anyone know anything about central air?

[WeLoveLilo05]

We bought our first house last year, and its great to be a homeowner. A big reason we fell in love with this house was it had a 2 yr old HWH, and Centrail air and furnace that wasn't old, and a pretty new roof (haha!)

When we moved in in June our air seemed to be on non stop bc it was a brutually hot summer, I usually keep it on at about 72-74ish. Mid summer we had water leaking out of the unit. We had someone come in (he was the son of a man who owned a heating/cooling co. who has been working with his dad for a few years) we thought a tray had cracked causing the unit to leak. When he pulled out the coils we all almost died with the amount of pet hair in it. He was certain that was the reason for the problem. It took him 2 hours to clean it out and I could have made a small beagle with the amount of pet hair he washed out of there. After that we didn't have a problem the rest of the summer.

We put the AC on for the first time last night at around 6pm bc our house was80 degrees after I made dinner. Air was on for 3 hours and the temp didn't drop a degree. I gave up, turned it off. I tried it again this morning, it has been on for maybe close to 2 hours and it did drop 1 degree.

Is this normal? I feel cool air coming out the vents. But I feel there must be something wrong that its didnt cool the house down at all last night. DH said he thinks there was just too much humidity in the house last night.
Anyone know anything about Centrail air and what they think the problem may be and will it be a huge expense?

 

[tvguy]

Could just need freon.

I don't live in a humid climate....dry and hot here, but my 22 year old heat pump can drop the temperature 3-5 degrees an hour. We keep the house at 78........which is plenty cool on a 105 degree day.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Is the unit running? When that happens at work, we go outside and usually the unit isn't even running.

 

[Bren's Mom]

I can't tell you how to fix it, or how much it might cost, but I can definitely say that it seems you have a problem.

It was CRAZY humid last night here in CT. Oppressively so. And while I hate to put our central air on in May, I did. We closed all the windows about 9pm, and within 5-10 mins felt cool. Humidity was already mostly gone from the house and it seemed comfortable. Dh put the bedroom zone to 64 and by the time we went to bed about 11pm it was frigid upstairs. (I moved it to a more moderate temp then.)

I would have a repair man come out to give you a quote.

 

[kellyg403]

It could also be clogged again. Years ago, I rented a home that every single year for some reason it would clog up, not really work and eventually leak out water.

Freon too. I would definitely turn it off and have someone come look at it. You don't want to have something seize or stop working that costs a lot more to fix.

I happen to be inthe latter category. I kept hearing a noise in AC unit. Our compressor died and we now need a new one! It has been pretty warm and muggy plus my asthma and allergies are acting up and welllll...I am miserable. Everyone out there is turning on the AC for the first time of the season and finding out things don't work. We have been waiting for the guy to fit us in for over 1 week. Parts ordered, just gotta come and iinstall. We are in line with many others at this point.

Good LUCK!

Kelly

 

[lovemygoofy]

Is the unit running outside? I'm guessing you either need freon or the fan in the unit outside is not working properly. I've had two different a/c units take out and both times the fan in the unit outside needed to be replaced.

 

[HM]

72-74 seems awfully cool to keep your house. We set ours at 78-79 in the summer.

Good luck with your unit. I hope it's something simple like just needing extra freon.

 

[poohfriend77]

I'm definitely no expert, but it does sound like maybe you just need some freon. We have a slow leak and need a bit added every 2 years or so.

I will add that we have a service contract with our HVAC company. We pay $80 in fall for a full furnace check, and $80 again in the spring for an A/C check. They clean the units, replace filters, and just generally check things out. While it might seem hard to pay so much when nothing is wrong, we feel proper maintenance pays for itself over time. The service contract is cheaper than the cost of one regular service visit, and it gives us discounts on labor and parts if there ever is a problem later in the season. You might want to look into something like that!

 

[StephMK]

I don't know how old your unit is but if you have the papers from the previous owners, check if there is any type of warranty coverage. We had to replace our system last year and the parts are warrantied for 5 or 10 years.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

Thanks, went outside and fan isn't spinning ugh. Wonder if something happened with the hurricane to damage it. Great!

 

[lovemygoofy]

Thanks, went outside and fan isn't spinning ugh. Wonder if something happened with the hurricane to damage it. Great!

