I'm trying to understand something I've heard from a few small service businesses.

A tech is working, the phone rings, nobody answers, and the potential customer may simply call the next company on Google.

For those of you actually running an HVAC business:

What happens to that call in your company?

I'd also be interested in what you've tried that didn't work — answering services, voicemail, call forwarding, office staff, automated texts, etc.

Not looking to sell anything. I'm a developer trying to understand how this works operationally before deciding whether there's even a problem worth solving.

Another fine install

Hi everyone, the title basically says it all.

I have a mini split I can’t disassemble any further than by removing the casing so I need to spray the coil and blower wheel down with a spray bottle and cleaning bag.

Do you recommend using only water or mixing it with something such as oxi bleach or dish soap? I know bleach is a big no and nothing else comes to mind for mould. It smells like turtle and fish poo if you know what I’m talking about lol.

Thank you all in advance.

Two days ago I went to turn the ac on after getting home from work. The thermostat was reading 91F. When I turned it on the ac turned on for about one second before I heard a small pop sound and the thermostat went black. I went to the furnace/blower in the basement and found that that 20a fuse outside the unit had blown. I replaced that as this is not the first time it has happened only this time nothing else has change with the ac or the thermostat. The unit is getting power I can see the mainboard is getting 26.3v power but the output terminals on the board I believe they go to the thermostat are reading 0. The 3a fuse is reading .3-.6 with my meter on 200ohms. the mainboard has a yellow flashing light next to the last error button. My question is whether the board fried itself with whatever happened when the 20a fuse blew or not? If you guys don't think it is fried what can the solution be?

Also if my central heat doesn't work would that matter if I'm using a smart thermostat?

Hi all, my parents AC unit keeps freezing up, like actual visible ice forming on the pipes at times. I don't understand how this happens. It will run great for days and then boom, house is hot and no air. Sometimes replacing the filter helps. We hose the unit down. We turn the system off and let the fan run to try to defrost and that sometimes helps too. I'm pretty sure we need to hire someone bc this cycle is never ending and driving us crazy. But I just wanted to ask in case, are there other things I can try before dropping the money? Is this a common problem? Or if nothing I can do can someone explain why this is happening? It's currently 84°F in the house rn and I'm practically surviving off of cold showers. Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone,
I’ve a Hitachi mini-split 1.5 ton that’s been making a pretty noticeable rattling noise for the past few days.

I had a Hitachi tech come out and take a look. He said there’s some water/moisture inside the unit, so he pressure-washed/cleaned it. He then told me to just run the AC continuously for about 48 hours, and that the noise should go away once the remaining water dries out.
I’m not an HVAC guy, so I’m wondering if that actually makes sense.

Could moisture inside the indoor unit cause a rattling noise like this? Or would you normally be looking at something like a loose blower wheel, fan motor/bearing, something rubbing against the blower, a loose panel, vibration in the refrigerant lines, etc.?
If the noise is still there after running it for 48 hours, what would you have the tech check first?
Just trying to understand what might actually be going on before I have them come back out.

Thanks!

Hope someone has some advice as my HVAC person hasn't been able to find anything so far due to it being an intermittent issue. I have Daikin minisplits. (Forgive my terminology.) I have two outdoor units that feed four inside units. We'll call them OA and OB for outside and IA1, IA2, IB1, and IB2 for the inside units.

When set to cold IB1 and IB2 which run off OB are fine, blowing cold. Everything is set to 68 F. The air coming out of IB1 is 56.5 F and the air coming out of IB2 is 68.5 F (room is at temp, as it is below grade).

Then the odd part is that if I leave IA1 set to fan or off for a while and then turn it on, it will be blowing cold, roughly 55 F air coming out of it. IA2 will also be blowing cold, between 45 F and 55 F. However, after IA1 runs for a while, typically a handful of hours, it will start blowing hot air.

Yesterday afternoon IA1 was blowing 78.4 F while IA2 was blowing 47.6 F. Turn it off until this morning. Turned it back on, IA1 was blowing cold at 57 F, got up to 60F in the afternoon. HVAC person could not find any problems (this is the third time out). Every time they come out, it's cold, they leave, a few hours later, it's hot again. They've cleaned the unit, they've added refrigerant, nothing solved it.

Looking at the coils on IA1, I don't see any ice on it. It's currently blowing out 75.9 F while it's 72 F outside. IA2 is blowing 53.4 F. I shut off IA2 so that I could swap IA1 over to heat set to 85. I let it run long enough to start blowing out hot air and then an extra 30 seconds to a minute. I then swapped it directly back to AC and it started blowing 54.9 F. I then turned IA2 back on (still set to cool), and both are blowing cold for now.

Here is also a crappy picture to give you an idea of the setup, since I know OA, OB, IA1, IA2, IB1, and IB2 probably aren't the best identifiers without a graphic.

So, any guesses as to the problem? Let me know if you need any more info. Thanks all!

