AC suddenly quit. No heat transfer on copper lines...

[Tony Denali]

Hey all!

Ok, heres the scoop. Its 120 deg down here in Phoenix and my central air suddenly went belly up. I'm guessing a few weeks until I can get someone out here and its currently 95 Deg in the house.

I noticed yesterday afternoon that it seemed a bit warmer than usual in the house and went to look at the thermostat and noticed that the ambient temp was 84 deg. and my T-stat was set on 78. Air hander running. I went outside to check the compressor and the fan was running as well, albeit no heat being blown out from the unit. I did not check the copper lines at this time. However, I did shut everything down over night and tried to start the unit up today. I let it run for 5 min.'s and checked the copper lines. No heat difference in either. They felt about 120 deg. (outside ambient temp).

I did have some leaves around the outside unit which I abruptly cleaned. I took my blower and blew out any dust on the coils. I went to the air handler in the attic to clean the evaporator coils. Upon pulling the side cover off, I noticed that they were pretty much unaccessible.

The filter was cleaned about 1 month ago. Its one of those washable blue filters. I'm going to replace it with one of the electrostatic units because this doesnt seem to fit very well. Ive noticed that it gets sucked up whenever the unit kicks on.

I'm at a loss. I'm guessing that I either have a Freon leak, or an expansion valve or something similar is not opening up letting the freon flow...causing no differential in temp. :confused:

Any suggestions from the pros?

Tony **The wife and I getting ready to melt from extreme Phoenix heat**

But its a dry heat.......WHATEVER....lol

[Grady]

First, don't use an electrostatic filter because most of them are very restrictive of air flow.
As far as getting your unit's compressor going again, turn off the power to the outdoor unit, remove the access panel & look for any burnt or broken wires. Check the capacitors for any signs of swelling or oil leakage. Capacitors are inexpensive & easy to replace so you might want to replace them in hopes your problem lies there. Dry or not 95º in the house is hot.

[hiltontech]

Sounds as if your low on freon, have some one check it for you, if it is indeed low tell the tech to repair the leak and then recharge, also make sure both inside and outside units are clean,
my gues and it's only a guess your low on freon.

[Tony Denali]

Thanks for the replys guys :)

I just received a call from the service tech and he said he'll be out tomorrow.

I had to go to Home Depot and install 2 window units to make the house livable in the interim.

I'll let you know what the tech says tomorrow.