How to Properly Perform Annual Service and Maintenance on a Central AC System

good morning or afternoon or evening depending on  what time of day you're watching this video it's   me mikey pipes thanks for tuning in to another  great episode i hope you really enjoy this one   just doing a routine maintenance first time  for this client we've done a lot of heating and   plumbing for them but this is the first time doing  the dealing with their hvac central air system   and uh let's roll the red carpet to impress  let's get going guys all right so i am way   early i am actually an hour and 12 minutes  early and that's because my first service call   needed to reschedule so let's take a look and  see what he's got here all right we got two rheem   and they're probably four 10a systems and they're  a little bit pitched they're not sitting on a   level platform but we got one from 2020 this is  a three ton you can tell that by the 36 000 btus   and the other one is gonna be right there  and i can't see but this is the clearance   that we're working with i can't even get my phone  between the wall of the house and the condenser so it looks like they got a little sloppy there with  uh that okay so let's park the truck over here   and we'll start maintenance all right i have  both disconnects pulled from the disconnect   panels and i have both access panels off  first thing i want to do is just take a   visual inventory of what's going on we have a 455  capacitor here contactor we have some just random   outdoor debris cobwebs we're gonna take the  milwaukee m18 compact blower and clean out that   compartment as well as this one another thing i'm  looking for is any signs of you know wires burning   potential shorts things of that nature and as you  can see i don't see any of the such so first i'm   going to do we're going to let's get our blower  and clean out these compartments and then test coil resistances on both contactors and  then test the ratings or the readings   of both capacitors all right both electrical  compartments are now clean so next we're going   to test capacitors all right i have my leads from  my multimeter on c and fan and i'm getting 5.2   so we're good with fan let's test the herm or  hermetically sealed compressor side next and i'm   reading 35.8 so my 35 over 5 35 5 dual capacitor  is good the coil resistance is reading 13.8   across the capacitor so i know that is good as  well all right i've duplicated the same testing   uh procedures for the dual capacitor and for  the contactor on the other unit here the other   condenser and i have removed the four 516 screws  that hold the condenser fan assembly and guard   to the condenser and let rest of them over and i  have a little bit of slack here so when doing this   if you're not going to actually disconnect the  condenser fan motor wiring is make sure you   don't put too much strain on the wiring here  where you could potentially you know damage   the wiring rip off the insulation things of that  nature now i have a little bit of debris in here   i'm gonna by hand uh get rid of some of these  leaves into a bucket and then we'll vacuum out   the rest fortunately everything is dry here  so i could that should be done in a quick and   efficient manner all right i got them as clean  as i could possibly make them with what i'm   working with without bringing in water first so  i use the five gallon bucket and as you can see   not much there but it's better to put  your debris in your bucket versus than   throwing it to the guy's grass i know it has  some leaves there already but it is what it   is all right now that i still have both  my condenser fan motor assembly is still   not secured to the unit we're going to use the  viper the maximum strength this is the venom pack   and we're gonna use this to clean up the coils on  both these units so i got my new cal gun coil gun   and i got a hose over there and i got the viper  and i got my little tripod and we're going to mix   this up and i'm going to film it and show you  how we wash or clean the coils from inside out   we're doing from inside out because airflow is  coming from outside in you don't want to shove   water in this way you want to shove water in this  way to get the dirt to force any dirt dust pile   and all that good stuff out of it i do have some  constructive criticism to these people who make   this this refrigeration technologies yes it is  the caps every single one that i bought last year   the caps break right so now i have to  make sure this doesn't spill in the truck   ah all right i took half of the chemicals that  are in here and you can see you have a little   marking on there right see the ounce marking  and i filled this up about a quarter of way   all right next i'm going to take some  water all right at a low pace because   i don't want it really to bubble up that  much in there and i'm going to fill this up   almost to the top with water so we could um  dilute the concentrated uh viper i mean the   venom the venom pack okay i'm gonna take  my nozzle from here attach it to the hose   turn on the water full blast and i'm just gonna  give him a quick rinse to start with cold water and now i'm going to repeat the process with the  other condenser all right i'm ready to wash now so all right now one of the things to keep in  mind i have both covers off right so when   you're cleaning the coil pay very extra close  attention make sure you don't get any of the   component components uh wet or you got the  your coil cleaner on it okay alternatively   put the cover back on as you can see the coil  is fully covered all the way around on both   all right and i also did the exterior and i went  on an angle i don't want to spray it into it   i want to spray it on an angle just to like coat  the exterior of the coils we're gonna let this sit   you don't have to rinse it but we'll let