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pnjunction
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join:2008-01-24
Toronto, ON

pnjunction

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[Rant] Broken AC barely a year old

I just wanted to vent for a bit about how ridiculous it is that the AC just stopped working in my condo building that is barely a year old.

Gee builders are you sure you couldn't have gone any cheaper on that piece of shit? It made it lasted this long but it really only needed to last until the ink dried on the closing 13 months ago. Glad I'm only renting and not the one that bought into this junk. Still I'm going to be sleeping in a puddle of sweat tonight as it is 80F/27C in here.

As an aside there is no timer on the bottom of the barrel thermostat on the wall, which means if I want to save electricity I have to remember to turn it down before leaving for work in the morning and then wait for the place to cool down again when I get home.

Juggernaut
Irreverent or irrelevant?
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join:2006-09-05
Kelowna, BC

Juggernaut

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That's all Canadian builders are required to do by law: 1 year. After that, they're home free, unless they guarantee more of a warranty.

Welcome to quality workmanship. [/sarcasm]
bt06437
join:2001-12-03
Carrollton, TX

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Sometimes poor quality installation can be at cause. Like a small refrigerant leak over time results in "no cool".
If is was a leak, have them fix the leak. Otherwise you won't get optimum cooling, for long, and it will fail again.
Sometimes in hot weather, parts made in Mexico or China crap out too quickly. Like the motor start capacitor for the compressor motor.

banditws6
Shrinking Time and Distance
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join:2001-08-18
Frisco, TX

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Our A/C condenser fan motor failed a couple of weeks ago. It was 90 degrees in the house overnight. That's a lake of sweat. But, at least the motor lived six years.

My parents still have the Carrier system they bought in 1982 and it is running fine without ever having been serviced once. The factory must have thrown holy water on it.

cowboyro
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join:2000-10-11
CT

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I have 2 Trane systems, almost 4 years old.
The lower floor unit has logged ~6500hrs of operation in 2.5 years of monitoring. That projects the total to ~10,000hrs of operation so far. That's over 1 year total of actively "compressing". Some 14,000 start cycles in the 2.5 years of logging.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

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"parts made in Mexico or China crap out too quickly."

You get what you pay for....

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
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join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK

Premium Member

Often these days you pay premium First World prices but actually get shoddy Third World quality.

... so no, you don't get what you pay for, often!

aannoonn
@optonline.net

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A/C repair guy told me his company was getting a lot of work from a nearby development where the original installers didn't evacuate any of the systems.

Just an example on how your problems may be due to improper installation instead of poor quality equipment.

pnjunction
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join:2008-01-24
Toronto, ON

pnjunction

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Well the good news is that whatever it was they got it fixed today. Man do I ever get cranky in a stuffy apartment.

Juggernaut
Irreverent or irrelevant?
Premium Member
join:2006-09-05
Kelowna, BC

Juggernaut

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I thought that was your normal disposition...
Expand your moderator at work
TheMG
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join:2007-09-04
Canada
MikroTik RB450G
Cisco DPC3008
Cisco SPA112

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Re: [Rant] Broken AC barely a year old

said by banditws6:

But, at least the motor lived six years.

Which is still nothing impressive at all.

At the office we have a nearly 40 year old A/C unit that still has the original fan motor and compressor. Definitely not the most efficient A/C unit but it still works great and keeps pumping out ice cold air.

Mind you, the A/C gets a lot less use than it would down south, but that's still 40 years exposed to the elements nonetheless.

It is not one of those "permanently (not) lubricated" motors though. We do put a shot of oil in the bearings every year. That's probably why it has lasted so long.

They sure don't build them like they used to.

gillespie
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join:2001-11-28
USA

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said by banditws6:

Our A/C condenser fan motor failed a couple of weeks ago. It was 90 degrees in the house overnight. That's a lake of sweat. But, at least the motor lived six years.

My parents still have the Carrier system they bought in 1982 and it is running fine without ever having been serviced once. The factory must have thrown holy water on it.

They've had better luck with their carrier than I did with mine. Mine's only 7 years old and the compressor took a shit. It was 92 in the house today. That's an ocean of sweat..

Xstar_Lumini
join:2008-12-14
CANADA

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My $159 air conditioner is still going strong and ice cold after 9 years, bought it in 2003, some weird Korean model that starts with a "W" I think.

You condo owners are the biggest suckers in the city on several fronts.
Secyurityet
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join:2012-01-07
untied state

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Contractor grade compressors. Bah!

gar187er
I DID this for a living
join:2006-06-24
Seattle, WA

1 edit

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said by pnjunction:

As an aside there is no timer on the bottom of the barrel thermostat on the wall, which means if I want to save electricity I have to remember to turn it down before leaving for work in the morning and then wait for the place to cool down again when I get home.

wow, thats difficult....i often wonder how ive been able to do that everyday for the past 5 years...

pnjunction
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pnjunction

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Well I don't know who you've been doing either but even my old window unit had a timer so I could save electricity and come home to a cool apartment

Xstar_Lumini
join:2008-12-14
CANADA

Xstar_Lumini

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said by pnjunction:

Well I don't know who you've been doing either but even my old window unit had a timer so I could save electricity and come home to a cool apartment

