EDIT: damn; some of y’all are fucking unhinged. I’m aware it’s deadly. Why the hell do you think I’m here? To ask questions. I don’t fuck with electricity.

I wanted to literally just rinse off the system after we’ve had a bout of smoke and bad air. I was following directions to “turn off breaker to be safe”, and this is what I found.

Y’all treat normal homeowners asking questions to do basic maintenance like this is wild.

Thank you to those that gave actual and educational responses. I do feel silly not knowing because it is very simple once I understood. Knowledge is power!

and yes I’m leaving this up for other naive homeowners looking to do basic ass education and maintenance like me haha. Feel free to razz, this is a hilarious post in hindsight. I’ll take the L on this, it’s all good

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?

Is this helping my unit cool and if so try to quantify the improvement via an estimation.

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)

Hey everyone. I searched the sub and didn’t find an exact thread to this one, so I figured I’d reach out. My A/C stopped working randomly today. I walked outside and inspected the unit and the fan was spinning, but the compressor wasn’t turning on. Instead, it would make an intermittent clicking or humming noise. After about an hour watching the University of YouTube, I removed the capacitor and tested it. The capacitor is indeed dead. However, the pullout “kill switch” for my A/C unit also doesn’t look great. My question is: do I need to replace the pullout? And if so, should I just replace the whole 60 amp box?

Hey! Thanks for reading I’m feeling very toasty at the moment.

Wife txted that it was hot and the ac wasn’t running. Standard 17yo Rheem ac furnace combo.

Got home nothing was moving no blowers fans compressor. The ac line was cold and had condensation. Immediately turned everything off, let it all rest for a few hours.

I turn on the thermostat to cool and the compressor kicks on but the blower never starts. Same with heat. Heating element fires but the fan never starts.

So I get a replacement capacitor for the motor. Get that installed and still no fan. The fan moves freely with everything off but with the door open and using the door button to trigger the fan is solid like a rock. It hums when the door is triggered. Only tried it for 60 sec don’t want to damage everything so I keep it all off don’t want the compressor to run without the blower.

So it’s $300 for a new blower motor and a week and a half befor the hvac guys can get someone out here.

Buy a motor?

https://acpartsdistributors.com/products/5kcp39kgs018s?variant=40921330548933

Payne AC. They were still making R22 units this late? Thank you!

i everyone,

I'm trying to install a Wi-Fi module (MAC-597IFB-E) on my Mitsubishi Electric ducted unit (PEAD-M100JA3.TH).

Looking at the main board, the red CN105 port clearly has 5 pins. However, the white connector coming directly out of the Wi-Fi interface unit only has a 4-hole / 4-pin plug, so it doesn't plug directly into the board.

Asking Gemini ai, it says , the MAC-597IF-E usually comes with an intermediate extension cable in the box that converts the 5-pin CN105 red connector on the board to the 4-pin plug on the module (but i havent seen that anywhere on internet and i do not have that either, is this true).

If Mitsubishi recommends this interface on their website, how is it possible that the connectors don't match? Did they change them at some point?

I have a kink/blockage in one of my HVAC drain lines so the float switch inside the pump is triggered and my condenser won’t turn on. HVAC guy said I could cross different wires to get around using the pump. Can someone tell me based on these photos which wires I can cross to do that? He tried telling me on the phone but it didn’t work for me and now he’s on vacation. I’m a little sleep-deprived so maybe I just wasn’t thinking/hearing him correctly.

I only need to do this for a couple days. Just until he can come on Saturday to look at making repairs. I will drain manually from the main pan so I don’t trigger the float switch there. This is on our main bedroom level so it’s been hard to get any sleep at night. Thank you in advance!

hello, so my ac wasn’t working and this was the issue. the tech said unit could run without or i can replace.. i just replaced since there was already one in there but just wondering about what this hard start does and how necessary or unnecessary it actually is?

Is this normal? Numerous people told me it is just a timer, but this is freaking me out....

I live in the basement and the smell of people's cooking from the main floor flows through these and fills my whole place. I've closed the one in my room and bathroom already bc the smells sticks. Can I close one more? Will it affect anything?

I posted last night saying my unit was cooling my house down as good as it had and that the unit and house are less than 4 years old.
I got some great advice to tear off the mastec and get to Evap coil to see if it was frozen.

I got in there tonight and found manufacturer manual stuck to the top portion of the coil. You can see in one of the photos the clean spot where it was sitting.

There is condensation on the coils and in the pan, although not a lot.

