This sucks

[SeaCat]

Okay so we got home from work this evening and walked into the trailer. I almost fell over. I could hear the A/C Compressor running full blast but the trailr was cooking at 90°. What the hell?

Well I checked to see how much cold air was being blown into the trailer and it was a big fat none. Hmmmmmm.

Into the jumpsuit and under the trailer I crawl. Has the end of the Flexi Duct blown off the Air Box? Is there a kink in the Flexi Duct blocking it off? No and no.

I go out back and pull the end of the Flexi Duct off the Compressor Housing and check to see how much air is coming out. Hmmmmm, none. This isn't too cool, no pun intended. I look over the housing and find an access panel. Opening that I don't find the blower. This means I'm going to have to take the top off the unit to get at the insides. Now I'm really not happy.

Right now it's raining out. I'm not going to be able to work on this tonight. Tomorrow is out as well as I have to be in work from 0700 until at least 1900.

That means no air until at least Tuesday. We have the windows open and the fans blowing and we'll keep this up until I fix the damned thing. It's hot inside.

Naturally tomorrow morning I'll kick it on in the forelorn hope that it's just frozen but I'm not going to hold my breath. (If it was just frozen then it would be blowing warm air.)

Needless to say I'm not overly happy about this. I'm hoping it's an easy fix.

Cat

 

[glynndah]

I sympathize, Cat. I was greeted yesterday afternoon by the death throes of my air conditioning system, which, by the way, sound like a cross between an unbalanced washing machine dealing with pillow cases stuffed with monkey wrenches and cookie sheets being tossed into the blades of an industrial exhaust fan.

The HVAC guys will be called in the morning. Fortunately, the weather's been having an unseasonably lovely streak of mid-80's in the daytime and low 60's at night.

 

[TE999]

My deepest sympathies, Cat. The A/C that came with the house finally died on a sunny Sunday in August two years ago. It turned out the air handler's blower motor windings were burnt out due to power surges + the cooling coils leaked Freon like a sieve. I wound up replacing the air hander and the condenser unit + having the duct work replaced...the initial installation was shoddy and the ducts were leaking too.

My power bill dropped over $100.00 a month.

 

[penandpaper]

You could move a mile from the Pacific and never need AC again.

Although, that's a lot easier said than done.

 

[Handley_Page]

There are times when I'm quite happy that I do not have an Air conditioning unit in my home. . . . .
Good Luck, Cat.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

You could move a mile from the Pacific and never need AC again.

Although, that's a lot easier said than done.

Fixing the AC is cheaper . . .

 

[SeaCat]

You could move a mile from the Pacific and never need AC again.

Although, that's a lot easier said than done.

I live roughly half a mile from the InterCoastal. Maybe a mile from the open ocean.

This only helps when you have a nice breeze off the water and the temps aren't climbing too high. (Not to mention the humidity can be a killer.)

Cat

 

[SeaCat]

Well this morning I turned on the A/C in a Forlorn Hope Test. Much to my surprise it was again blowing cold air in a passable amount. (Not the air flow I want but passable.) I left the A/C running when we went to work. When we arrived at home this evening once again it wasn't blowing air.

Okay this tells me it's a possible problem with the blower motor.

Just a minute ago I again turned on the system and it was blowing air. I'll leave it on over night so we can survive the night.

Tomorrow morning I'll open up the unit and see what I can see. Obviously there's a problem and I think it's with the main blower. What's causing the problem is the question. We shall see.

Cat

 

[champagne1982]

Well this morning I turned on the A/C in a Forlorn Hope Test. Much to my surprise it was again blowing cold air in a passable amount. (Not the air flow I want but passable.) I left the A/C running when we went to work. When we arrived at home this evening once again it wasn't blowing air.

Okay this tells me it's a possible problem with the blower motor.

Just a minute ago I again turned on the system and it was blowing air. I'll leave it on over night so we can survive the night.

Tomorrow morning I'll open up the unit and see what I can see. Obviously there's a problem and I think it's with the main blower. What's causing the problem is the question. We shall see.

Cat

Check the water drain... In high humidity you would definitely be creating quite a puddle of condensation.

 

[penandpaper]

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you Cat.

By the way, isn't the Intra-Coastal waterway, and all of its various tributaries on the East coast. I've lived there as well, and bloody hell, in Florida you need AC, no matter how close you are to the ocean.

As far as the Pacific goes, I've found I need it 3-5 days out of the year. It's an odd thing, that cold ocean. So big and deep and acts like a giant AC unit.

Good luck again. As you step through the door, may the cold air freeze the sweat from your bike ride this afternoon.

 

[penandpaper]

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you Cat.

By the way, isn't the Intra-Coastal waterway, and all of its various tributaries on the East coast. I've lived there as well, and bloody hell, in Florida you need AC, no matter how close you are to the ocean.

As far as the Pacific goes, I've found I need it 3-5 days out of the year. It's an odd thing, that cold ocean. So big and deep and acts like a giant AC unit.

Good luck again. As you step through the door, may the cold air freeze the sweat from your bike ride this afternoon.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you Cat.

By the way, isn't the Intra-Coastal waterway, and all of its various tributaries on the East coast. I've lived there as well, and bloody hell, in Florida you need AC, no matter how close you are to the ocean.