this  sit for about 10 minutes and then rinse it with   cold water all right i'm just about ready to start  rinsing these condensers with the the cold water   but in the interim let's rinse the coil gun  because if you don't take care of your tools your   tools are not going to take care of you and then  you're not going to have a tool all right i am   rinsing the container with some cold water  get all the chemicals out of there and once   that's clear reattach the actual gun itself run  that through a full bottle full container of   water to make sure it's clean take care of  your tools your tools will take care of you all right let this run until it's empty  and then we're going to wind up the hose   and put these stuff back in the truck and  then we're going to work on the indoor unit   all right i don't know if you can see it  but this water is really not that clear   all right we're getting not a lot but we  are getting dirt out of the condensing coil   so it's got a slight tint of brown to the water  all right and that just goes to show you these   units were installed about 14 months ago so we  have 14 months of service and the dirt is not   a help it's not helping the performance of the  system so this is just stresses the importance   of really doing a thorough job accordingly to  keep the system working at its fullest potential okay ladies and gentlemen now i don't know if  you can really tell the difference but they look   incredibly different the coils that is and  while i have the hose out and after already   cleaned out all the debris from the bottom of the  condenser we also took the water just to kind of   like power wash that that uh that's that plastic  base so they're both nice nice and clean now   really looks tits amazing okay let's put both  condenser fan motor assemblies back on top of   the units let's make sure that we get the um  the liquid tight back into the holes on both   turn on power to both and then we'll check  for amperage all right so at this point   we have cleaned and reassembled the condenser  fan motors to both condensers now we need to   know which is first floor which is second floor  so i had the homeowner turn on the first floor   thermostat set it to cool set it to a temperature  at the lower then ambient temperature at   thermostat and we watched to see which contactor  pulled it and as you can see that contactor   is pulled in this one is not so i grabbed my  p-touch label maker from the truck and i marked   the first floor condenser with the label  and the second floor condenser with a label   now if you recall i couldn't see this  label because this is against the house   so i put this to a side where you're going to see  it easily and without having to break your neck   to see i'd identify which one is which  and if this label ever falls off at least   the odds are both falling off anytime soon or uh  unrealistic so now that contactor is pulled in   we're going to get our amp meter and we're going  to chest amperage when we plug in the disconnect   all right so i have my fluke multimeter this is  the hvac clamp meter this is the model 902 fc   by the way if you're curious to what to know  what exactly is in my veto tpx xl xxl toolbag   there's links amazon links in the description box  down below breaking down everything you see there   everything even the hik micro thermal imaging  camera which rests right there yes i carry a   thermal imaging camera in my tool bag you ain't  testing you're guessing now we're gonna carefully   reinsert the plug into the disconnect and  it's a good rule of thumb to technically   plug this in with your right hand with your  left hand behind your back and you're not   standing in water or touching anything that you  know god forbid there's a short electricity is   going to go down your right side of the body  down your arm down the right side of your   body down your leg so i should probably do that  and practice what i preach all right i got my   right hand there and yeah i guess i shouldn't be  wearing a pound of gold but when i plug this in   i'm going to take a look at the vol the volt meter  right which is going to be right there so let me   see if i can just set this up so you guys can see  what it reads when it starts up okay here we go all right nine nine two nine  five eight six eight five eight six all right that's on one line of power  let's test the other and we're also at eight   six now let's go to the rating plate the amperage  let's find that so we have a minimum supply   circuit of 23 amps max fuse 35 so we're good if we  had a high amount of amperage while it's running   uh we want to make note of that on the service  ticket the service invoice whatever you're using   my company uses uh service pal it's an app for  an ipad only an ipad and it is my dispatching   uh invoicing and payment receipt program that  my techs use in the field everyone has an ipad   and everyone has a credit card swiper we swipe  the payment directly into the service pal app   and the next morning money's in the business  account we also have the luxury excuse me being   able to take pictures to document the work attach  them to the invoice and then clicking the email   button and emailing the homeowner the clients the  consumer a pdf of the service work pretty neat if   you're interested in service pal there's details  in the description box down below all right we've   essentially completed the work that we need to  do outside now you may notice we did not check   refrigerant pressures and temperatures we did  not check them now why didn't we check them well   number one unless you suspect there's a an issue  with the refrigerant a leak in improper cooling   you see oil residue where it shouldn't be  uh there's no need to hook up your gauges   your manifold to check because when you do that  you're releasing a small amount of refrigerant   