Just finished a "kicked my a$$ A/C installation

[67Dart273]

Just finished up yesterday, adding AC to my neighbor's son's house. This was a "got my *** kicked" deal. The furnace closet is ridiculously small, with almost no room for anything larger in the way of a furnace or water tank. Whoever designed that should have their *** kicked
Today it let me know "one last time"

Whoever installed the stat wire at the time the house was built, evidently snagged it on a duct "somewhere." This is all built into the house, you cannot get to any of it without cutting into ****. "I thought it was odd" that the green blower wire which was stripped at the furnace terminals, was not connected. (This is connected without AC a lot so you can have a "summer fan.") Turns out the white (heat 1) and green (blower) are shorted together. Also turns out the yellow (for the AC contactor) was SHORTED TO GROUND. Managed to blow the 24V fuse on the control board for my trouble. FORTUNATELY it is a 6 wire cable, and there were 4 clean wires, just wrong color

A few other minor "gotchas." The cheap China no-name sold-under-40-other-brand-names equipment--- The service valves are not particularly well mounted, and it takes considerable force to open the valves. Also the 1/4 flare schrader access ports are so close to the sheet metal lip, that it's difficult to get your finger sin there to attach/ remove the gauge fittings. The suction fitting on the coil is a real POS. It "acts" like it is set up as a female for a 1/2" line. you slide a 3/4 el onto it and it's REAL sloppy. And the swadge is so short that the el overlaps it, making brazing a POS. So I cut off part of the sleeve on the el to keep some of the larger area of the nipple exposed. REALLY poor engineering.

Ya know guys, much of this equipment looks very similar to the stuff I routinely installed and serviced back in the 80's/ mid 90's. SO WE DIDN'T START MAKING THIS **** RECENTLY. There is no ******* excuse why this stuff cannot be well made and designed.

I just turned 74 by the way, and this **** gets harder by the month LOL

I did not do the sheet metal work. You can see some of how tight this is, and worse, the furnace is "over in the corner" so to get my head in where I could see the controls (in bottom of furnace) I had to "fetal up" with my knees banging the water tank and my back against the door jam. No fun at'all.............
I've done nicer work on the outoor stuff, but that soil is rocky as &*%% and I wanted room for access between the unit and the irrigation controller. Because of the tight stuff in the furnace room, we had little choice for tubing entrance

 

[RustyRatRod]

That sure is a neat installation. I wish I had enough sense to do that. I've been thinking about getting under the house and getting all our old duct work out and removing the old furnace in an effort to help reduce some of the labor charges for when we are able to get a new system installed. We haven't had central air in over ten years. It'd be nice to get that back again. If I thought I had half a brain enough to install it myself, I'd try it. I can install an electric water heater. lol

 

[Ironracer]

That closet looks evil...way to much,
Jammed in to close.

 

[dartindanno]

Man, talk about a confined space

 

[Ironracer]

Man, talk about a confined space

Yeah, looks like a real pita

 

[67Dart273]

........And there's more........I am not entirely happy with the external appearance, but the main reason the tubing had to come out where it did was this:

This house is under the 2nd owner, perhaps 10? years old. So it was built and INSPECTED and then RE-inspected when the neighbor's son bought it.

That closet is/ was? ILLEGAL

You MUST have "sufficient" combustion air to appliances, and both of these draw air from within the space they are located. So you are required to have "high" and "low" grilles through the door or wall into a larger space in the house, and THAT space must be "adequate," HERE is the deal:

There is no "high" grille. The low one is sized large enough, but not only does it go into a somewhat small TV room, BUT THE TV ROOM HAS a return air, meaning "a slight vacuum." Further, you CAN NOT have such combustion appliances in the same space as a sleeping room---and since you may nap in a TV room, that applies.

We DID remove the door off the TV room permanently (and he was actually "planning" that) so part of the fix is "in." Minimum, the door to the closet still needs a "high" grille.

But we decided to come in with OUTDOOR air, and this is why the AC tubes come in---there is VERY restricted area through that wall, to put a "high" grill through the wall, into the closet, and then a second grille, with duct, down to near the floor.

This is the general idea of outdoor air, but instead of going into the attic, it will have to come throught he outside wall

 

[67Dart273]

That sure is a neat installation. I wish I had enough sense to do that. I've been thinking about getting under the house and getting all our old duct work out and removing the old furnace in an effort to help reduce some of the labor charges for when we are able to get a new system installed. We haven't had central air in over ten years. It'd be nice to get that back again. If I thought I had half a brain enough to install it myself, I'd try it. I can install an electric water heater. lol

.............I've done better............... LOL 'Course, I was younger then, too

 

[4spdragtop]

Well done Del, for not only doing this properly, but(no offense) at your age also! I hope you didnt get taken "advantage" of and got paid properly.
When I'm 74, I'll be calling you!

 

[67Dart273]

Well done Del, for not only doing this properly, but(no offense) at your age also! I hope you didnt get taken "advantage" of and got paid properly.
When I'm 74, I'll be calling you!

Thanks Steve. This is my really good neighbor's son. They have sort of adopted me. They always have me over for family "stuff"

These are the folks who, the neighbor, son, and son in law, formed a corp. and went into the dump truck business. I don't remember, but not that long, maybe, 3 years ago. Bought a used but big truck (over the rear arm,, bogies under the belly, etc) and then bought a new truck and then a second, and recently ORDERED A THIRD BRAND NEW TRUCK. We are talking nearly a million in new trucks!!! And they recently hired a REALLY well experienced "3rd hand" who it sounds like will be kinda the "ramrod" of the outfit

 

[RustyRatRod]

Thanks Steve. This is my really good neighbor's son. They have sort of adopted me. They always have me over for family "stuff"

These are the folks who, the neighbor, son, and son in law, formed a corp. and went into the dump truck business. I don't remember, but not that long, maybe, 3 years ago. Bought a used but big truck (over the rear arm,, bogies under the belly, etc) and then bought a new truck and then a second, and recently ORDERED A THIRD BRAND NEW TRUCK. We are talking nearly a million in new trucks!!! And they recently hired a REALLY well experienced "3rd hand" who it sounds like will be kinda the "ramrod" of the outfit

I remember you talking about them. You said when they bought the first truck you weren't "sure" it was going to work out....or something like that, but it seems like they've really worked hard at it and made it work out. That's some good work ethic.

 

[67Dart273]

This area is busting out. I don't care for it, but nothing I can do. This is one of the faster growing areas. The problem is, that "more liberals" are bound to show up as well. And the traffic. If you look at Coeur d Alene on a map, hiway 95 N/ S is completely hemmed in and over-crowded. They have recently "done some work" but all that did was bring it from 40 years "behind" to "only 20" years behind. Going from CDA to Hayden is a damned parking lot

For example, the entire 95 through town has ZERO overpasses for side streets. All stop signs and stop LIGHTS on the main highway