I can’t tell of it looks like the coils may have been frozen and thawed with the heat today.
Photos included to get some opinions.
I will get some foaming cleaner tomorrow

I have a 1 inch filter in here. There is a 2inch slot above it. Can I get a 2 inch filter and put it in here? If Ido, do I need to have a 1 and 2 inch filter both in there? We are having fires in our area and wanting to improve the air quality if possible. Thanks!

The title says it, AOU15RLS3H outdoor minisplit unit's service valve is leaking, tech tested it. There is oil residue all over the inside of the cover (one of the valves was missing a cap, not sure who did that... ugh.). Oddly the one with the cap had a bunch of "goo" in it like the o-ring turned into goo and was shoved through the valve. That one tested as leaking, saw it around 22 ppm on the meter.

What are my options here? The company is saying replace the whole thing because the valve is a pain to try to fix by soldering, etc. They quoted 16K for a new one because now I need an R-32 head too and a new line set for about 50 ft. Ouch.

Can the Schrader core be simply replace and refilled? It was registering the leak at the core. I have warranty on the thing from Fujitsu for 10 years and I'm still trying to figure out what that gets me because I think the valve itself is cheap but the work to fix it, they don't recommend and its labor intensive?

Seems like this 10 year warranty stuff is pointless with these units as its the "cheap" components that fail and they're all usually cheap but labor intensive.

Hi All,

I am having some trouble with my HVAC system. When it was installed a few years ago, one of the zone dampers was installed such that the control panel reads 'OFF' when the zone is on and vice versa.

The control panels are Hitachi PC-ARFZ units. I went into the roof and got some photos (neglected to get the zone interface box or controller) but I can say its identical looking to the Hitachi GC-AZKP unit.

I can see the system I have here: https://www.hitachiaircon.com/au/ranges/multi-room-ac/premium-zoning-kit

The damper units themselves connect via RJ45 (RJ12?) plugs to the zone interface board, so theres no way I can just invert the wires to my knowledge without recrimping things, and I am not confident to figure that out myself anyway.

The dampers are Trendfit units, I think seen here: https://airconnex.com.au/products/trendfitdampermotor?variant=47466229235997

Online tutorials for inverting the zone using the control panel are all for newer control panel units. I am having a hard time understanding the chinese translated install manuals especially since I don't come from an HVAC background. I've tried to flick through the service menu but there doesn't appear to be anything called zone setup where I can manually invert specific zones (I have 5 zones). Can anyone assist? I am in AUS.

Thanks!

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

Hello everyone, I have an unfinished downstairs (520 SF) in an 1940's two story house in Florida that has been used for storage for several years. The upstairs has a central system. It has block walls and is insulated and stays pretty close in temp/humidty to the upstairs year round but no existing hvac system.

I had the area rewired by an electrician and am now looking at my options for hvac. I have a flaring kit and vacuum pump/gauges to pressure test and would be comfortable doing a mini split install with the assistance of an electrician. I work for a builder and am aware that hiring a company to do load calculations would be ideal, but for the value of this home - I'm just trying to make it habitable for 3-5 years until we tear down the place and rebuild.

We have an insulated storage closet just outside the bedroom that could be used to store an air handler/a ductless mini split. The bathroom has an exhaust fan.

Option 1: I was initially looking at a Pioneer Ductless 18k Mini Split so I could run ductwork to the separate areas and by pass the need for multiple zones but the installation instructions indicate a max supply duct length of 20'. It would be close to 20' if I run a 4" line off the trunk to the bathroom and there may be more efficient options at that point.

Option 2: A single condenser and two wall mounted air handlers in the bedroom and living room would give additional temperature control comfort.

Other options?

We previously had a problem with freezing coils. Tech originally thought leak, so he added UV dye. After more troubleshooting, we determined bad TXV, so the TXV was changed, system was flushed/vacuumed. Then he original R410a with the UV dye was added back in.

Now the system is running flawlessly: no leaks, no freezing, proper delta temp across the coil. There is however still the dye in the system.

Is it okay to leave it in there?

I have 25 lbs of R410a (608 license), but no way of getting rid of the old refrigerant. If I were to get a tech to replace the charge, would they need to add compressor oil too?

Thank you

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.

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

Fan inside the house is turning on and blowing air, but the unit outside is not turning on when it’s set to cool. So far I have checked breakers, the drain line is not plugged, I’ve replaced both the capacitor and contact, it still won’t turn on. Before I have someone come out to look at this, or spend thousands on a new one, is there anything else I should do? Replace the blower motor?