for what just to double check if it's working  or not if you have a good delta t and your other   conditions are correct you're good you know if  you wanted to you can hook up some you know um   clamp on temperature sensors probes to the suction  and liquid side see what you're getting there it's   fine but my rule of thumb is we're not connecting  gauges unless we suspect there's a problem so   we're essentially done on here for identification  purposes i added the raised dome pipe doctor home   services sticker this is the raised dome as you  can see it's got a nice little profile there and   it really sets my company apart from the others  that are out there if you're interested in getting   stickers like this i get mine from armored decal  they're in ontario canada and their information   is in the description box down below all right  let's head on inside and let's do maintenance   on two indoor units stay tuned guys i'm showing  care and concern for the customer's property by   not walking across the grass yes that would have  been nice to do a beeline but we're not doing that   let's go to the front door check out these  has the uh both systems been cooling properly   perfect all right that's good news this one um  every once in a while in the middle of summer if   we have it running very cold for a long time i  can feel this freeze over and it stops working   for like an hour or two and i have to turn  it off what do you see freeze over like uh   like this is all like white gold to the touch is  it does it have like ice on it or it's got like a   like a almost a very thin layer of well now it's  this is just dust yeah it almost was like frost   it happened uh once uh when we first put it in  it hasn't happened this year yet okay but it's   only again when we run it very cold for a long  time and then if i turn it off for a couple of   hours and turn it back on it works again so i am  assuming it's something's frozen up inside of it   um well you said it happened last year yeah and  only happened once only uh happened twice was it   a little cold outside or a little too cold  inside or it was very cold inside it was very   what what temperature we had inside i probably  had instead of like 60 all right that makes sense   it's freezing up because it's it's beyond its  design uh operating temperatures right okay now   if it happened consistently uh that's a concern  because that means you have either a couple things   you can have a restriction of airflow which means  a dirty filter um god forbid lower refrigerant it   means you have a leak or something's wrong  with an internal component i don't want to   confuse you the first time that happened they  came they made sure the refrigerant wasn't low   right and i i changed the filters every six  months so uh i i think it's just that we had   it running too cold so that filter that's in  there is good i changed that yeah literally and   okay april air very good let's just take a peek yep okay two of them yeah redundancy all right so that is not even uh cool  i'm gonna take a measurement of the   right filter that you need here okay and uh on  page two of your invoice uh we use this filter   service called uh filter fetch okay and very  reasonable pricing you deal directly with them   um i'll give you the codes that you need to enter  into online and you take your pick of filters that   you want what's cool about them you can buy like  pleated filters or the cheaper non-pleated ones   and they'll actually send you a reminder email  hey it's time to change your filters well let me   ask you do we if they installed this like this  wasn't our idea they installed this do we need   to i didn't filter on the intake so i'm a fan  of filters before actually air passes through   ductwork okay so what you have on that unit is  great right and i actually have identical april   air on my own house okay i have a couple systems  in my own house i have one on the unit itself and   then i have a cheap disposable fill to add to  filter build as well because if i don't have   a filter here your duct works gonna get dirty it  is there's no no doubt about it it doesn't reduce   air flow too much well that filth is disgusting  that needs to be changed yeah we just need to   we should actually get rid of it because it's kind  of like jerry rig that is restricting airflow okay so i'll take a measurement here and  just get that and get rid of this   they did that yeah they did that what is  wrong with them uh because they put it in   one we're still doing the construction and  there was a lot of dust and dirt ah okay   and you can see look at the dust that's  in there this this ducks are dusty yeah that's dirt that's dust all right so good idea because that's totally  the wrong size they just threw a home depot   special filter and then i'll throw it out we'll  take them right i think that's 14 by 30 but   i'll double check okay all right for our first  foreign basement system we have the rh1p this   is the 110 volt there hammer i believe yep so i  checked the capacitor it's reading 15 micro powers   give it a good once over check the amperage  of the motor hardly anything now to treat   the condensate pump and the internal condensate  pan i'm going to use the pantry my new caligon   these little green tablets right let me show you  them real quick i've been using these for years   they really are great i'm going to take a little  handful of them six or seven of them are fine i   think i dropped one down there and there it is so  we're gonna take a couple i'm just gonna drop them   into the condensate pump right just like that it's  gonna help get rid of all that cocky nasty water   i'm just gonna drop a few of them in there like  that and they're gonna fall to the bottom of the   condensate panel okay so that and i already blew  out the condensate drain line with my gallo gun   so only