Avoid This VERY Common AC Issue To Save Hundreds and Enjoy Colder Air!

there is a very common AC issue that gets ignored way too often and that issue is rotted AC Lin set insulation so in this video I'm going to show you exactly what the issue is I'm going to show you just how quickly and easily this can be fixed I'm going to do it also while installing this newer product that not a whole lot of people have talked about it's going to make this installation and repair a whole lot tighter and it's also going to protect our line set and insulation so we're not having to make this repair again for a very very long time so let's go ahead and Jump Right In All right so as you can see this is our AC line set here this is what is handling the refrigerant it starts at the AC unit and it goes all the way up and then enters into the house there but if we look up here really closely look at how degraded this rubber is it is just falling apart and as we go down here a little bit further we actually have sections that are exposed and I don't know if you can tell or not but it is glistening there is condensation that is happening on top of this line but one of the biggest issues or I should say problems with this is when you have this exposed metal which is where our refrigerant is running through it's very cold you want it to stay cold but if it's exposed and especially the more of this line that is exposed the worse it will be but you're going to have what's called heat gain and that is just essentially saying that this pipe is being exposed to heat and it's not keeping in the cool temperatures as well as it should be which affects the efficiency of your unit and of course if we go down the lines a little bit more it's completely degraded the whole way but we get to here and you can see where this is starting to get get exposed as well so this insulation is shot and the reason why this insulation degrades is because it's exposed to the elements and more specifically the UV rays from the Sun so if you go outside and you see that your insulation looks like this where it's piy it's flaking off and especially if you start seeing holes in it as you can see as we come down this line it gets thinner and thinner and that's just because it's getting degraded more and more in certain places so if you see any of this going on you want to definitely consider replacing the insulation that is on your AC lines all right so the first thing I want to do is I want to make sure that I get all of my insulation that is damaged removed from my lines the easiest way to do this is just using a knife very carefully and just scoring down the insulation it will come off very easily especially if it's in the shape of mine because it's already kind of crumbling one thing to note though if using a knife to cut this off is to be very careful when making the cuts so it's to not cut any of the wiring that is running in and along your line set if you accidentally cut that then you're definitely going to have issues with trying to get your AC unit or heat pump to operate properly and I just want to make sure that I'm removing all the installation that's going all the way up to where my lines are entering into the house all right so I've got all of my old and damaged installation removed from my line here now it's a little bit more obvious that we have a wire and we have two separate lines one line is much larger than the other this is our high and low sides and in most cases we really only need to focus on this bigger line here we want to make sure this thing stays as cool as possible and we don't have any condensation that is forming on top and the insulation that I'm going to be using in order to cover up this line again is just your standard 3/4 in rubber insulation you can find this pretty much anywhere whether it's at your local Home Improvement store or like always I'll have links for this along with all the other tools and materials that you're going to see in this video anything you see I'll have links for it down in the description down below when you click on those links it'll take you directly to so you can check them all out for yourself another thing that's nice about this insulation is if we open it up or it's split all the way down you will see we have these little strips here that get peeled off and there's adhesive underneath of these strips that when we're ready to have this installed all we have to do is remove those strips push that together the adhesive will stick to each other and it will close everything up and seal it up nice and tight so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to start installing this pipe insulation and wrapping it around my piping getting everything set into place I want to make sure that I get my insulation as far up and as close to the house as I possibly can and now that I've got my insulation kind of dry fitted I know exactly how long I need it to be I want to make sure that I cut off my insulation down here at the bottom of this line so I just put it up next to it and I'll just take a razor blade and cut all the way around the insulation and now I can remove those strips that will expose the adhesive and then connect these two sides together I'll just go all the way down making making sure that those two pieces of adhesive are connected with each other and that my line is fully encapsulated in the insulation all right so now that all my insulation is installed I have it sticking to each other I still want to go in on top and then also combining my wires here with that insulation on the outside of it I want to go around everything just to make sure everything is nice and tight with this line set tape now I do definitely recommend using this line set tape as you can see on top it says that it's UV resistant this is made for this job specifically and I'm just going to take this tape I'm going to wrap it around my lines a couple or a few times and I'm going to do this in about three or four different spots all the way down the lines again this is just further reinforcing holding my insulation down and together and then also combining the wiring in on top of the insulation so it's not just floating around freely and possibly getting caught on something and then being damaged and so with this insulation being on there nice and tight on that pipe we now have a very good insulating factor and this line is going to be able to retain its temperature as efficiently as possible but now at this point up here where the lines are entering into the house now we're going to take some caul and I like to use silicone caul especially for exterior uses I'm just going to put a beat of caul all the way around my lines here where it's entering into the house just to make sure that everything is nice and sealed up all right so now we've got our insulation installed we got our tape wrapping around making sure everything's nice and tight and we've got our COA going around where the lines insert into the house creating a nice seal now it is at this point that especially in the past and it still can be the case now to where a lot of people would consider this repair done all the installation is installed everything is sealed up nicely but for me personally I am not done yet I am going to install