I bought a long, thin brush and made my plans -- and then never had time. So last week, I called the HVAC company I have used for twenty years -- Butler M-K* -- and they sent a tech out the next day.
Verdict: A pound low on working fluid -- and, he pointed out, when I did my test runs and it froze up again, the outside temperature had already dropped to the mid-upper 60s, which didn't help any.
$100 and he recharged the system and checked it out from top to bottom. I was happy to pay it.
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* Called them from my car. Called Directory Assistance (I am not lookin' up and punching in numbers while driving!) and they'd never heard of them -- "But we do list a 'Bulter M-K.' Maybe it's misspelled." When I expressed surprise at The Phone Company having a name misspelled, she said she wasn't. O Tempora! O Orthographia!
Shoot. I could have done that for you...not legally as I don't have an EPA cert or a county license anymore...but I've still got R-22 and all the tools :-)
ReplyDeleteAC, once ya have, ya can't live without it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nathan!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was going to be a lot bigger job than it turned out to be. I had about convinced myself the A-coil was plugged up, maybe a goner. With that original install job (not by Butler), it was going to be nasty to replace. I've been through that once already at my old place and I knew the techs considered it routine to retrofit a shoddy install with proper sheet metal work and an access hatch big enough to get at the coil.
Tango Juliet: so true! Also, I'm short of fans. Never had it growing up; my memories of summer nights are of hot, roaring darkness: a box fan in every doorway. My first apartment was a nightmare in the summer but the first house I owned had The Answer: the washroom was in a second-story, shed-roofed dormer. I'd open the (big) window, and walk up the main roof to the nearly flat shed roof with a cot and alarm clock and sleep under the stars. Amazingly cool, even in August.
When I expressed surprise at The Phone Company having a name misspelled, she said she wasn't.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as someone whose job is to make sure things aren't misspelled in the phone book, I'm not either. Listings are entered by key-punching data monkeys, not by real people. (No offense meant to the data monkeys. You know what I'm getting at.)
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ReplyDeleteIt coulda been worse. It was here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.climatecentral.org/news/texas-sets-record-for-hottest-ever-us-summer/
The highest I saw on my thermometer this summer was 114.6. I'm ready for winter.
Good to have it back. And nice not as bad a job as expected.
ReplyDelete---
Directory assistance? I'm not even sure I would know which company to call, or how much it would cost (not free any more).
If I knew how to enter text (showing my age?) I might try 411GOOGle - but more likely wait until I was at a computer and write/print search result.
Funny how a/c systems get colder when they lose refrigerant.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend question this logic. He said, "then why isn't it at absolute zero when there's absolutely no R-22?"
You don't have to believe in homeopathic medicine to fix a/c, when there's no refrigerant, there's no working fluid to conduct the heat.
I'm glad to hear that your insides were getting all icy, as adding a pound of freon to an otherwise working system is akin to "filling up your blinker fluid reservoir" or changing your "muffler belt".
Nathan, you can get your EPA cert online. It's like $40 and taking an online, open book test. As for your local county maggots though, I'm afraid that you are on your own.
-SM
Yeah I know about the cert and how to get it.
ReplyDeleteDad and I did the work for thirty years. The point is that I don't want do it anymore -- especially if the EPA is involved. :)
FWIW I passed the county's HVAC licensing test when I was 20, but never got the license because I couldn't afford the bond and insurance. Dad was licensed so that was really all we needed.