AC is out

[MikeB12]

having to shutdown til I get it fixed... the ac guy is coming on Thursday. yesterday was brutal... 82F outside and 80F inside and humid as hell. I slept in a sauna last night. central ac still works a little bit, but barely blows and the the air coming out of the vents is about 65F. but I can't feel the air flow unless I hold my hand 8" from the vent. something's fk'd up, I hope I don't need a new 3 ton unit. this one is only 6 yrs old. hopefully it just needs freon and a new blower motor. crossing my fingers.

I wish I lived in a bigger city where they have same day service for ac guys. we have 3 ac repair companies in my town and only one is worth a crap, and it's a single owner. I've used the other 2 over the yrs and they just came out didn't fix crap and charged me $300. so I'll wait til Thursday and use the one I trust.

[Snow Crash]

Sorry to hear of your troubles
This would be the time to catch up on any overdue maintenance on your farm.
I'll try to use your downtime constructively, not that I am likely to catch you any time soon but I can try to gain some ground

[Movieman]

sounds like the evaporator.
I hear ya, Got 7 machines cranking in the house for this supercomputer event and was 84F in the house yesterday.
Downstairs is 1/2 underground and the thermostat is off the end of the chart(82F)
SR2 rig at 4200 running on air at 69C 100% loaded..
Tough little bastage!

[Pointhore]

sounds like the evaporator.

It does sound like the Evap is frozen. It happens sometimes when the humidity is real high. Try shutting it down for a few hours to defrost. Then restart it and see if it works.

[WhiteFireDragon]

sorry to hear that, fixing AC is not cheap. when ours went out, the guy replaced like 1 part, cost us $600 in part and labor. as an emergency, leave for fridge and freezer open

[mreuter80]

having to shutdown til I get it fixed... the ac guy is coming on Thursday. yesterday was brutal... 82F outside and 80F inside and humid as hell. I slept in a sauna last night. central ac still works a little bit, but barely blows and the the air coming out of the vents is about 65F. but I can't feel the air flow unless I hold my hand 8" from the vent. something's fk'd up, I hope I don't need a new 3 ton unit. this one is only 6 yrs old. hopefully it just needs freon and a new blower motor. crossing my fingers.

I wish I lived in a bigger city where they have same day service for ac guys. we have 3 ac repair companies in my town and only one is worth a crap, and it's a single owner. I've used the other 2 over the yrs and they just came out didn't fix crap and charged me $300. so I'll wait til Thursday and use the one I trust.

ouch ... same problem here. AC guy determined it's the control board. Lucky me I had it replaced last August and it is still under warranty.
No GPU crunching here ... only the CPUs work right now.

What can actually break on those boards. They look pretty sturdy ...
Maybe I should stop OCing these

[MikeB12]

I thought it was frozen too.... I already shut it down for 8 hrs, then restarted. no dice. something's fk'd up... I guess I'll find out on Thursday. sucks, but it's gotta be done. then I'll be back online. maybe even with a new unit, for all I know. that would suck with a 6 yr old 3 ton ac though. keep ur fingers crossed it's just a blower, freon, or evap.

[Mr_Slinky]

Mike if you do need to replace it then you can take that off on your taxes for 2010 energy tax credit but hopefully you wont.

[MikeB12]

we'll see, he's coming at 9am this morning.

[mreuter80]

good luck. The 2nd board also fried yesterday during the installation. It turned out I had a bad connector on the outside unit. Then after fixing it the technician mumbles something about the wiring is screwed up inside the unit. I wonder what the f... changes in the wiring ... magic ... tooth fairy.
The technician was very smart not to bring two boards at a time and could no longer test ... and has to come back another time.
I'm glad it's not summer ...

[MikeB12]

well, that wasn't too bad... he cleaned the coils and recharged the freon... $135 and it seems to be cooling again.

[Mr_Slinky]

good luck. The 2nd board also fried yesterday during the installation. It turned out I had a bad connector on the outside unit. Then after fixing it the technician mumbles something about the wiring is screwed up inside the unit. I wonder what the f... changes in the wiring ... magic ... tooth fairy.
The technician was very smart not to bring two boards at a time and could no longer test ... and has to come back another time.
I'm glad it's not summer ...

I want to see a tech that has 2 boards on hand also how the wiring gets screwed up is if its a retro fit board it will take about an hour or five to install but if its a board exactly the same then yes I would also ask those questions too.

well, that wasn't too bad... he cleaned the coils and recharged the freon... $135 and it seems to be cooling again.

Mike where is the leak if the freon leaked out of the unit?

[mreuter80]

I want to see a tech that has 2 boards on hand also how the wiring gets screwed up is if its a retro fit board it will take about an hour or five to install but if its a board exactly the same then yes I would also ask those questions too.

Well, I will see tomorrow, when the 2nd attempt is scheduled
The board is exactly the same, no after market or retro-fit board.
I was actually quite happy with this company, but this time ... I don't know

[MikeB12]

Mike where is the leak if the freon leaked out of the unit?

