Desperate Homeowner with Dead Central AC System - Repair or Replace

what's going on ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for tuning in Friday love me Fridays been a very very very amazing week here at pipe doctor Home Services in Woodmere New York we installed a couple Bosch premium IDs 2.1 connected systems even did a room 3 ton good stuff great great week on my way to my next service call this is a central air conditioning service call customers complain is the system is not cooling they uh we've been going to this customer's location for a couple years uh last year however they did cancel their maintenance agreement with us where they were being charge $25 a month uh which basically you're prepaying for a maintenance tuneup service call and you get a bunch of other perks like priority scheduling discount on parts and labor and of course that free tuneup let's go see what's going on guys and um as always let me get your thoughts feedback even criticism down in the comments section down below at the end of the video let's get going [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hello how are you nice to see you thank you as well yes cooling yeah what happened I left the house 2 years ago the first year you guys came out the thing it was like 57 it was pretty cold and then I think you guys came out last year the gentleman told me the freon was low he added a couple of pounds it should be in the thing and so maybe last week or so was the first time we turned it on this season and you can feel it it's not and this is It's been on the whole night now upstairs the registers are a little cold the one over here has a little more pressure but generally speaking it it's not even 80 and it can't keep up and I'm just like if we hit 90 I'm screwed we're going to have to sleep in a hotel cuz it too hot so I don't know sorry about that the the outdoor unit yeah so you've been letting it run you know what I had to because you know you open the windows but that can only the Air's a little only do so much yeah I don't know that woring weird it's different from last year yeah that's uh probably Frozen or [Music] low yeah I don't even think the compressor is running all right let me uh grab some tools um all right I'll be right back basically empty sucks Factory charge 13 lbs right and there's five things we can do I'm going give you all the all the info and you make your best decision last year we added two PBS this year there's 27 PSI in the system that's basically nothing right it's considered flat it's yeah so and the noise you're hearing is you know atmosphere being introduced into the system listen it's not good so number one if we do nothing um then you know you're know my my my time here was moot and uh you're still going to be in the same shoes where we left if we add refrigerant uh eventually it's going to leak out again it could be next you know tomorrow next week next month next year whenever but it probably will be soon uh number three we can add a sealant to the system and try to find the leak with uh with uh try to seal up the leak with with a with a sealant I don't know if we added any last year let me see uh no we just added we replaced the Dual capacitor for you and we uh did the Dual Capac dual capacitor and 2 pounds of refrigerant uh so if we add a sealant we'd also have to charge up the system at the same time there's no warranty or guarantee that it'll work uh and significant you know any any choice by the way is significant and you know as far as what's this it going to cost I'm not going to sugar coat it's not going to be cheap um number four we find the leak Leak Detection uh and then talk ways how to make those that repair or number five you replace the system when you say replace the system that includes the piping yes so the indoor unit the blower the the copper lines that connect the indoor to the outdoor which may or may not have been replaced in in the in the history of this home if this was a replacement system I don't know um yeah so yeah so if we go The Leak search route I would bug s in my throat these bugs they want to go in your mouth and your nose if we go The Leak search route we would uh add High Press nitrogen to the system go in the Attic see if we can hear anything probably won't because it may be you know a small leak where it's minimal difficult um but you know if we go the The Leak search route um I have sound equipment and other equipment like that that we can try to look for it timec consuming uh you can easily spend you know th000 bucks $1,500 just in looking for the leak plus and then what needs to be repaired or replaced right generally generally just based on my professional experience and and just experience is generally the leaks are in the condens the uh the evaporated coil on the blower on the inside unit that's generally where they are but it can also be at a joint or you know the coil outside or it could be in the compressor but um makes sense to search that place where probably is and that add the sealant to the system is adding the sealant not good well listen it's not a brand new system you know it's it's you know I got a party on on Sunday so I want to make sure that the house is going to be cool then you're not it's you know the only way to do that would be to listen chances are it's something that's leaking coils leaking you're not getting that special order you have the order of that could be a couple weeks out seriously um party on Sunday if you're looking for a cold house unless you literally spend over $2,000 today you and it may leak out by then um there's no way no it's impossible oh you're saying you charged it with the free on but then it might lose it in a week or a month you may you may but listen if if it was completely empty we would be having a different direction of this conversation but the system is not completely empty but if I just add refriger to buy you time that's all it is is buying you time okay can we search the the place where it normally is and then add sealant to the system and then charge it and see how much time that okay so let's talk about what what's involved with that and what what possible causes are uh we you know it doesn't make it it does not make any sense to recover what's in here now time time time wise because it's probably less than a pound of refrigerant in the system realistically there's nothing in here uh we would add nitrogen on top of what you have here now um and then listen to see if we can hear a a leak somewhere and then we can pinpoint it so if we go that route uh yeah it's just you know we'll add some nitrogen it's just time and labor I really think this may be one of the first service calls that I'm documenting for YouTube for you guys uh where we're actually going to look for a leak so there's a nitrogen there's my teso 5 57s let's fill her up all right let's go back to something a little more real B istic like 500 PSI open that up let's do 400 PSI don't need to go crazy here she really not going above 109 I don't get that whatsoever come on I'm set for 400 what the hell bro maybe because there only uh what the hell was this tank empty no 126 now we go now we're cranking let's go to let's fill her up baby 250 it's a