Lovely feature eh? Mine also has it in reverse, you can time it to shut itself off anytime you want.
raster44
join:2003-09-07
Niagara Falls, NY

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Original thermostat you actually had to set the heat or cool cycle on the dial and unit lasted 25 years. When I got a new central air unit 15 years ago it came with a programmable thermostat that has six times of the day where you set the temperature desired, days of the week and separate for weekends. Both for heating and cooling. I had the wires corrode off when I covered the unit in the Winter after only 5 years. I had to pay for the sending unit but labor and call covered. The different repairman told me to leave it uncovered but just place a piece of plywood held down by a cinder block over unit to guard against ice falling on unit. No problem since. Furnace had to be replaced last year as the heat exchanger had crack...Dumb cheap Goodman unit. Goodman installer gave me a great price to replace it with a Trane unit with stainless heat exchanger instead of the Goodman aluminum one. Heating cost went down by over half. Even cooling costs are running cheaper. Must be the new fan is more efficient.

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
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join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

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Shoulda got a trane

r81984
Fair and Balanced
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join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

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What is the brand/model of air conditioner.
Is it a window unit?

It it is a normal air conditioner with a wall mounted thermostat you can buy your own digital one and swap them back when you move out.
That is what I do while renting.

My parents had their air condition going 17 years with no issues before they sold their house.
It only need to be fixed once as the circuit board got wet from a clogged drain (poor design that the drip pan was installed with the low spot to the drain hose connection right above the circuit board). I manually bypassed the board to turn on the air conditioner manually and bought a new control board online for $80 and swapped it out.

In college I had Haier cheap air conditioner for a 10 x 10 foot room. One day it just make a loud pop and stopped working. I exchanged it at home depot for a new one, but people make air conditioners with bad/poor designs.

pnjunction
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Toronto, ON

pnjunction

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The unit is built in to the condo, hooked into a central heating/cooling system.

Yeah I have been tempted to see if I can swap the thermostat for something with a timer/schedule. Looks like they can be had for $40-50 bucks if they are compatible with this thing. Maybe I'll look into it when I'm not so busy at work.

r81984
Fair and Balanced
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join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX

r81984

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If you dont have the manual you can probably find it onlinee easily to get a wiring diagram, but the wires should be the standard colors anyways.
»z.about.com/w/experts/He ··· am_4.png
NefCanuck
join:2007-06-26
Mississauga, ON

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said by pnjunction:

The unit is built in to the condo, hooked into a central heating/cooling system.

Yeah I have been tempted to see if I can swap the thermostat for something with a timer/schedule. Looks like they can be had for $40-50 bucks if they are compatible with this thing. Maybe I'll look into it when I'm not so busy at work.

I ran into this issue several years ago when I wanted to replace the thermostat in my condo with something that I could program.

The issue is the *voltage* of the thermostat, it's not your standard 12V system but a 24V system (at least in my case) and no one even *makes* a 24V programmable thermostat that I could find (In Canada anyways)

As to the A/C sytem crapping out after only a year, you should follow up with the unit owner because if the unit is newly built Ontario's TARION New Home Warranty should have covered that.

NefCanuck
scross
join:2002-09-13
USA

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said by r81984:

One day it just make a loud pop and stopped working.

That was most likely the start capacitor popping open, which they will do on occasion. This is a cheap and easily replaced part, but many of them these days are sourced from China and just don't last as long as they should.

Anonymous_
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127.0.0.1

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said by pnjunction:

Still I'm going to be sleeping in a puddle of sweat tonight as it is 80F/27C in here.

80F? that is not even that hot.

slyphoxj
join:2002-06-23
united state

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I got two 5,000(ish?) BTU GoldStar (with "made by LG Electronics" sticker on them LOL) window units for ~$150 at Wally World about a dozen or so years ago. Left one at my last place when it was sold and brought a second with me to the new house. The one I brought is still alive n' kicking and cooling well, but the front coils completely froze up on me a few mornings this summer here in NE Ohio. The filter's clean and the front coil fins appear to be clean and the inside fan seems to be spinning at the proper speed. It hasn't frozen up the last few days I've used it.

EDIT: We also left at my old place a 1978 10,000 BTU Gibson Air Sweep casement unit that I got used in 1990 for $150ish. I remember it blowing a fuse once or twice back in the early 90's, but otherwise it still worked fine through my last summer at that place (2009). The plug and cord did feel warm though since it was sucking 12 amps through a switched 110V non-dedicated outlet (I know, I know, bad bad bad, but that was the outlet under the window), so warm in fact that the plug melted near the prongs.

The only maintenance I did to the Gibson was to clean the filter, and maybe clean the coil fins a bit, when it was placed in the living room window every year at the start of summer (or a little before). I don't miss the chore of having the get that thing in and out of the window every year (needed two people to lift it). Those 70's Gibsons were tanks!

J E F F4
Whatta Ya Think About Dat?
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Kitchener, ON

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said by Anonymous_:

said by pnjunction:

Still I'm going to be sleeping in a puddle of sweat tonight as it is 80F/27C in here.

80F? that is not even that hot.

Agreed! I'll let the place get to 32C (90F) before I break down and turn the unit on. Of course, at night, I have a secondary unit which cools the room to a bone chilling 18C (64F). Reminds me of winter....when sleeping is always a pleasure.