this which is made by Eric this is their Titan outlet cover and this is actually a retrofit model to where it comes in two separate pieces so we can get it wrapped around our line set also this comes in a couple different color options this is obviously the gray and black but it also comes in white as well just depending on people's preferences these come in three different sizes you want to select the proper size for the size of insulation that you have installed on your lines so this one is made for 3/4 in because I have 3/4 in insulation another thing to pay close attention to is is what type of wall are you going to be mounting it on as you see I've got lap siding so I needed to select their model they have two different models and this one has a much thicker gasket on it this is to make up for not having that flat surface to make sure that everything is sealed up as well as possible so if you have lap siding like I do or an uneven wall you'd want to get the thicker gasket if you have a nice flat wall then you can get the one that has the thinner gasket on it so I'm going to show you just how easily this gets installed and I'm going to show you all the benefits that this has to offer going this extra step because it really does make a huge difference once we're all done so I'm just going to take this apart and I'm going to start out with trying to fit my lower portion of this Outlet on my line set here all right so I've got my lower portion set now I'm just going to take my top portion set it in on top make sure the gaskets are going over each other the way that they're supposed to be now that I've got those two halves together I'll just take the supplied screws insert them into the holes and then I'm going to tighten them down on each side which is then going to connect the top to the bottom portion of this outlet cover and now my outlet cover is firmly around my line set here and we're going to get all this corrected here in just a little bit and then once I've got the outlet centered the way that I want it then I'm just going to drill some pilot holes using a 3/16 inch bit and I'm going to drill it in all four of the holes and that's where then we're going to insert our multi-purpose screws in just a moment all right so now that I've got my pilot holes drilled now I'm going to insert these screws right here these are just multi-surface or multi-purpose screws that can be used in pretty much any surface that your wall might be made of and these get inserted using a 5/16 in driver now I want to take my caul again and I just want to run a beat of caul all the way around the perimeter of that gasket we're not quite ready to clamp all this down yet this next step is where a lot of the magic happens so that we don't find ourselves in the same place that we were where we were needing to replace our insulation this is called their ax Flex guard this is an extremely durable fabric which has Velcro on each side in order to make our connections when we go to wrap it around our lines here but this is what's going to provide all of that UV protection so that we don't find our insulation rotting again now as you can see clearly here on the outside it looks kind of like a leather but then when we go to open it up it looks like a very shiny rubber it just feels very well made so it's as easy as this to install we're just going to kind of roll this out and get it to about the length that we think we're going to need and actually I'm going to make sure that I cut it a little bit long CU I can always cut more off now I'm just going to take that fabric and start wrapping it around my line here and like I said on each side they're on opposite sides on each side is pieces of velcro where they can stick together and it'll hold these nice and tight together all right so now everything is coming together we've got our UV protective sleeve on now now we want to tighten everything up and we're going to do that by installing this hose clamp Over Our Sleeve and then the rubber that is coming out of the outlet itself now we definitely don't want to make this too tight we have very sensitive lines running in here so just tight enough to where this UV sleeve is being held onto the outlet and so that should do it and then down here at the other end where I don't have a hose clamp I'm just going to take one of the supplied black zip ties and put it down around that and tighten it down all right so let's check this all out we've got our Outlet installed it looks fantastic this looks the way that it should have instead of just those lines going into the wall and basically just hanging out we have a finished fixture that's now there it is providing a better seal than we had before then of course we've got our UV cover that's attached to it that's going all the way down our line set here protecting our new insulation from the UV rays to where we're not going to have to worry about having to replace that instulation for a very very very long time and what that means is that refrigerant that's running in the lines is going to be able to stay as cold as possible which means the AC unit is going to run as efficiently as possible so super clean looking probably takes around 30 to 40 minutes to totally install but in my opinion the benefits that you get from it make all of it worth it now one thing to just really quickly note is you don't necessarily need to install the Eric's Titan outlet in order to do this repair obviously you really just need to get some new insulation you need to tape it up and make make sure everything's wrapped nicely and you also want to make sure that you seal the Gap around where the lines are going into your home but if you really want to amp up this repair and you see the benefits like I did in purchasing this particular product then I would definitely recommend looking into it it's definitely going to help seal everything up it also looks a whole lot nicer and the biggest thing for me is the fact that it comes with that UV protection to make sure that we're not going to have this issue again and our lines and everything are covered up so our unit is running as efficiently as possible and speaking of running as efficiently as possible and if you found value in this video then you're definitely going to find Value in this video right over here where I go over some steps that you can take in order to make your unit run as efficiently as possible it'll help lower your electric bill and help your air blow colder so I hope that you found value in this video and if you did if you do me a huge favor all I ask is that you give the video a thumbs up right down below and of course if you have any questions or comments still you can leave those down in the comment section and I'll catch you all in the next one see you

Channel: How To Home

Views: 286,131

Keywords: energy efficiency, HVAC, DIY, air conditioning tips, how to, summer, tips, troubleshooting, home improvement, HVAC troubleshooting, HVAC maintenance, AC repair, repair, HVAC repair, AC issue, air conditioning, save money, maintenance, cooling system, stay cool, Airex Titan Lineset Outlet, AC Line Insulation, AC Line Instulation Repair

Id: SZT6_4H3syQ

Length: 12min 25sec (745 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2024