Would you approve of this?

[cuervo]

I found this yesterday during a tune up at a retirement village. The is a condo building all the condensors are in an underground parking garage. Outside was 75* in garage 89*. R-22 pressures 64/242# superheat 34* subcool 30*. wetbulb 61* and 22* temp drop across coil.TXV unit and a/c only. Lineset was unknown length. Customer had no complaints other than she knows the unit runs a lot. But keeps up most of the time. Garage did have larger exhaust fans. All the condensors had build up on coils. of course no water lines nearby besides fire sprinklers.

What would you guys recommend?
Only other thing I could think of was a head pressure control to activate the fire sprinklers. But I only told her to continue lawsuit against builders.

[coolwhip]

Why not?...those are gibson units.

[Gib's Son]

Hey..leave me outa this.

[dandyme]

you need to clean those coils first.


see stuff like that and worse on the coast

[AC5096]

The big thing around here is folks want to build a lean-to roof over their condensing units. I don't know who talks them into it. Run into a lot of them. Damned roof 3" above the cond. unit, and they wonder why it doesn't work on a hot day.

Also we have a local Ruud dealer who likes to install them under decks. Wish I would have took some pics of the last one I worked on.

[edward301]

After cleaning coils, you may want to think of installing a higher rpm motor
to increase the airflow across coil.

I have done this on several occasions where cu's were installed in garages,
lived in high heat surroundings.

It has worked well for me on the ones I have increased the rpm. Only
increase the rpm one step though.

[DeltaT]

That's kind of stardard for the industry around here cept most of them are now mounted near the ceiling and over a parking space.

I had one home where the condensor location caused the air to be over 115 degrees when it was about 60 OA.

[CraziFuzzy]

Well, the hot air 'could' be ducted outside... bit of work to do through, and there SHOULD be backdraft dampers on each one... but it is a possible solution...

[cehs]

Water source condensers.
Just a thought....
,

[tunnel_rat]

I would think they could've found a better place to set them. If they looked.......

[walterc]

"R-22 pressures 64/242# superheat 34* subcool 30*".

Did you have those readings on all of the systems?

[cuervo]

"R-22 pressures 64/242# superheat 34* subcool 30*".

Did you have those readings on all of the systems?

No, just on the 1 unit I was working on.

[walterc]

No, just on the 1 unit I was working on.

89* isn't that hot. High SC and High SH..
You might check the other systems and compare.
It acts like a restriction or bad TXV or even a heavy indoor coil load.

[cuervo]

89* isn't that hot. High SC and High SH..
You might check the other systems and compare.
It acts like a restriction or bad TXV or even a heavy indoor coil load.

We declined to work on units in this building. Too much potential liability.

[Christopher_K]

Did you notice that the new building has the condensers outside?

[John Markl]

We declined to work on units in this building. Too much potential liability.

You're joking, right? Liability or incompetence?

I'm with Walter....find the real problem, instead of looking for excuses....

[XcelTech]

I am gonna have to side with John on this. Not to be rude but 89°F is nothing for a properly working condenser. If that was my AC not working at 89°, it wouldn't work 8 months of the year.

High superheat, High Subcooling, High discharge pressure, low suction pressure, yeah sounds like a small restriction or a TXV issues to me.

[cavalieri85]

Lol!!!!!!! In my neck of the woods average temp on a roof is 120 degrees . I attended a class from tranr and they said the systems put out these days are not even designed or tested to run in the enviroment down here. That is south west Fl. I agree with the last two posts at 89 degrees that's a walk in the park. Also those are not high efficency units they are gonna run higher head psig. But the condenser needs to be cleaned first chemically. Get out a electric pump sprayer and clean them. Then check the charge if result is still low sucton high superheat and high subcool just replace the valve at that point . Those confitions are no problem. In fact the units should have a charging chart that shows those conditions. My bet is dirty condenser and low on gas. At least you should go through these steps and not just run away.

[John Markl]

Lol!!!!!!! In my neck of the woods average temp on a roof is 120 degrees . I attended a class from tranr and they said the systems put out these days are not even designed or tested to run in the enviroment down here. That is south west Fl. I agree with the last two posts at 89 degrees that's a walk in the park. Also those are not high efficency units they are gonna run higher head psig. But the condenser needs to be cleaned first chemically. Get out a electric pump sprayer and clean them. Then check the charge if result is still low sucton high superheat and high subcool just replace the valve at that point . Those confitions are no problem. In fact the units should have a charging chart that shows those conditions. My bet is dirty condenser and low on gas. At least you should go through these steps and not just run away.

Easier to scream "hack" and run away.....Too many guys think that everything should be installed to lab specifications....and then they get out into the real world.....and discover that we have our own TV channel..."Reality HVAC"......

[qssfl]

Would you approve of this?

To answer your question...

No... However 89 degrees is nothing.... I would hire a contractor that can properly diagnose and fix the problem....

Then once the system is fixed... if you want to consider locating the equipment outside of the garage... fine...