Airconditioner Not Cooling

[rsk11584]

Dear Friends,

Myself Ravi from India
we have a Voltas 1.5 Ton AC which is 2.5 years old. Last year we refilled gas in it and since last week the AC is not cooling well, it is cooling in spurts.

So yesterday we called a technician he told that gas needs to be topped up and gave estimate of $/- gas topup + $/- Service Charge

but today when he came and checked the outdoor unit he told that there is no gas at all in the AC and it will cost $ for full gas recharge, he probably must have released all gas when opening the nut, he mentioned that the gas pipe / pipe from indoor to outdoor unit is full of snow / ice when ac is running means there is no gas at all, ,, then inspite of doing full gas recharge that AC was not cooling well then he checked and told that compressor has got cut off and is not running ,and checked and changed the capacitor. Then he charged additional $/- for the capacitor and the AC started cooling but after half hour again the AC was not working only fan seemed to work and compressor was not working.

Now again i have phone and called the technician here people are so amateur that any person without any professional qualification can start any trade. Now i am worried what happened to my AC. :gah::gah:

and when itwill work fine.

Also the technician suggested to install a double booster stabilizer instead of a normal stabilizer. Telling double booster stabilizer will boost even 140 volts to 240 Volts whereas normal stabilizer boosts only 220-230 to 240 VOlts. Can someone suggest what could the probable problem be?

[udarrell]

It appears so called Tech is NOT a Tech, from here, he appears incompetent.

Hopefully you can find someone that knows what they're doing...

[jpsmith1cm]

hoviwon5220

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[rsk11584]

again that technician came yesterday evening and checked the indoor unit and cleaned the clogged drain pipe and then little cooling started then in night cooling was ok, but then in day time due to heat or any other reason the compressor is getting cut off after half hour / 45 mins and takes a lot of time you have to switch it off and after 20-30 mins only on it then it will start. I think i need to take some second opinion of some good pro.

[surenuff]

It does sound like you are in need of a secong opinion. He should be able to see why the compressor is stopping. And as far as the gas, he should be able to locate and fix the leak/s. I hope someone can get you going soon.

[albowrx]

Double booster stabilizer? I wonder what that is...

[surenuff]

Double booster stabilizer? I wonder what that is...

From what I could gather from the OP, she must be in an area with very unstable voltage supply, and the "double booster" is supposed to be some sort of constant power supply or transformer supplying a constant voltage source.

[Mr Bill]

Double booster stabilizer? I wonder what that is...

It keeps the Coagulator from pulling the wires out of the contactor. :grin2:

[udarrell]

It keeps the Coagulator from pulling the wires out of the contactor. :grin2:
:grin2::grin2::grin2::cheers:

[hvacvegas]

RSK:

You should not be leaking any refrigerant.
I'm not familure with any warranty you may have.

In the US, any leaking part would be replaced/fixed, and it would usually be covered by some sort of warranty. The labor may or may not, depending on it's warranty.

It sounds like your tech has no idea what he's doing. Continually adding refrigerant to a 2.5 year old system without repairing the leak is wrong. You will spend much more money in the long run, continuing to add refrigerant than you would repairing the leak.

I would suggest you find a different company to do business with.

[hvac wiz 79]

id check the bilabial fricative

[llskywalker]

Good luck. I would get a second opinon as you shouldn't be leaking any freon.

[AtticAce]

I could stop over for a second opinion, but I don't think you could afford the travel time charge.

[rsk11584]

Thank you all for your queries my issue got solved.

First a Double Booster is a stablizer that boosts from 140 to 240 Volts also, 240 Volts is normal voltage for appliances in india and due to many conditions low voltage , fluctuating voltage is a common problem in india. So many households use a normal stablizer which boosts voltage in range of 10-15 volts only whereas double booster boosts even for voltages as low as 140-150 Volts, hence recommended by electricians for use specially for ACs. There is also one known as triple booster which is expected to do more, but as im not a technician i dont know how exactly these work and do the claims of voltage boost really work or not.


We called a second opinion and he mentioned that gas is leaked and there is no gas and it will cost around 3500 rs to recharge the gas, we mentioned that last week only we recharged the gas, then he told that the earlier technician must have not checked for leaks and must have not secured the nuts / joints properly resulting in leak.

Then we called the earlier technican and told him there is no cooling at all and told him about second opinion also, today he came with another technician to guide him and they both checked the AC outdoor unit, and checked gas pressure, gas was not less but overcharged in excess, because of which there was no cooling and compressor was shutting down within half hour, then the other technician told the first one to release some gas run the AC and put water on compressor to cool it and then how to set the correct psi pressure and not to overcharge it.

So mostly the first technician did some mistake in calculating the gas pressure, or just filled the gas as it is without even following proper procedure or taking into view the atmospheric conditions:

FIrst time when he refilled gas and today also the atmospheric condition was very hot, the outdoor unit faces west and work was done during afternoon in both cases, here nowadays its summer and temperature is around 37-39 degree celsius, so i think there must be some guidelines for HVAC engineers to take into account the climatic conditions while refilling gas in ac or something like that, now the ac is working and cooling but cooling is not immediate it is somewhat slow, i think only an experienced HVAC engineer can set the correct level of gas, for optimum cooling. Was thinking to blast the first technician for filling extra gas as the second opinion person with whom i told this said it could be dangerous if ac is overcharged,

In india you find lots of unskilled amateur techs who call themselves pros and they get lot of orders because here demand is very high than supply so no one bothers to ask a tech whether they are certified or not , neither there is any certification required to become ac mechanic in india.

Hope anyone can clarify as to how to avoid overcharging and the ideal procedure to check and charge gas in AC so that i can advice mech & tech persons here.

Thanks a lot for your guidance let this be a learning that even if gas is overcharged AC wont work .

[Integrity Aire]

look at your unit and do an internet search for the proper pressures based on your brand and model serial number. your tech is likely using some hoses that indicate the working pressures. that wouldbe one way for you to be able to know what he is doing or not doing. ac units being overcharged with gas is very common. dont mess with the electrical as it can be dangerous.

this is a simplification just to help you not get ripped off and have some chance of cooling off.