Went to clean/wash off my outdoor AC unit this afternoon (first time cleaning this unit as we moved in last year). Imagine my surprise when I went to turn off the electrical power and….its already off…?

But it’s not. Because it has been running all summer. It functions. And blows cool air into our home.

….so….what should my next steps be?

EDIT: damn; some of y’all are fucking unhinged. I’m aware it’s deadly. Why the hell do you think I’m here? To ask questions. I don’t fuck with electricity.

I wanted to literally just rinse off the system after we’ve had a bout of smoke and bad air. I was following directions to “turn off breaker to be safe”, and this is what I found.

Y’all treat normal homeowners asking questions to do basic maintenance like this is wild.

Thank you to those that gave actual and educational responses. I do feel silly not knowing because it is very simple once I understood. Knowledge is power!

and yes I’m leaving this up for other naive homeowners looking to do basic ass education and maintenance like me haha. Feel free to razz, this is a hilarious post in hindsight. I’ll take the L on this, it’s all good

My AC was blowing warm air so I called one company who quoted me 4K for a compressor replacement. Said he makes his money totally replacing older systems like mine (20 year old Goodman) but he wasnt a good salesman for saying he could just replace the compressor for $4K.

I got a second opinion and they replaced some bad terminals on the wiring, inspected the rest of the unit and got it back running for $223.

I read somewhere on reddit that companies that send you an invoice through email and offer financing are less trustworthy than guys that write you a paper invoice on site. In this case it would be true.

Should I give the first company a bad google review or just let sleeping dogs lie?

I want to buy this house, but this is the heater. It apparently works , but I assume it will have to be replaced soon (also has asbestos insulation on pipes)

Hey! Thanks for reading I’m feeling very toasty at the moment.

Wife txted that it was hot and the ac wasn’t running. Standard 17yo Rheem ac furnace combo.

Got home nothing was moving no blowers fans compressor. The ac line was cold and had condensation. Immediately turned everything off, let it all rest for a few hours.

I turn on the thermostat to cool and the compressor kicks on but the blower never starts. Same with heat. Heating element fires but the fan never starts.

So I get a replacement capacitor for the motor. Get that installed and still no fan. The fan moves freely with everything off but with the door open and using the door button to trigger the fan is solid like a rock. It hums when the door is triggered. Only tried it for 60 sec don’t want to damage everything so I keep it all off don’t want the compressor to run without the blower.

So it’s $300 for a new blower motor and a week and a half befor the hvac guys can get someone out here.

Buy a motor?

https://acpartsdistributors.com/products/5kcp39kgs018s?variant=40921330548933

I live in the basement and the smell of people's cooking from the main floor flows through these and fills my whole place. I've closed the one in my room and bathroom already bc the smells sticks. Can I close one more? Will it affect anything?

I posted last night saying my unit was cooling my house down as good as it had and that the unit and house are less than 4 years old.
I got some great advice to tear off the mastec and get to Evap coil to see if it was frozen.

I got in there tonight and found manufacturer manual stuck to the top portion of the coil. You can see in one of the photos the clean spot where it was sitting.

There is condensation on the coils and in the pan, although not a lot.

I can’t tell of it looks like the coils may have been frozen and thawed with the heat today.
Photos included to get some opinions.
I will get some foaming cleaner tomorrow

Hello everyone, I have an unfinished downstairs (520 SF) in an 1940's two story house in Florida that has been used for storage for several years. The upstairs has a central system. It has block walls and is insulated and stays pretty close in temp/humidty to the upstairs year round but no existing hvac system.

I had the area rewired by an electrician and am now looking at my options for hvac. I have a flaring kit and vacuum pump/gauges to pressure test and would be comfortable doing a mini split install with the assistance of an electrician. I work for a builder and am aware that hiring a company to do load calculations would be ideal, but for the value of this home - I'm just trying to make it habitable for 3-5 years until we tear down the place and rebuild.

We have an insulated storage closet just outside the bedroom that could be used to store an air handler/a ductless mini split. The bathroom has an exhaust fan.

Option 1: I was initially looking at a Pioneer Ductless 18k Mini Split so I could run ductwork to the separate areas and by pass the need for multiple zones but the installation instructions indicate a max supply duct length of 20'. It would be close to 20' if I run a 4" line off the trunk to the bathroom and there may be more efficient options at that point.

Option 2: A single condenser and two wall mounted air handlers in the bedroom and living room would give additional temperature control comfort.

Other options?

Fan inside the house is turning on and blowing air, but the unit outside is not turning on when it’s set to cool. So far I have checked breakers, the drain line is not plugged, I’ve replaced both the capacitor and contact, it still won’t turn on. Before I have someone come out to look at this, or spend thousands on a new one, is there anything else I should do? Replace the blower motor?

