Carrier Infinity 18 A/C Issues....

[robroy]

RE: brand new Carrier Infinity 18 A/C unit (38TDB037).

Just wondering if anyone with this unit has seen this:

1. Outdoor unit is leaking something out of the bottom periodically which, because I have it mounted on brackets, has killed all the grass beneath it. It certainly is not water, feels oily-like.

2. Outdoor unit in LOW speed mode causes unit to vibrate heavily and causes a loud electrical humming which can be heard inside the house. In HIGH speed mode, it's very quiet.

We're getting cooling, but I still reported these to the installer and am awaiting their response.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[hvac r us 2]

By all means contact your dealer, but I will give you some of my thoughts…

If there is oil leaking from the bottom could be refrigerant oil indicating a leak. However I would think if you were low on refrigerant you would have a lack of cooling.

Sometimes oil does get on and in the base pan when the unit is charged from the factory, no big deal.

Loud noise in low speed is usually a flooding condition. This can be from lack of airflow, wrong metering device (should be a TXV) or overcharge to name a few.

These units are usually super quiet in low. I just helped a dealer start up his first one last week and it is so quiet on low he didn’t know it was running.

Good luck

[robroy]

Well, after an exhaustive summer of my contractor doing diagnosis on this, there turned out to be a small leak in the compressor, which was only noticeable under a sustained pressure test over 24hrs. They replaced it with a new one. As for the vibrations ... YES, they did not install the TXV that was supposed to come with my unit (38TDB037) and which clearly states in the documentation MUST be installed with the Infinity 18 A/C unit.