I asked the same thing. he said he couldn't find a leak, but since this unit has never been serviced in the 6 yrs I've lived here, it may have leaked out around the fittings over time or something. it seems to be cooling fine now. I guess if it's goes low again next yr, then I'll have to revisit. but then I'll have some ammo since he filled it this yr.

this unit was a new unit (supposedly) when I moved in in 04. the house was newly built, so who knows where the builder got the unit from. it could have been a second hand unit from one of his other jobs for all I know. so it may not be 6 yrs old, it may be older. you know how cheap builders can be when they cut corners. it's definitely not a well known name unit. it's a "Temp Star" and I've never heard of them before. http://www.tempstar.com/ plus it's a 10 seer unit and they dont even make anything less than 13 seer now.

[DAK1640]

I asked the same thing. he said he couldn't find a leak, but since this unit has never been serviced in the 6 yrs I've lived here, it may have leaked out around the fittings over time or something. it seems to be cooling fine now. I guess if it's goes low again next yr, then I'll have to revisit. but then I'll have some ammo since he filled it this yr.

this unit was a new unit (supposedly) when I moved in in 04. the house was newly built, so who knows where the builder got the unit from. it could have been a second hand unit from one of his other jobs for all I know. so it may not be 6 yrs old, it may be older. you know how cheap builders can be when they cut corners. it's definitely not a well known name unit. it's a "Temp Star" and I've never heard of them before. http://www.tempstar.com/ plus it's a 10 seer unit and they dont even make anything less than 13 seer now.

Damut Mike, I don't think it's legal to shutdown production for any reason...

[TNTNightstalker]

I'm new at this site but am an A/C repair man. I've been service tech for 15 years. If there is a leak its most likely in the evap. coil. The only way freon is gone is to leak out. Also do you know how old your system is? If you get the Model# and Serial# off the Condenser( out side unit ) I can look it up for you.That really makes a difference if you can find parts for it and that can cause stress on copper lines and both coils. Age is the number 1 cause of freon leaks. You might ask him to take a look at the Evap Coil with a freon detector or soapy water. Just to let you know it will get worse with time so try to get that freon leak fixed. It may cost you now but the price will continue to get higher as you let it go. Hopefully the repair man can fix it for you!! If you have any questions about his service contact me.

[MikeB12]

I'm new at this site but am an A/C repair man. I've been service tech for 15 years. If there is a leak its most likely in the evap. coil. The only way freon is gone is to leak out. Also do you know how old your system is? If you get the Model# and Serial# off the Condenser( out side unit ) I can look it up for you.That really makes a difference if you can find parts for it and that can cause stress on copper lines and both coils. Age is the number 1 cause of freon leaks. You might ask him to take a look at the Evap Coil with a freon detector or soapy water. Just to let you know it will get worse with time so try to get that freon leak fixed. It may cost you now but the price will continue to get higher as you let it go. Hopefully the repair man can fix it for you!! If you have any questions about his service contact me.

the unit was supposedly new when the house was built in 03-04. but tbh, I think the builder skimped us. the 3000sf house has 2 units. the 3 ton unit looks new and works great. this 2.5 ton unit is the one that has problems. and even the ac tech today said it looks like it has a lot more age on it than the 3 ton unit. plus I don't know who or how, but when we moved in in 04, it already had damage on one side behind the grate. I should have called the builder on that and complained about it in 04, it's too late now. if I have to replace it in the next few yrs, I'm definitely gonna go with a 3 ton like the other side of the house has. and ditch the 10 seer for a better rating.
but I never really noticed this until after we'd been here for 2 yrs. to me it looks like this thing was damaged goods when the builder had it.

[TNTNightstalker]

Looks like it was made in the year of 1995. But I cant be certain about that!!!! I don't think they make that brand anymore. That damage to your coil looks like someone wanted to pay someone back by scoring your fins down. they didn't do that good of job. if you want to pay someone back take a ice pick to the loops in the coil. Also I would have said something to the builder about that before you bought that house. How many square feet is your house? You want 1 ton of air per 400Square feet. Thats for Texas anyway I don't know what they do in South Carolina. I ll try to do more on the serial# when I go to work tomorrow.

[TNTNightstalker]

Hey Mike it was made 19 week of 2003 so the builder did install it new. The damage was probaly put there when they installed it. I still don't know if they make it still or not. Tempstar would not be a system that I would put in my house but if it does the job let it. I gave you some specs on finding out what size you can go with in the future. Keep this in mind if you go with a bigger tonnage Condenser your Evaporator has to go up as well as the furnace in most cases. I hope I helped you out with this.

[MikeB12]

Thanks, SC is about the same as TX. I lived in Houston for 25yrs. and the southern part of SC is just as hot and humid as Houston. The house is 3000sf, and we have a total of 5.5 tons. so it is a little under powered. 1 ton/545sf, plus we have 10ft ceilings

[TNTNightstalker]

They still make the equipment but only in certain parts of the country. They do not offer here in Commerce, Tx. or Dallas, Tx. . The calculations I gave you should work with 10ft ceilings. I did my own house like that and I have 10ft and 12ft ceilings with early 1900 single pane windows. I don't have a problem with cooling except when all of my computers are on. (5 total)