As far as the Pacific goes, I've found I need it 3-5 days out of the year. It's an odd thing, that cold ocean. So big and deep and acts like a giant AC unit.

Good luck again. As you step through the door, may the cold air freeze the sweat from your bike ride this afternoon.

Ain't the Japan Current wunnerful . . . unless you like to dive? East Coast divers use bikinis. West Coast? 5mm wetsuits!

 

[penandpaper]

Ain't the Japan Current wunnerful . . . unless you like to dive? East Coast divers use bikinis. West Coast? 5mm wetsuits!

So true. And nothing is as pretty as the Caribbean.

 

[SeaCat]

Well that was an adventure but it is fixed.

This morning I went out with the tool box and got things set up and organized. I had containers for screws or other parts, a cup of coffee and a couple of cigars. Everything was ready for the job ahead. I figured this was going to be an all day job as I had never even opened the housing of one of these units prior to today.

It was heating up out and the wndows were open as I removed the top of the unit and started poking about. It took me a bit to trouble shoot the motor but everything seemed good. (I cleaned everything I touched. It's my usual way of working.) The motor turned easily by hand and when I put power to it it turned over just fine. What the hell? I stepped back, fired up a cigar and started thinking about the problem. AS I was sitting on my portable workbench, (A thick sheet of plywood over two saw horses.) I noticed movement in the grass and weeds by the A/C Housing.

When I looked closer I saw a nice looking little snake about eight inches long. It was only when I looked a bit closer that I saw him curl up with only his head and the tip of his tail exposed. That got my attention but fast, there is only one type of snake that does it that naturaly, a Pit Viper. Stepping back I kept an eye on the little guy even as I looked around for what I needed. In the storage shed I found a metal Coat Hanger. Behind the shed I found a plastic box used for recycling. After straightening the coat hanger then putting a bend in the end I went back and caught the snake. Putting it in the plastic box I could easily see that I had been right. It was a Pygme Rattler, an adult from the looks of it. I didn't need to get hit by him. (I later let it go in an open, overgrown field a short ways away from the park.)

Back to work. Now I started looking over the entire system. I was following the air path when I noticed something that didn't look right. Where the air comes into the housing it passes through a radiator. The side towards the blower looked just fine, clean and even maybe a bit shiny like it was new. Peeking from the top of it though was what looked like hair or maybe tufts of insulation. I crawled up on the unit, balancing myself on thin strips of metal that brace the housing and looked at the back of that radiator. (It was the last place I could think of to check before I broke down and called a service company.) The entire face of the radiator was covered with what looked like felt. Now why would they place felt there? A last filter maybe? That was a strange place to put a filter. Then I noticed that tuft of hair or whatever it was came off of this. I reached out and grabbed the tuft and pulled it awa. A small chunk of the felt came away with it. Then it dawned on me what this was.

Who knows when that radiator had been cleaned last. Who knows how often the filter had been changed before I moved into the place, or if they even had used a filter. (I don't remember seeing one in place at the intake when I moved in.) I do know the prior owners had owned several dogs. That felt pad wasn't put there on purpose, it had been sucked down the intake duct over time and put there. Maybe when I changed the duct I stirred up a bunch of hair in the air box, who knows.

The air would come down the duct and pass through this felt pad over the radiator being cooled. As it did so the humidity in the air would condense out into the pad. This would cause the fibers making up the pad to swell and eventually they would block all airflow.

I backed down off my by now rather painful perch and dug out more plywood. I placed this over the unit and climbed back up there. Laying on my belly I could reach into the unit and start clearing that mess away from the radiator. It came away surprsingly easily. I brushed my hand over the top of the radiator and watched as the pad pulled away a little. Using that I started working along the top and pulled it away. That damned pad of hair pulled away in one piece with a little bit of work. Dumping that in a trash car I went back up there and found the drain line for the condensation. Using a short snake I cleaned that out. (Yes it was plugged.) Grabbing the hose I blew water through the radiator until it ran clear. As the water drained out through the now clean drain I put things back together.

By the time I was done and had put things away the inside of the trailer was even warmer than the outside temperature. (Outside it was 94°, inside it was 96°.) I turned on the A/C, gave it a minute then checked the floor vents. The airflow coming out of the vents was more than I had ever felt in the trailer. I was grinning as we closed the windows and got ready to go shopping.

When we came back to the trailer roughlyt wo hours later it was like walking into a freezer. WTF now? I checked the A/C Compressor and it wasn't running. Something wasn't right here. Then I glanced at the Thermostat, it was set at 65° which is where we had pushed it when we were playing with it the night before to test it. I glanced at the thermometer and found it was sitting right at 65°. The A/C had dropped the temperature in the place a total of 31 degrees in two hours even though it was over ninety degrees outside and the sun was blasting down on the trailer.

Now I'm sitting here with the thermometer reading 80°, (where we like to keep the trailer.) I can hear the A/C cycling on and off occasionaly as needed. I'm now a happy camper down here.

Cat

Tomorrow or the day after I'll open up the housing again and hose the radiator down again in case there was more hair in the system.

 

[kendo1]

Move to Scotland. We don't need A/C, and we have a coast.








You may need heating though. Middle of summer and the temp is about 56F.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I understand that in Scotland, masculinity is proven by the amount of hair on a man's knees. It shows he's tough enough to wear a kilt clear through a Scottish winter. Brrr . . .