OT - HVAC Questions

[Seinfeld]

So I’ll spare everyone the long story here, but my wife and I have been homeowners for 14 years, and we’ve had constant HVAC problems for all 14 of them. Different houses, different systems... Trane, York, Goodman... all have had the same problems.

Question 1 - Lately, the minute a technician detects a refrigerant leak, they seem to immediately jump to replacing the whole system. Do y’all buy that or is it worth the time to pinpoint where the leak is occurring and try to fix that?

Question 2 - For the love, is there a reliable manufacturer out there if/when the time comes to replace a full system?

 

[Russ Wheeler]

Good ones are rare, but they are there. I used to do the yearly service, until I found out that they don't make money on those and after 2 or so years if they haven't found anything wrong they'll start looking for things. So.....I quit doing that and just decided to ride them until they break.

Of course, I do the typical maintenance on them, change filters, look at the drain lines from time to time and make sure they aren't clogged, etc. And I do have a guy I have found that I trust now, and he's the one who told me that. I got him to clean the coils once, but honestly you really only need to do that once every few years, they only get built up bad if you have a dog or something, after a long time.

 

[aTotal360]

Reason they want to replace it is because older systems run on R22 refrigerant, which isn't manufactured anymore. Your service pro may not have any of it left. Eventually it will all be gone and you'll be SOL.

Look into multi room mini splits. They are beginning to put them in luxury homes. I was recently in a $2,000,000 home with had 6 bedrooms. It had one of these systems in it. Each room had a "cassette" installed in the ceiling where a fan would typically be. Each room had its own thermostat and a sensor that would cut itself off if it sensed someone leaving the room. They said it would cool and heat the home year round for less than $125 month. That's pretty awesome for a 6000 sq ft home.

 

[Seinfeld]

Thanks for the tip about the mini splits. I’m now intrigued because A) getting the right balance of cool/hot air throughout our house is one of our biggest issues and B) we’ve actually got one of those units in our upstairs bonus room

Honest to god, I’ve never really known exactly what it was, and I never particularly cared because I’m never up there. However, I now see why they’re getting popular after reading about it. I guess that one of the main issues is that people don’t want to install those bulky boxes all over their house, but I’m sure that manufacturers will be finding ways to better hide them in the near future

 

[40 acres and a mule]

I had the same issues you did. Until I got the Carrier system I have now. They are probably more expensive up front, but are very efficient. No comparison on comfort and utility bills. It is also incredibly quiet.

As for mini-splits, unless they are a lot smaller than they were a few years ago, I just couldn't go that route, I didn't want my house to look like a Motel 6. Maybe there is something better than what was shown to me.

 

[aTotal360]

The cassettes are way less intrusive than than the standard over the window/door blower units. My understanding is having the room in the ceiling is the biggest issue.

I've seen traditional multi room multi splits installed on a mulitplex and hiding all exterior ductwork in pvc "conduit" is a little bit of an eye soar, even if you paint it to match the wall color.

 

[aTotal360]

The new ones look a lot better.

 

[40 acres and a mule]

Yep, these are a lot better. May not have been available when I was looking.

 

[Hellsyeah]

If the leak is in the coil, there is really no fixing it. If it is in the line it can be repaired

 

[patdog]

What kind of problems are you having? How old are the units? I had problems with the 10 or so old unit at my house and limped along with it for about 5 years. Then bought an American Standard unit (made by Trane but cheaper). It's been going for 15 years with no problems at all (hope I'm not jinxing myself).

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

Seinfeld... Have you had split HVAC (Air handler inside, heat pump outside) or package units (where everything is outside?) I know of a lot more packaged units in MS than I ever saw in TX. I had one freon leak in 4 different houses over my 15 years in TX. (I did replace a half dozen or so capacitors over the years and just started buying 2 packs of capacitors so I always had a spare.)

I only replaced 1 AC unit in all my time on my last house, but it was 16 years old and was leaking freon. The air handler was in a **** location in the attic and I just replaced everything as it was time. That house had 2 units for opposite sides of the house and when I sold it the other 16 year old carrier was kicking butt still. I would imagine having everything outside or in a crawlspace would be harder on the evaporator coils vs having them inside the house, garage, or attic.

Mini splits are the way to go if you can though.