Air Conditioning - I want to disconnect and remove the AC heat strip.

I've got a packaged unit. It has a heat strip, which I never use. The blower motor has to push the cold air through the heat strip, which lessens the flow of cold air into my mobile home.

I want to disconnect the heat strip, and remove it so that it doesn't block the flow of the cold air. I've got the schematic of the AC.

Anyone have any tips on how best to do this?

By the way, I live in Florida. During the summer when the heat and the humidity is in the 90's the last thing that I want is a heat strip blocking my cold air flow.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks.

The heat strip themself hardly cut the air flow.. It's just a big wire spriral..

If you are having air flow problems, make sure the filter been changed, blower cage is clean.. Doyou hav e flex under the home?? make sure it's not bent that it cuts down on the air flow. Right amount of returns.

That heater strip is just like blowing air through an old open door spring is all. Like jay said look for something else. Is your blower on high??

ED ;)

Thanks for the replies.

I also thought that the heat strip was not much of an air blocker until I looked at it inside my Heil packaged unit. The heat strip takes up quite a bit of space, with a maze of spiral wires, and probably causes extra stress on the blower motor. I would guess that it is reducing air flow by at least 20%.

I don't know if the speed setting is on medium or high. If it is on medium, I'll leave it on medium.

The filter is new and is changed often. The inside of the AC is very clean. I clean it around twice a year.

The flex under the trailer is fairly new.

Although it must sound like it, I really don't have an air flow problem. I just thought that I could get a little extra air flow by removing the useless heat strip.

It doesn't look like it would be too complex, but I've never worked around ACs before, except to keep mine clean, and properly vented.

Does anyone know of any troubles that I might get into by tackling this project?

At any rate, thanks for the responses! I really appreciate the feedback.

I followed the schematic and removed all wires to and from the stupid heat strip. Then I unscrewed a bunch of strange looking white, circular items, and other screws and finally was able to get the heat strip lose.

However....... the heat strip was too big, and would not come out of the AC without a fight. I had to disassemble the heat strip while inside the AC, and even that was not enough. I finally butchered the heat strip enough and squashed it down enough to be able to remove it from the AC. That heat strip monstrosity had to be blocking at least 35% of the air flow. It had double rows of coils totally in the way of the air flow.

I then switched the blower fan wire from "high" to "medium". Does anyone know what is the difference between high and medium? Does it just control the speed of the blower motor? Did moving the wire from "high" to "medium" really do anything, or is there something else I've got to move also?

Thanks for any advice I can get!

You dont say if this was a heatpump ??? what do you have for heat now?? If it is a heat pump and goes into defrost it will blow cold air now. Most AC the blower is set for high speed.


ED

Yeah. Ed made a VERY good point.. If this a heat pump, You will get cold air when it goes into defrost cycle.

Also, What did you do to keep power from going to where the heat strip was???

The high speed been used on most standard blower to move the cold air.. Cold air is heaver than warm air.

You dont say if this was a heatpump ???

I don't know what a heat pump is. This AC had a heat strip.

what do you have for heat now??

I have portable, oil filled, space heaters. They work ten times better than the heat strip, at half the cost of running. The heat strip used to smell badly. These oil based space heaters work great without the odor.

If it is a heat pump and goes into defrost it will blow cold air now. Most AC the blower is set for high speed.


ED

I am sure that it isn't a heat pump.

I think that I've found the source of my problems. The evaporator capacitor might not have been the culprit afterall.

I recently had my flex duct replaced. I just discovered that there are major and multiple narrowings of both the cold duct and the return duct. There are cross beams, and pvc sewer pipes that get in the way of free movement for the flex ducts.

Now to come up with a way of fixing my flex duct "binding" problems! ARGHHHH! :wall:

Also, What did you do to keep power from going to where the heat strip was???

I removed all of the wires that were leading to the heat strip. I was very careful and really took my time. I am not too good at reading schematics, and do not have much experience with electricity.

Needless to say, after I got through with the awful job of removing that cursed heat strip, I had all of my fingers and toes crossed for good luck when I turned on the AC.

I was very happy when the AC went on, and worked! Miracles do happen!

The high speed been used on most standard blower to move the cold air.. Cold air is heaver than warm air.

Thanks for the responses.

There are portions of the flex duct, both incoming and outgoing, that are narrowed. Until I resolve this flex duct problem, do you think that it matters whether I run the blower motor on high or medium?

Thanks!

For AC keep it on high

ED

For AC keep it on high

ED

OK. I'll go out and change the setting back to high. Thanks!

For you down south, I'd lower the fan speed if you want humidty removal. I've done that in the past with my system.. Now I have variable speed furance, the blower runs at a lower speed than heating.

For you down south, I'd lower the fan speed if you want humidty removal. I've done that in the past with my system..

Too late. Already increased blower speed. I also made a slight (I mean SLIGHT) improvement in the compression of two portions of the flex duct. Since then, the AC has been running very cold and behaving itself all day long.

There are around four major areas of flex duct compression, two on the cold side and two on the return side. I'm going to go under there with my camcorder and record the areas, so I can figure out how to fix the flex duct compression problems. Then I'll hire someone to crawl in that nasty, ugly, dirty, rocky, tight area and fix the problem. (easy said than done).

Humidity stays around 33%. I keep waiting for problems, but so far, so good.

Taking the heat strip out has made a huge difference in air flow. I wish that I had done that years ago. Down here in Florida, oil filled portable heaters make much more sense than an inefficient, badly working heat strip.

Thanks for the feedback. I will keep an eye on the humidity.