Cowboy Blob's Saloon and Shootin Gallery

I'm not a real Cowboy, but I play one in the movies.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

AC Issues

Jose the AC Guy scratched his head on his third visit. I made it through yesterday with no problem (other than some unusual humidity), then today it got clammy again and the temp started rising despite the unit chugging away all day. The unit is putting out cold air, but it's only noticeably coming out the vents on the furnace side of the house. Unfortunately, the attic ends where the vaulted ceiling divides the house and there's no separate attic opening on the ferret side of the house. I'm a bit scared to start carving on my ceiling at this point. We couldn't feel anything blowing from the guest room vent, but when I closed the door to minimize the area to be cooled, I could feel cool air rushing through under the door. I don't know...maybe since I've never spent a whole summer hanging out in the house, I never noticed the AC getting behind the temp curve in the afternoon. Or my AC is dying. Damn, house, don't make me get a job just to fix you!

I am this far away from taking Lenny up into the attic with a fiber-optic camera stuck on his harness and send him through the duct work. I heard they used ferrets to wire ICBM silos....

Update: Oh, great! Now it's blowing room temp air! I'd put a remote thermometer sensor up on the kitchen vent (closest to the furnace) yesterday to ensure there really was cool air being generated. There was...yesterday! I changed the filter on the first of the month but don't see anything coming out of the drop faucet outside. I might have to make my own venture into the attic-space.

It Only Comes Out at Night - No, not the Edgar Winter Group album, my A/C! After turning it off for a few hours, it's now blowing at 77 degs F which might get the house down to a sleepable temp by the time I pass out from too many rums and lemonade.

6 Comments:

  • At 10:55 AM, Blogger Cowboy Blob said…

    Still hot but not super-100s like a month ago. Monsoons are like that, the clouds decrease the sunshine, but the humidity negates any cooling benefit.

    I live right down the road from all the chopped up B-52s.

     
  • At 11:03 AM, Blogger prairie biker said…

    Jay- ha! I watched the same show.

    Blob- I know this is a stupid question but, did you check the filter? Did you guys also check the drains in the drip pan and make sure it's clean between the fins on the cooling riser to make sure it doesn't freeze up?

    I know you hired a professional and all but sometimes, you gotta give those guys a helping hand.

     
  • At 7:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Ok, I have seen similar and it is usually this:

    Low freon in the system (for some reason) causes the internal unit to freeze/ice up at the coil by the fan. No condensation drip to the outside. At some point, you start seeing water (condensation) under the cooling coil / fan tower. At some subsequent point, you begin to see water at inappropriate points on the floor.

    If you shut the unit off for a few hours, the ice blockage melts and, when restarted, the unit will work (poorly) unti it ices over again.

    Low freon can be caused by micro-sized pinholes in the pressure line or even just leaving off the screwdown cap on the outside freon filler valve. Freon molecules are smaller and "slipperyer" than helium as far as escaping from a supposedly sealed system.

    You probably already know this, but you should read 18-degrees-C difference between the temp of cold air coming out of vent nearest inside unit and temp of return air going into fan at base of inside unit.

    First step is temp checks. Second step is a good visual for ice on the inside coil/fan assembly and check out the condensation drain line for proper operation. If you can, put a coffee can under the outside end of the condensation drain line and then run a half-cup of liquid bleach down the line to clean out fungus and spiders. Make sure it gets to the outside. That's why the coffee can.

     
  • At 7:36 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Idiot, idiot.

    18-degrees-F. I say again 18-degrees-farandhot, not centigrade.

    Idiot.

     
  • At 8:10 PM, Blogger Cowboy Blob said…

    Thanks, Homebru...I'll climb into the attic tomorrow...I'm beat.

     
  • At 10:40 PM, Blogger Cowboy Blob said…

    I checked tonight and the drip pan was dry and no moisture was evident outside at the drain spigot. No evidence of icing but I didn't open anything up. Maybe tomorrow.

     

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