What is the worst thing you have found in a unit,!!

[acjourneyman]

We get black widow spiders hanging out in our air cooled units and have found a few chopped up birds but I bet some of you guys have found way worse.

[dorrmann]

Dead lizards (weird for out here in Colorado), dead pigeons, misc. skeletons, 10+" pigeon poop.

[jeffcolledge]

I had to re-wire and re-insulate a boiler once where I found half a dozen dead rats in it. I mean big rats too, like 10" long!

[Senior Tech]

Customer called, heard a horendous noise coming from the furnace, smelled burning odor and then no heat...she says "my husband changed the filter two days ago and everything was fine". Everything except Fluffy the kitty, she moved into her new "condo" two days ago when hubby changed the filter, opened the door on the furnace and then had to give customer the bad news, they needed a blower motor and a pet casket for Fluffy...really sucked having to get Fluffy out...

[ozone drone]

It really smells good when a mouse is cooked on a heat exchanger ...The weirdest though was when a pigeon roosting on the boiler stack on the roof, passed out from the monoxide,fell 3 stories to the basement breaching. I was working in the boiler room, heard this thunk and floppimg around noises in the breaching. I used a broom handle to get it out before it stunk up the bank. Thought it was dead but when I took it outside, it woke up and flew away.

[Islander]

evap coil totally caked with slimy kitchen hood cooking grease including a few inches of sludge at the drain tray.
(return air grill was 1' from hood...no filter ever used).

[Dad]

Dried blood on the indoor fan sheave and new drive belt and a thumbnail.

[comtec]

9 blackbirds caught in the fan wheel of an induced draft fan.

[cynic]

A/C .. Pieces of someone who decided to try and commit suicide,4 floors onto a 6 month old trane rooftop, its not impossible to stop a trane. One place has 4 carrier air cooled condensor coils that pigeons love one unit was missing a fan guard there must have been a couple dozen chopped up flying rats inside. but none of those come even close to an animal shelter that calls about a walk in cooler down on a monday during the summer or someplace like a school that has no alarms and something happens to a walk in freezer in the summer.

[Al 1076]

I pulled the cover off a condensing unit once and was greated by a snake. Had a late service call one night because of a noisey furnace, found a freshly killed headless blackbird in the blower.

[rob10]

Decomposed dead guy on a roof by a Voyager RTU. Never was missed. Police think he was a homeless dude.

[dapper]

I think Rob gets the prize.... LOL My 2 worst things were both racoons. One tried the 'exercise' wheel in a cooling tower, until the blower turned on. What a mess!!!!

Opened an air handler and found the coil plugged with duct insulation. Looked down in the return duct and found a nest with 6 baby racoons at the bottom of the drop. Thank goodness mamma was not hear by.

[yvairguy]

Silky terrier dead in a blower wheel, customer went to the store to get a new filter and left the RA Grill open, they had just figured out the dog was missing because it wasn't barking when I ringed the doorbell. Not fun removing the family pet with three kid crying their heads off and the mother in hysterics like it was one of the kids that was missing.

Big duck in a condenser, wrapped up around the fan, have no idea how it got in there.

[techsonac]

A three foot long cottonmouth made its nest in the leaves in condenser.

[Shophound]

Bar in El Cajon, Ca. Opened up RTU blower section to find nicotine deposits so thick, it was like a gel on every surface. You could take your finger and wipe off a big glob. Reminded me to be glad I never took up smoking. :D

Another job had a RTU where pigeons loved to roost between supply & return plenums and unit. Owner tried to screen them out to no avail. Poop stunk to high heaven, hated working on that unit.

Years ago running installs in Dallas, the unit we were putting in wasn't nasty but the house sure was! Made me wonder how these people could afford central a/c. Dirty dishes literally stacked higher than the cabinets in the kitchen, carpets so dirty and worn, only the backing showed in all the traffic patterns, walls never painted in thirty year history of house, whole place stunk like an outhouse with flies everywhere. Only relief we got was being in the attic!

[roc service]

A 5 foot long snake shed his skin inside compressor compartment of a 40 ton Carrier air cooled chiller. I was replacing the compressor and I kept waiting for the snake to jump out on me. Looked over my shoulder the whole day. I took the skin home to my daughter and she brought in to " Show & Tell" at her school.

[blue_r1]

mcquay modular air handler, on a start up we found an electrical panel cover (not from the unit)and some start up paperwork inside the blower housing. the unit was started at the factory like this when we got it the blower wheel was mangled up and oval

[yvairguy]

get a call that the a/c is making a lot of noise, I pull the blower door and feel into the fan and pull out 2 G string panties, this cute little gal turned an even shade of red :)

[moonman1]

Beheaded birds in old radial condensing blowers, fried mouse on dilution air opening surface (bad backdraft). A rag sitting in the suction screen of a 5H40 which I found in the coarse of a teardown.