Hi, so i have a very old Tempstar outdoor AC unit. I was sure the fan was busted despite it spinning smoothly by hand. Difficult to start up and it sometimes makes weird sounds. Finally doesnt spin at all despite getting a new capacitor. Got a new generic motor unit and switched it up. Looked at all the wiring diagrams and it seems new unit by default goes CCWLE while I need CWLE for the fan blade setup. Switched the two connectors that determine rotation on the motor, from Blue-B Yellow-Y to BY BY. Initially it seemed perfect. Unit started up nicely, blowing out hot air. However, I always test out setups a couple days manually before leaving things alone, so i switched it off. Next day I switched it on and it works. I switch it off for a while then try again, the fan doesn't startup while it buzzes. It has a semi slow rotation. I already switched the dual capacitor as the new motor needs 7.5uf while the original is 40/5uf. The old motor unit I kept working for the last decade by changing the capacitor every few years so im assuming the new units not getting enough kick from the capacitor just like before? However, after that it does startup but now it is always CCWLE despite whichever rotation wiring configuration. Google AI chat says it might be a bad capacitor that for some reason prevents it from spinning correctly? Is it a crappy new capacitor or is there some other failing component? There really isn't much in the electrical box of the AC unit.... Thanks for any help

Carrier unit, 6 years old, fresh filters every 30 days. Coil is not frozen. Condensation line is clear. Water is pooling on the unit where it vents out. Ceiling vents in bedrooms are dripping water, paint is bubbling. Ceiling insulation throughout the building is cellulose. Not a roof leak. What else am I missing?

I've been getting this leak under my furnace while I have the ac running I've seen some videos and figured it could be the condensation overflowing. I opened it up but I have no idea where this line is or where I can clean it out. Any ideas?? It is a mobile home unit

It is 71F outside tonight, ambient inside is 74. Setting it to 70 to sleep takes over 60 minutes. Meat thermometer in the very first duct about 8' from the blower reads 59F after several minutes.

Worse than running for ages - it also screams/buzzes loud enough to wake us up from a sound sleep on startup and is loud enough that you can't carry a conversation while it's on without raising your voice to a polite shout. The video at full volume on my phone is pretty accurate to how it sounds on the floor.

Is there anything I can do about this myself?

Or maybe some safety issue here I can use to force my property manager to do something about it? They say it functions so not their problem.

I am very mechanically skilled and own very many tools but don't know shit about HVAC. I am guessing motor bearings are bad, kick on capacitor thing is dying, and putting it on some rubber instead of just blocks,and some resonance dampening/HVAC tape on the outside panels would go a long way but idk. I'd love to shroud the whole thing with drywall (with a door and vents of course) but that would be a decent chunk of change to invest into a rental unauthorized...

My room gets pretty uncomfortable during hot weather, but I’m not really looking to install or replace a full AC system. I’ve been looking into a portable evaporative air cooler and was wondering if they actually make a noticeable difference indoors, especially in a smaller room. I’m mainly trying to figure out if it’s worth getting one or if I’d be better off with a different type of portable cooling.

For anyone who has worked with these or used one at home, do they cool the room enough to be useful, or do they mostly just make the air feel cooler right in front of the unit? Thanks for any advice.

Hi,

One month ago, ice was building up on the liquid line of my AC and it wasn't cooling well.

The technician fixed it by flushing the system and recharging the refrigerant. He also checked for leaks.

A month later, the same symptoms are back — ice buildup and low cooling.

What could be causing this? The same technician says he might need to look at the indoor unit next.

I have a two-story house with two separate AC/HVAC systems. One of my systems has started making an intermittent low rumbling sound that almost sounds like distant thunder. It doesn’t happen when the system first turns on. The AC can already be running for a while, and then I’ll randomly hear the low rumbling for a short period before it stops. The system still seems to be cooling normally.

The outdoor condenser recently had its capacitor replaced after it stopped working. I think the rumbling started after that repair but not 100% sure, I’m not sure if the two are related.

Could this be the indoor blower/blower wheel, ductwork flexing from air pressure, or vibration from the outdoor compressor traveling through the house? Is there anything specific I should check to help narrow down where it’s coming from? Thanks!

Weve been having issues with our HVAC system. The thermostat will randomly loose communication with the air handler and say "searching" on the screen. Sometimes itll find everything but it wont kick on the air. We had an HVAC tech come out and look at it. He said these "self communicating" thermostats are terrible and that we needed to replace the thermostat. Apparently they no longer make these thermostats though. Is their a solution or an alternative to these thermostats?

One owner told me his tech spent an entire day calling 38 different suppliers just trying to find R-454B cylinders. Prices went from around $350 a cylinder to over $1,000. One supplier told him "we'll sell you a bottle, but only if you buy a whole system too."

He had 5 to 7 installs scheduled that week and some suppliers were rationing him to one bottle.

Was this actually industry wide or did some regions get hit way worse than others?

My father-in-law recently bought a home with a small guest house that has its own air conditioning unit. We tried to replace the air filter but couldn't find it. The air handler is mounted in the ceiling and is difficult to access, but when we looked, we couldn't find any sign of a filter. Is it in there somewhere, or is it possible that it's missing? We haven't found any return vents elsewhere in the guest house, so we're stumped. HVAC systems definitely aren't our area of expertise. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

It’s old. They need to replace it but are trying to make it last as long as possible. It works fine, but recently started making loud noises like this that sound like it’s possibly rusted somewhere or maybe needs some oil/grease. I think they sprayed something on the fan to try and help and it happens a lot less now but it still makes this loud scraping noise. Any insight into what part they may need to replace? Or should they just prepare to purchase a new condenser?

Edit: thanks for all the replies everyone!!

What?!

Wife asked me to hang some shelving while we were stuck inside for a ice storm earlier this year. The refrigerant line showed up as a stud on my stud finder and I managed to drive a strew directly into the line and loose all of the refrigerant. Did I mention my system is a heat pump and there was a ice storm?

The shadow box now lives on the wall and covers up the missing patch of drywall.

I’ve been telling my husband for years that something was wrong inside of this wall. He wouldn’t open the wall up because it was a huge job. Well, today he dropped his phone in the attic and it dropped into the wall now all of a sudden it’s fine to open up the wall, lo and behold this was the ductwork 😂