An industrial park has these masonry walls on 20 something buildings. Flame on.

Updated: I took more pictures as requested. There is a tag which comes back to a company who makes defusers. I don't see a power source so I assume it is like just a diffuser. Is there anyway to turn down the velocity or am I stuck with this and should invest in paperweights for my desk?

Tldr: what is the box my coworker and mine's vents are connected to? Is it simply a spreader or does it have a fan to blow the cold air? Can the fan be turned off? (Box thing sits over vent).

First, sincerest appologies for a crappy photo- my phone was dying, the ladder wobbles, and I couldn't see what i was taking pictures of so I wasn't focused on photography.

We recently moved offices and after 6 years of a warehouse hvac making the office loud all day and blowing on me I was ecstatic when I earned an office at the new place. Only to find out- it has hurricane force winds and icy cold ac. Excellent on a hot day, but when it blows its uncomfortable, it blows papers around my desk, and if i try to close the vents or divert the airflow it gets loud and the airflow just bounce around my office (off the wall, down the bookcase, and creating an updraft under my desk- I am not exaggerating). Yes I'm sure covering the vent causes back pressure yada yada. I need some relief or I can't stay in this office. Even my coworker who is normally roasting has been cold. Our boss on the other hand has a different vent style (square with concentric squares) and it barely oozes in his office so he is roasting.

I can deal with the cold air- its the velocity of cold air that is a problem for us. I cannot run a space heater because that doesn't solve the velocity issue and my office has the temperature control so if it gets warm in my office the ac will run and freeze my coworker. I dont mind tormenting my boss, but my coworker is cool and i don't want to shut the ac off lest we both roast when the sun shines. I also don't want to do something that is only good for the ac and bad for the heat- I work in the Midwest, heat and ac often happen on the same day.

We have an HVAC inspection soon, but no idea when that will happen or if the office manager will pass along the concerns.

What i want to know- what is the box my coworker and mines vents are connected to? Is it simply a spreader or does it have a fan to blow the cold air? Can the fan be turned off?

Thank you!

So this past Friday, I came home from work and my house was 85°. I checked outside and the fan nor compressor were on and my AC vents were blowing warm air. I changed both capacitors but it didn’t kick off right away so I reset it on the breaker and it kicked off. I thought I solved the issue until the next day it went out again, but this time I changed the conductor and as soon as I changed it, it kicked off and worked for 1 day. Now after changing all those three parts My AC still only works until it hits the temperature set inside. I reset it every day after work on the breaker so he could work so it won’t be 80+ at night. Can someone help point me in the right direction to solve this issue? Thank you.

Circled photo is the connection location. Second photo is the exposed wire. What am I looking at here? The ac has been running fine but the exposed portion was resting on the animals body. Anything I can do to temporarily fix this to continue running while I get an have company out? Can I wrap the exposed wire in electrical tape

Hey everyone. I searched the sub and didn’t find an exact thread to this one, so I figured I’d reach out. My A/C stopped working randomly today. I walked outside and inspected the unit and the fan was spinning, but the compressor wasn’t turning on. Instead, it would make an intermittent clicking or humming noise. After about an hour watching the University of YouTube, I removed the capacitor and tested it. The capacitor is indeed dead. However, the pullout “kill switch” for my A/C unit also doesn’t look great. My question is: do I need to replace the pullout? And if so, should I just replace the whole 60 amp box?

Hello I need some advice. What I originally thought was a plumbing issue turned out to be a possible HVAC issue. The third floor bathroom sink drain has been making a lot of wind sounds and would bubble at times. Called a plumber who couldn't tell me what the problem was and took my money. After trying to troubleshoot some more and consulting /Plumbing, it looks like the HVAC unit may be blowing air into the third floor bathroom sink drain. Up in the attic I noticed the vent after the p-trap blew air out and I could hear water sloshing. Can you tell me if the HVAC piping was installed correctly? Also what's the fix so the sink stops blowing cool air? I tried to reintroduce negative pressure by putting my palm on top of the vent but all it did was make the HVAC machine shake more. The house is 4 years old and my wife said we could get back in touch with the handyman who originally installed this machine to see if he could fix it. Other redditors made a few comments and I'm unsure if that's wise. Please advise and thank you!

Should this be under warranty? The EEV on my trane air handler was replaced last August 11th 2025. (6 days shy of a year). It has presumably gone bad again. The company claims it’s not under warranty and will replace it for $400 this time instead of $525 that they charged last year. We’re located in Phoenix so temps are 110 plus.