[coolwes]

Used to have a lot of problems with old atmospheric cooling towers. Pigeons would fly in, then the pump would come on and the sprays prevented their exit. They would drown then become mellow. If the tower didn't have a strainer the pigeon ended up in the eye of the pump impeller. Fun to clean out!

[mdp]

Tear down of a Trane CVE centrifugal w/ a burned out motor. ALL the oil lines clogged w/ orange RTV, all the o rings coated w/ the same. Add 1 week to completely clean out the machine. Who said you need training to work on centrifugals?

[edward301]

An a/c system at a radio tower building, had complaint
of smell from ductwork. Went to site, found hole torn
through ductboard that went from outside unit, up into
wall of building.

Got ladder, looked down into ductboard, found several
babby racoons, and 1/2 second later one very madd
momma. Luckly I was only 4' up ladder, because
I got off ladder, and ran 50' or so in fraction
of second.

It was fun getting them out, and sealing up duct-
board.

[joegrind]

room too cold call(winter in Canada) resulted in me finding a dildo in the floor register of the master bedroom over the garage

[zerman]

i work for a hvac wholesaler and the number one worse thing i have found in a new unopened evaporator coil box was... human fecices with t-paper. dried thank goodness. best that we could tell it must have came from a dis-GRUNTED factory worker. and that aint no s**t. needless to say my dealer was none to happy. took a few adult beverages to calm him down

[oil boiler man]

Got a call stating that the blower motor on the clients oil furnace was not operating, so I realize that it is seized. So I start to pull the blower wheel only to find the remains of 2 rattlesnakes stuck to it--motor was ok!

[refrtech]

I worked @ a large bakery for a few years. One of the "maintance" guys got a call to a trough slicer. It was jammed, the dumb ass stuck his hand through 3' of dough to unjam the jam. OOPS all of his fingers went with it. We had to run the conveyor belt till his fingers came out on it. I had to take him and his 4 fingers in a bag of ice to the hospital. They were able to sew all but his pinky back on.
Another call was to a national (won't say the name :) ) fast food restaraunt in the ghetto. The drain pan for the w/i cooler was overflowing. I go out back to where the drain came out the box and no water. Looked up the drain line and saw something shoved up there. I stuck a stick up there and pulled out a USED rubber !!! YUCK

[glgto]

pulled unit out of truck to scrap and was greeted by a snake on the condenser fan tail hanging out of the gaurd. roach eggs in blower wheel caked full ladie of the house vacuumed the floor while i was there ( probably 1 st time in years ) and the roaches were running from the vac and out the door as i was walking in i wonder why some techs hate residental work !!!

[pincheal]

We drained and cleaned our cooling tower and when we filled it was getting dark, and had left the door to the tower open. When the tower filled we fired it up and heard lots of noise and then it was quite. We looked inside and saw blood, feathers, corn, guts, etc. all in the tower (Pidgeon) flying rat got into tower, maybe two, chopped to pieces. Had to drain tower and clean out blood and guts, Nasty Job!
Never leave the door open ever again!

[a\c don]

Went to a no cooling call.

I noticed a nice round hole in the top of the condenser where the fan motor should have been.

As I got closer I could see the motor and fan blade laying at an odd angle on top of the compressor with a 3' long snake wrapped around the shaft and blade.

I guess the fan blade was a little out of balance.:)

[rubobornot]

1) snapping turtel in a trane air cooled chiller.
Alive and pissed off
2) three to four month old used diaper in RA duct at a
theater. puffed up as big as racoon.
3) a murder victim wrapped around a five ton condensing
unit, police removed the top as evidence.
4) dead rats in the RA duct of a drug store, got the dry
heaves in my truck from the stink.
5) headworks building at the solid waste plant for the
sewer dept. you know what plopping into a dumpster 24/7

[mdp]

Residential new construction, custom home 1 mil type, no A/C blowers running, clean air filters, no condensing units. Refrigerant lines and electric cut w/ a Sawzall.

[hw chiller man]

Chiller down, no 4160 to starter, called in electrician and we found 2 raccoons melted across the bus bars. That was the hottest piece os #ss that racoon ever had. Also took apart a Carrier 19CB and found a set of sockets sitting on top of the eliminator just inside where the suction elbow connects to the evap. Turns out the mechanic who did the last teardown took sick and the job was completed by another. Of course the sockets were returned nice and clean.

