Please don't yell at me.... just advice.....

[therlinger]

this is the underside of my evap coil. The unit is four years old and has never had maintenance. I have been posting for the last couple of days. I am going to call someone out tomorrow but I'm not sure what I am asking for. A service call? Preventative Maintenance service (cleaning system)? We just bought the place from my father in law. A/C seems to cool the house for the most part but power bill is high. I had a tech come out the other day but said he wouldn't touch the system to service it, only replace it entirely. It's only four years old, 3 ton unit 1300 sf house. I don't want to replace the whole unit. I guess I'm supposed to have like a plywood type box/stand for the airhandler and what I have is the air handler on a metal stand with a rigid insulation box around it. Tech said it was a poor job and wouldn't touch it. Do you think someone would service it or am I doomed to have to replace it? I don't see the point of replacing the whole system if it ain't broke and can be fixed. I know the coil looks really, really bad. Should it be replaced or could it just be cleaned. Is it horrible or have you seen worse? Also, I think the reason it looks like this is because the back side of the "rigid insulation box" that the air handler sits on was open to the laundry room air. That would definitely cut down on it's efficiency, right? I mean if it's sucking half it's intake from a non insulated room and the rest from the house it would have to work twice as hard, wouldn't it? Please give me some opinions on this. My husband tried to close in the back side of the box as best he could, it's right up against the wall. So, I did notice a little difference today with it being a little cooler, but he looked up in the unit at the coil and had a fit.

[low pressure guy]

If you can take this pic than you can vaccum coil and spray self cleaning evap cleaner on it

[mdman]

"I had a tech come out the other day but said he wouldn't touch the system to service it, only replace it entirely."





This is what I call a "clip board tech". He owns $20 in HVAC tools to my $50,000. His education is from the Budweiser School of Marketeering and Rip Off, I left engineering grad school to a run a legitimate consumer business.

Call this guy up or the outfit he works for a chew there a ss then do not give them a 2nd chance no matter what BS they come back with, dump um. Buy a window unit to hold you over if you need to, everybody should have one on standby to aviod making big bid HVAC decisions in the heat where you make bad calls.

Call as many outfits you can, preferably not from the yellow pages but from references. Ask each one "how do you check for low air flow and be specific please". Report your finding back to here, I'll give my advice on which to hire. Also, do not shop on price as your are buying answers and the last guys sucked.

[NormChris]

You will have to excuse mdman as he is kinda shy.

But he is correct.

[mdman]

low pressure guy has a point if your ambitious, just be very careful not to stroke the face of that coil across the fins an fold them down.

low pressure guy, do you own Dywer Instruments?

[mdman]

Is that Psychrometric Norm?

[therlinger]

Husband tried to vacuum it and all of this stuff is stuck to it and won't even scrape off without taking part of the fins on the coil. It is literally caked on and he says that there is corrosion under all the crap. A/C is actually working pretty good tho.

I was not impressed with the guy that came out at all. I felt like he was trying to take advantage of the situation to make a sale. He called me back to give me quotes on a new system. I told him I'd get back to him but have no intention of doing so. I really don't feel like a need a new unit. Just some service on this one. But the guy who came out told me that I would be hard pressed to find ANYONE who would actually service me system instead of replace it, and if I did find someone willing, I probably wouldn't want them to do the work. I don't like it when I get treated like "a girl". I'm relatively intelligent and know full well when I'm being screwed. So, I just ignore them and move on. I'm hoping tomorrow to find someone who will actually be willing to service the unit as the company that installed is no longer in business (not the best sign, I know.) Would it just be better to have a new coil installed and get some preventative maintenance done? I just want to do the right thing by my system. I'm willing to pay what I need to so that it will operate correctly. I just don't think I need a whole new system.

[thomefan2579]

you could get a new coil what brand is the equipment all they would need to do i smatch them up i would get a new coil have a tune up done also have them check the blower wheel it is also more then likely caked with debrise as well the wheel can be cleaned as well is this a gas furnace of a air handler. if it is a furance please have them check the heat exchangers a clogged coil like that can cause over heating and potential crackin gof the heat exchanger which coul dbe very bad

[mdman]

Originally posted by NormChris


You will have to excuse mdman as he is kinda shy.

But he is correct.

Thanks Norm.
I Read your book (one of them).
See you in October

[therlinger]

the equipment is Hiel. Yes, it also handles my heating (heat strips). I appreciate the info and I will ask for a good cleaning and to have the things checked that you mentioned. I don't think I would feel comfortable with trying to do this ourselves. I'd much rather a professional come out and check it all out and get it all in proper working order. Then, I will be sure to have regular maintenance done on it.

[therlinger]

Also, since no one seems to be flipping out about the picture, I am assuming this is not the worst thing you have ever seen. That kinda makes me feel a little better. It looks really, really bad to me.

[thomefan2579]

heil i sok not the greatest brand but keep up on it in the future i know you just got the property there is no heat exchange so i would get the new coil get a good cleaning have them look at the blower wheel and clean if needed and you should be up and running for about 10-15 more years also make sure you change the filter often or look into a spacegard filter to help prevent future dust problems with the system they are relativley low priced and very very good i have one in my house good luck with everything and post some follow up on how it goes

[Roncool]

This sounds like a bad install in the first place. The fact that your system has been pulling in chemicals from the landry room can only shorten the life of your heat exchangers and coil, and just about everything else. If this was my call i would pull the coil, blower motor and anything else clean like new bring eveything up to code. it's summer now very busy can't discount so it would probably be a good penny to do this. I would look at new prices vs a good repair. alot of times when we get busy we tend to condem a system to fast just because of our work load . I would definitley get at least 2 more opinions