good number right there let's close these off so we got 190 in there I'm dropping let's go to the attic all right I did a ultrasound leak detection in the Attic let's just say that the outside is about 15° cooler than the outside so you can imagine how hot the attic is uh found leaks in the or a leak sorry in the evaporator coil and uh I thought it was a carrier right cuz I'm looking at the equipment here right and it looks like a carrier but it's not it's a comfort maker and it was sold by Sid Harvey's uh in 200 16 or 17 yep 2016 and uh the coil had a 5year warranty to the original owner and uh it's Friday and the customer uh has a party on Sunday and he's working from home today and he's like listen I I can't deal with this heat you know I was like gas it up and I'm like huh so uh that's exactly what I'm doing 14 lb so far um I'm going to go to 15 because I came Factory charged with 13 It's a small leak and I'm going to add some sealant we're going to uh we're going to put in a Bosch systems that sell themselves I kid you not the guy's putting solar panels on his roof literally next week and he's like I have oil heat my house like just gas her up maybe I'll get through the season maybe I won't I really don't care and uh I'm like okay I got you bro I got you so I got 14 lbs 2 O uh 14.2 lbs in her right now we're going to close these up um I'm going to fire up and see what happens so I got a TXV so I'm going to charge by sub cooling and when I'm done I'm going to inject the easy seal into the systems also got some ultraviolet die and you know what I know you guys are going to be ripping me a new one but I'm showing you real world HVAC service calls and this is how things transpire you may want to be the leak king of HVAC but unless you're paying for it and or you're working for free it's not getting done and you do with the customers want it is what it is we're putting in a Bosch he's got a party on Sunday he's working from home today he's got little kids in the house and it's 87° at the thermostat I'm doing what my customers tell me to do and it is what it is I know that Canada is different I know that Europe is different maybe the United States is like a third world country I don't really give a flying F because I'm doing what my customers tell me to do I gave them the options step one do nothing number two add refrigerant number three add sealant number four let's look for this leak and then talk about ways to make it go away and number five replace the system he opted for the nitrogen we went that route right we added nitrogen to the system I had my my eot track whatever it's called the ultrasonic leak detector with the headphones I went in there and I found a leak on the coil sounds like like static going off right it's too hot up there I wasn't recording any of that nonsense came down told him what we got going on he like listen just just charge her up and uh we'll replace the coil so I started daming down the system after dumping the nitrogen and I I told him like listen let's just talk realistic numers you know what I'm going to charge this thing up today you're going to spend well over $2,000 right and I gave him the exact number with 15 lb of refrigerant and I said but you have the system that's no longer in warranty it was to the original owner anyway what do you think about maybe maximizing re baes getting up to $1,000 of rebates back if we put in a high efficiency heat pump system and enough set at that point all right 14.2 lb we're at 6° of subcooling let's add a little bit more of 410A charging is a liquid 4.6 4.7 let's go to 4 15 right there 15 lb of r410 okay 7.2 in climbing that'll probably end up I'm going to guess probably like 9 and2 to 10 1 12 degrees of sub cooling I'm pretty sure we're looking for 10° of sub cooling no looking for eight oh okay so looking for 8 de of sub cooling we're slowly climbing 7.7 7.6 oh I went back down 7.5 7.4 no I did not change the filter dryer 7.4 15 lb 7.5 all right I think we're good with that 15 lbs even let's inject the uh easy seal I'm going to remove my low side hose from that surface Port okay make sure it doesn't go into the dirt I'm going to connect my easy seal this does up to 7.5 tons they also make the uh the ones for up to 2 tons and also for ductless mini split systems I don't recommend putting it into duck Min systems but there you go connected I am going to close wow she's only got a few pounds left in her we used three lbs yesterday I think on that Bosch that's closed off I am going to remove my high side hose I'm going to open up my high side open up my charging hose and open up my low side and the pressures that are in this charging hose the pressures that are in that red high pressure hose and my blue hose are all going to equalize now and then that vial is going to inject itself right into the system system is going to be running for a minimum of an hour non-stop let that sealant circulate through the whole Refrigeration circuit all right ladies and gentlemen it does not bring me any comfort adding over 15 lbs of refrigerant to any system without actually fixing a leak but we do have to do as our customers ask and uh as long as we're on the same page that there's no warranty or guarantee absolutely no warranty or guarantee it is what it is he did get a 10% discount for uh his military uh um background retired Navy get 10% off of that still uh was a big uh big chunk but we're going with the Bosch as soon as this one's dead he's like hopefully I'll get the season out of it I don't want to spend the money now but before they heating season starts and he starts filling up his oil tank he wants to get the BOS in place so all I did was just discuss while my system was vacuuming down I didn't waste any time you know I could have sat there with my finger up my up my ass and uh waited for the thing to come down to like 300 microns which it eventually did um play the options on the table balls in their Court thank you so much for watching if you're in the long New York metropolitan area and your air conditioning is on the fritz you need a new air conditioning system uh maintenance got a pool heater or any Plumbing stoppage water heater service call water filtration give pipe do Home Services a call we'll be more than glad to help you out my trucks are fully stocked with thousands upon thousands of parts to get the job done in one trip saving you time and money give me a call 516 34863 or save time book online visit pipe doc.net that's p i p do o.net catch you the next one be well God bless stay safe [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Mikey Pipes - Pipe Doctor Plumbing & Heating & Air

Views: 4,309

Keywords: central ac repair, hvac, air conditioner, air conditioning, ac, repair, hvac school, hvac training, maintenance, service, hvac technician, ac repair, air conditioner not blowing cold air, freon, air conditioner repair, ac not blowing cold air, hvac training videos, ac not working, pipe doctor, mikey pipes hvac, mikey pipes, mike pipes, mike diack, local ac repair, long island, air conditioning long island, hvac air conditioning repair, central ac not cooling, desperate, homeowner

Id: ZyEoM0nmUWQ

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2024