thing we have left to do here is check  out the system in the attic and follow the same   procedures easy peasy all right instead of putting  a sticker on here i just used one of my older 50   off unix service called magnets right there and  then one of the newer stickers on the boiler   and we've been here before as you can see  and there's a combustion test we even do   combustion tests on water heaters ladies and  gentlemen but take a look at this this is not   something you see that often and that's the  job done right and i know why it was done   right because the job was inspected when  they added the extension on this house   and the inspector was not letting that fly without  combustion here so this is called field can   fan in a can and it's for fresh combustion  air we have four inch single wall smoke pipe   and that goes outside so when there's a call for  heat this turns on first it tells the boiler hey   you know i've proven that i'm running with a  pressure switch and it closes the end switch   on the boiler and when the cycle of heat is off  that turns off so it's not running year round   granted in the winter i guess this room will  get quite cold sucking in that cold you know   new york long island uh winter weather you  know average temperature 34 36 degrees so   but this does need fresh combustion air  and if you take a look at the boiler we   are a one of the 175 000 btus so think of it  this way see this little closet here i'm at 175   candles burning in this very very tight quarters  they're not going to stay on because there's not   enough oxygen for all those candles to burn  i'd expect the boiler to also burn properly   use your noggin ladies and gentlemen oh  yeah you know this is awesome real attic   all right let's take a look at everything we're  gonna check capacitor this is a 10 micro powered   blower looks nice and clean i'm  gonna take some condensate tablets   and just throw them in there all right i  lose one yeah i did get back over here buddy tablets right there we're going to cut  a union here and blow out the drain line this primary there's emergency  i don't see a float switch here   that's a shame there really  should be one there but the first time he neglects his drains we'll be  adding one and that ladies and gentlemen is how   to properly service and maintain your central  air conditioning equipment if you're an hvac tech   or contractor that is the way you should be  running your service calls you know i spent   a little under two hours on site to properly  maintain and service and to document and validate   two central air conditioning systems  so two hours so an hour per system   if you or your technicians are in and out of  your customers property in you know 45 minutes   okay that's questionable if they're in and out  in 20 minutes 30 minutes hey they're not doing   the proper job b your customer is not perceiving  value unless you're one of those fly-by-night guys   charging you know 29 for a tune-up there's no  such thing as a 29 tune-up ladies and gentlemen   if you see in certain parts of the country  you see this especially down in florida   you know you'll get an air conditioning tune up  you know for 29.95 it's kind of like those 49 95   sewer and drain guys you know 49.95 any sewer or  drain what are you honestly getting for 50 bucks   you know what for me it's not even worth  putting the keys in the ignition it cost me more   to deliver a technician to your home or a business   than 50 bucks i'm sorry and i think that  applies to anywhere in the united states   seriously so you get what you pay for ladies and  gentlemen so if you're a homeowner a consumer   watching this video if your air conditioning  company comes to do a tune-up in february april or   or march you know february march april when it's  40 degrees out you're not getting what you pay for   or actually you may be getting when you pay for  it if they charge you 29.95 you cannot properly   test and see a system running with such low  temperatures now some of you may be saying   right now hey mikey pipes you know you didn't even  hook up your refrigeration gauges to the system   you're right because the system is fairly new and  there is no complaints and if you listen to listen   to the service quote carefully i asked him how  has the system been working so far this season   i know last weekend we had 85 and 90 degree days  on saturday and sunday so if there was a problem   with the cooling he would be it would make me  aware of it and then we were going to do more   due diligence and find out what the problem was he  also heard him talk about how there was some frost   on the first floor air handler located in the  basement closet next to the boiler he said that   only happened right after they put it in he also  said that the indoor temperature was 66 degrees   uh maybe he likes the siberia cold if  he does he should move to siberia but   not now because you have russia and you  know their putin the president is crazy just food for thought ladies and gentlemen do  right do a professional job for your consumer your   client your homeowner your your the person who's  paying your bills right do right by them and it   goes a long way that's all for now folks be well  god bless stay safe and i'll catch you on the next you

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

Views: 385,674

Keywords: rheem central ac, rheem, rheem air conditioner, air conditioning, air conditioner, central air conditioner, service, central air conditioning, ruud, central ac maintenanace, hvac, maintenance, contractor, conditioning, repair, Central AC System, How to Properly, Perform Annual Service, Maintenance, pipe doctor, pipe doctor plumbing, mikey pipes, mikey pipes plumbing, mikey pipes hvac, mike pipes, plumbing, long island

Id: sJiRT_tNOQk

Length: 28min 24sec (1704 seconds)

Published: Sat May 28 2022