[seaboard]

I was 19 years old and brand new in the trade. My boss sent me to a chain of restaurants we serviced to install a neon sign they had ordered (just a plain "open" sign). He had given them a price of $200.00 per location and instructed me to mount the signs. They didn't come equipped with a plug however. Just the sign and a big transformer with porcelian thumbscrews for the output wires to connect to and I had to run greenfield to power them. Anyway, since he had quoted a price, he told me to simply set the damn transformer on top of the ceiling tile. Got a call one week later from the restaurant complaining about a smell and that the sign wasn't working. The ceiling tile was stained and sagging and the smell got stronger the closer I got. I got a trash bag from the back and carefully was able to slide the entire tile and the 10 lb. dead rat into the bag. The slimy transformer was heavy though and began to rip the bag as I dragged it towards the back of the restaurant. I stepped up my pace and just got through the door out of the customer area before it ripped wide open. I was thrilled it hadn't ripped in the dining room but a black girl came from the back right at that time and screamed "AHH! RAT!" and the gig was up.

[billygoat22]

Unfired bullets on the edge of blower outlet, where the dead crickets are usually found

[dorrmann]

Originally posted by bcw
Unfired bullets on the edge of blower outlet, where the dead crickets are usually found

Oh yeah...I forgot about one. I found live shotgun rounds in the burner compartment of a RTU once.

[tab-tech]

......... replaced with electrical conduit at an Elementary School air handler. (GC snapped a few pics of that one)

An entire living space above the ceiling of a public library.
cable T.V.; radio; string of construction lights; matress; pillow; cooler full of empty beer cans; and all kinds of books and magazines. Someone had set up some fairly sweet living accomodations, I was almost jealous.

[dick johnson]

A dead dog's head with it's balls stuffed in its mouth covered with maggots.

The manager in the store was wondering what the smell was.

[statman]

68 year old woman walking naked out of the bathroom in her hotel room with the drapes open while I was working on a rooftop unit on the patio outside......dear god, I still cant get that vision outta my head.........help me before it starts looking good.....

[maddfridge]

a lump of hibernating hedgehog
compressor housing and duct work was nice and warm until the fan blades started
!!!

[maddfridge]

a lump of hibernating hedgehog
compressor housing and duct work was nice and warm until the fan blades started !!

had the usual rats and mice but luckily its to cold in the united kingdom for black widow spiders yet bring on the global warming

[pilot]

four years ago I got a call for no a\c at a 500,000 dallor house. I could not beleave my eyes they had pizza boxes and gargage piled every where. It was a big house and it was hard to move around in some places. I fixed the a\c but while checking out the supplys and the returns for (blockage such as garbage bags) I found my self in the upstairs bath and thats when I found the ****, I did say **** on the walls with hand prints to boot! YUK! I told my manager to never send me there again.

[Edited by pilot on 07-13-2004 at 08:15 PM]

[andserco]

I pulled a upflow furnace out of a closet a few years ago, I found a stash of adult books and magazines in the return. Some of the mags were current and needless to say the lady of the house was embarassed and that afternoon when her 13 yr old boy got home I heard her tell him that "We have to talk ."

[Senior Tech]

Originally posted by andserco
I pulled a upflow furnace out of a closet a few years ago, I found a stash of adult books and magazines in the return. Some of the mags were current and needless to say the lady of the house was embarassed and that afternoon when her 13 yr old boy got home I heard her tell him that "We have to talk ."
Please tell us the pages weren't sticking together...

[mattm]

Man I've only found the usual smoked squirrel and birds in the flue pipe and mice in the blower wheels. I guess that's good but these stories are great. Keep'm coming.

[coolwhip]

1. Found 300 bucks in 1960s bills on top of duct while changing a furnace.
2. Found a cheap 32 revolver and a big stack of nude polaroids on top of duct.
3.Found an 18k gold womans ring in a big floor return. It was missing the stone.
4. Found a boyscout knife old while destoying an octopus.
5. A bag of some nasty old wacky tobacky.
6. Some small cast iron toy cars from the 1930s- also on top of duct.
7. 1954 10k gold class ring not sure what the stone was.
8. A harmonica stuffed in the vent of a 90% furnace also plastic army men and a robot.

I left out the gross stuff cuz its similiar to the other posts.

[moonman1]

Originally posted by dick johnson
A dead dog's head with it's balls stuffed in its mouth covered with maggots.

The manager in the store was wondering what the smell was.

Ummmm...I think Dick wins the prize.