Air Conditioning - Central AC on the Fritz

Left house yesterday, Central AC humming along like a champ. returned in p.m. house was sweltering. The breaker was popped, flipped it back on and waited, lights dimmed when the fan turned over, but seemed to be running o.k.. Felt vents and nothing but a trickle and air not cool at all. Went outside and felt the air forced out by the fan, and it actually felt cool. Shut everything down , figured something must be frozen over causing a clog or something. Waited untill this morning let whatever it is melt away, but to no avail same problem today.

Any advice or suggestions would be unbelievably appreciated.

Sounds like the compressor is not on. I think Id call a tech here to check it out for sure and see what or where the short is in the unit . Dont run the out side unit you can let the inside fan on in the home . Any frost or ice ? air filter clean?

ED ;)

Thanks, I was thinking air filter havent changed it in a few months. We'll see.

Its not the air filter, changed it and still getting a trickle of air (not cool) from registers around the house. Any other suggestions? thanks.

Is the inside blower running????????? Is there ice on the inside coil????? from what you first said the compressor is not running. I think call a hvac tech out to look at it.


ED ;)

The blower is running, just opened it up saw no ice, seems to be running fine. Just a trickle of air. Could there be a problem in the duct work?

Not the ducts. When running seems to draw surges occasionally, nothing cool coming from registers, but cool air outside blowing out of the fan outside?

need to be clear, when you say everything is running inside, is the air flow strong as always coming out of the vents??

Any odd noise than before?

hey, jay

The unit outside is running fine it seems, nothing out of the ordinary. except the air forced out of the top seems cool. I'm in a condo and the guy next to me's unit is running and I feel the air coming from the top & his is much warmer. No strange noises except for the power surge zzzzzzzzzz occasionally coming from the breaker box. Worked fine yesterday in the a.m. when i returned in the early evening the the breaker was off. Just seems odd.

I am lost. You said a trickle of cold air flow... Do you mean volume of air or temp of air?

I am now thinking you have a bad compressor (grounding out). it'll need to be replaced.. Time to call in a Pro on this.

Air out of vents, is not very cool in house. I think you are right about compressor. i'm making the call tomorrow and will post what the results are. thanks again for the advice.

Tom

well service tech. came today. he boosted compressor to get it out of locked mode, then cut the line that goes under the furnace to the coil to get a pressure read and it was hi between 430-450. stated coil is no good and that the whole system needed to be replaced - condenser which is a goodman (1997), and the furnace which is an older model york (1981). at a sum of $3900.00. The thing is that the furnace worked fine this year, couldnt I just get the condenser and the coil replaced. I was told by someone this would be around 2000.00, And they guy is trying to get us (my wife was the one home at the time) Any advice here would be greaty appreciated. :wall:

he boosted compressor to get it out of locked mode, then cut the line that goes under the furnace to the coil to get a pressure read and it was hi between 430-450. stated coil is no good and that the whole system needed to be replaced - I dont think he knows what he is doing :wall: He could read the pressure right at the compressor
First get another tech in here now. Get 3 bids for this job

For sure you can get a new A coil and outside condenser put on that furnace if thats what you want for now. later on you can get a new furnace to slip under the new AC

ED ;)

Ed thanks for the reply. Have another guy coming in tonight. First guy charged us 140 just for coming out for the diagnosis, will deduct that if we go with him to install new system. Gotta get something done soon its like 86 in here now at 8:30 pm. My dog is hot! mutt cant stop panting.

Is it smart to change furnace too, if its not the problem? I'm in a condo & the guy who's coming tonight said in the long run when you sell the place I can ask extra due to the new system.

With the furnace aproaching 25 years old, my advice would be to replace everthing at the same time if you can afford it. When the coil is removed, they could quite possibly find holes or cracks in the heat exchanger of the furnace. At that point, you have no choice but to replace the furnace.

A new tech guy is coming out today, I felt the previous one did not handle the situation correctly. I will be there this time. What should he be looking at first.

new diagnosis, capacitor was blown, & freon charge. All in all total 640.00. Were up & running hopefully in good shape.

Did he find the leak and made repairs????

Kinda seems high for that price..