Turn the unit off. You can just burn the motor out leaving the a/c on. The fan should be a simple fix.

 

[avgeek81]

My AC was doing that last year. I had a guy I know come out, he works for a company but does side jobs. Turns out there was some sort of power surge and some parts got fryed. It wasnt very expensive but it probably wouldve been if I went thru a company.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

Turn the unit off. You can just burn the motor out leaving the a/c on. The fan should be a simple fix.

Thanks I did when I came back in, figured there was no point in keeping it on if it wasn't doing anything. Just stinks bc my eyes are so bad from all this pollen. Thanks for your help, kinda feel like an idiot that I just didn't go outside and check haha

O well....guess i ain't cooking tonight

 

[DLgal]

This happened to our AC unit last year. The fan stopped spinning but I didn't realize it, then I heard a high pitched noise and shut off the thermostat. When the AC repair guy showed up, he said the fan motor had totally fried and needed to be replaced. Cost $500.

This year, we had the guy come out and do a spring maintenance check. He had to add freon and replace some electrical contacts. Total repair cost: $900.

Luckily, it's not our home. We are renters, and the landlord didn't hesitate to pay for the repairs. But, man, that's a lot of money to spend on a 6 year old AC unit, IMO.

If you have a dog, I highly recommend changing your air filter every month. Don't get the kind that are super allergen or anything like that, as those restrict air flow. Get the really basic ones and switch out every 30 days religiously. You should notice a big difference in airflow in your home and it should cut down on the dog hair collection in the unit.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

This happened to our AC unit last year. The fan stopped spinning but I didn't realize it, then I heard a high pitched noise and shut off the thermostat. When the AC repair guy showed up, he said the fan motor had totally fried and needed to be replaced. Cost $500.

This year, we had the guy come out and do a spring maintenance check. He had to add freon and replace some electrical contacts. Total repair cost: $900.

Luckily, it's not our home. We are renters, and the landlord didn't hesitate to pay for the repairs. But, man, that's a lot of money to spend on a 6 year old AC unit, IMO.

If you have a dog, I highly recommend changing your air filter every month. Don't get the kind that are super allergen or anything like that, as those restrict air flow. Get the really basic ones and switch out every 30 days religiously. You should notice a big difference in airflow in your home and it should cut down on the dog hair collection in the unit.

We don't have a dog bc DH is allergic but the previous owners had 2 dogs and a cat, we had to rip out the carpet and put down HW bc my husband's allergies were so bad. He was still complaining after we did that and lo behold it was bc of the dog air in those coils. It wasn't pretty lol

 

[cabanafrau]

Could just need freon.

I don't live in a humid climate....dry and hot here, but my 22 year old heat pump can drop the temperature 3-5 degrees an hour. We keep the house at 78........which is plenty cool on a 105 degree day.

3-5 degrees in an hour is a pretty big drop when you're trying to pull humidity out of carpets, draperies and furniture. The climate makes a big difference in this.

 

[kt_mom]

72-74 seems awfully cool to keep your house. We set ours at 78-79 in the summer.

Good luck with your unit. I hope it's something simple like just needing extra freon.

We keep our unit set between 68-71 year round. DH is always hot and complains if its over about 71 or 72 in the house. I guess I've adapted over the years but people always comment on how cool our house is. We've been running our AC for awhile. DH would flip if he came home and I had the thermostat set at 78 degrees.

 

[Missy29]

We just had something like this happen, fan was not running outside but air was blowing in the house,( not cold air) turns out it was the fuse from outside.

 

[KAMLEM]

We had the same problem a couple of years ago. For some reason the reset button on the system had to be reset then everything worked fine. I'd start by seeing if your unit has a reset button on it. On ours there is a little removable panel near the base of the unit outside, we just had to unscrew it and press the button.

 

[mommyjam]

We keep our unit set between 68-71 year round. DH is always hot and complains if its over about 71 or 72 in the house. I guess I've adapted over the years but people always comment on how cool our house is. We've been running our AC for awhile. DH would flip if he came home and I had the thermostat set at 78 degrees.

We do the same thing. My SIL always brings sweats when she comes over.