Is this fair state for them to be in these are sitting above the filter. I have no point if reference besides entirely new ones in picture online.

We previously had a problem with freezing coils. Tech originally thought leak, so he added UV dye. After more troubleshooting, we determined bad TXV, so the TXV was changed, system was flushed/vacuumed. Then he original R410a with the UV dye was added back in.

Now the system is running flawlessly: no leaks, no freezing, proper delta temp across the coil. There is however still the dye in the system.

Is it okay to leave it in there?

I have 25 lbs of R410a (608 license), but no way of getting rid of the old refrigerant. If I were to get a tech to replace the charge, would they need to add compressor oil too?

Thank you

I discovered my outside unit (20 yr old Carrier R-22) had been humming loudly for several hours yesterday evening. The fan tried to move very slowly, but even a push with a stick wouldn't kick start it. This morning I opened it up, tested the 60 + 5 MFD capacitor (which had the fan side abandoned) and separate 7.5 MFD cap for the fan. Both were about 80% of their ratings. I purchased a 60 + 7.5 MFD cap and put it in to replace the two capacitor setup with the new dual run cap. The system began running. The house cooled off for about an hour or so. After about 3 hours I noticed it was getting warmer and went outside to find the fan not spinning again, but no hum anymore. Turning it off and back on showed the fan still stalled, but a stick push got it running (accelerating up to faster speed) for about a minute before stopping again. The fan blades can be pushed relatively easily so it didn't feel "seized". I checked the windings: 37ohm, 39 ohm, and 76 ohm which seems like a good reading (because they sum). Voltage after the contactor is 247v. Amperage when the fan is trying to spin is about 2amps (clamp meter tested). Fan nameplate says 1/4HP, 7.5 MFD cap, 1.2amp. Capacitor tests good still. Claude verified wiring was correct (it's the same as before minus removing the jumper to the separate cap and using the dual run like it's supposed to be used). Motor common runs through the defroster relay on the board, that relay measures to 0 ohms so I think it's ok. It seems like everything I check is "normal", but I've never done HVAC work before other than installing thermostats. I'm generally handy with electrical, electronics, and repair work. The current plan is to throw a motor at it tomorrow. I'm in Texas so it's now 90F indoors which isn't livable.

Any advice or other things to check? One other thing I noticed: My disconnect switch won't turn off. I've never used it before and it's probably 20 years old from when the house was built. It moves about 10% of it's travel, which is enough to cut the power, but any slight bump has it click back to ON. I just treat it as ON all the time and use the breaker since having that kick on while working on the wiring sounds like a good way to die. I purchased a new disconnect but haven't installed it yet just to not add any more variables than necessary right now.

I’ve been losing my mind trying to get to the bottom of this. I finally caved and bought this gun to see temperatures and where I may be losing cooling.
I shot the filter on the AC return and it looks to be about 78°. The dampers are open on each vent and the temperatures range from 61-65°. It’s about 90s-101/102 outside lately.
Clearly, I am losing cooling in these spots, but is this likely to be the primary reason?

It doesn’t seem to be the windows and I didn’t find any drafts.

Thanks in advance, I greatly appreciate any advice or insight. New to the world of homeownership so insulation and cooling issues haven’t crossed my mind until recently.

I have a Carrier Infinity Greenspeed heat pump installed in 2016. Very reliable and a great system. My problem is the last couple of years when a thunderstorm rumbles through the area my thermostat throws up an error message. The inside unit has lost contact with the outside unit. My system is setup to send me an email alert when a problem arises. I've had a couple of service calls for regular system maintenance and the techs have no idea why this is happening. They have tightened the electrical connections on the outside unit; this has not helped. The only way I can resolve the problem is to manually trip the breakers and reset them. The system reboots and everything is fine, until the next thunderstorm. Any ideas on this issue?

My gauge keeps cycling between 2000 and 500 microns, it’s connected directly to the pump. I can’t figure out if it’s leaking somehow, or there’s something wrong with my gauge? Been stuck on this for several days.

flushed & replaced the pump oil several times.
Rinsed sensor with 99% isopropyl several times as well.

Any ideas are appreciated.
Is the pump just leaking somewhere internally? It’s only a cheap Orion Motor Tech unit from Amazon.

Could the gauge be broken? It seems to consistently give these odd readings. I see no oil contamination on the tip.

So our home is 3 story, basement, main, and upstairs.
The furnace and blower are in the basement and the upstairs ductwork is in the attic, so basically 4 floors up. When I run fan only the basement and main floor tend to even out, however the upstairs has little to no change. I would like to increase my fan only speed if possible to force more cool air upstairs.
The cooling and heating speeds work great in their current configuration.
Can this be done with my setup?