Home ownership
Maybe I missed a thread similar to this, but that's ok. I have been in my home for 10 years now, and there are some thi
Yeah, but that $400 (+ labor!) is way cheaper ($18k cheaper!) than the brand-new unit the 1st company wanted to sell me.
I keep a spare capacitor on hand at all times now, as they always seem to blow on Friday evenings, after the HVAC supply store has closed for the weekend.
Easy insurance having that cap on hand. Just keep very careful track of what wires go where.
my capacity for mosquito tolerance is constantly in flux
have not yet found the proper way to insulate
Easy insurance having that cap on hand. Just keep very careful track of what wires go where.
"Take pictures of how the wires connect before pulling them off t h e existing capacitor." Greatest advice my brother in law has given me. Well, maybe not because he's pretty smart. But it definitely saved me a lot of heart aches this week!
Now that I've had the new HVAC system a little while, some things I've noticed.
The heat seems to be pretty good. I've set the temp to 70, instead of 71 on the old system, and it feels ok. I assume that's a combination of newer equipment and the really nice fall weather we've been having.
The new thermostat is a little worse. The old one (also a Honeywell) had more information and a better UX. This one seems less intuitive. Also, with the old one, the schedule was the time to be up to the new temperature (like in the morning, when heating up). The new one, though, the schedule is the heating start time. So, I've had to adjust that a bit to start earlier, so it's warmish when I'm getting up.
On the plus side, the new thermostat allows for wireless sensors. It came with one, which I put in the basement (where I spend awake time when I'm in the house). Got one on order for the master BR from HD. So far, it's taken a day and a half to move from Dallas to Topeka. I'm going to assume mark's bringing it, and found something to do along the way.
Once they're all connected, there's a way to configure the schedule segments to tell it, "pay attention to these rooms." For example, on wake up, I'll have it watch the BR and thermostat (first level, where I'm having breakfast and getting out the door), and ignore the basement.
Overall, I'd say the negatives are pretty minor and more getting used to the new system rather than, "this is really bad". So far, things going well, but, as I say, it's been well above normal high temperatures.
It's not me. Probably carrier pigeon.
I don't see a setting for that, or to say "start heat/cool X minutes in advance of scheduled time," but I might've missed it.
There's also a section that's locked off by PIN for the pros. Fortunately, I was watching the other day, so I might poke around in there.
Mine is called "adaptive recovery" or something like that.
Thank you, Didace! Found that and turned on .
The air in the house will still blow, but it won't be cold. My guess is your condenser won't be working at all, so that's super easy to see by just going outside and seeing if the fan is spinning.
As you can see, it's a super common problem. I'm guessing easily the number 1 AC issue.
The fan will still be running on a lot of systems, but the condenser won't be. Open the panel and feel if the condenser is vibrating. Check the outflow pipe and see if it's cold, and check the one that runs to the coil/fan and see if it is hot. If so, that's not your problem.
If the fan or the condenser is off even though the thermostat says the air is on cool, that's your most likely culprit. You can check it with a volt meter, but if it's swollen or has oil leaking out of it, it's almost 100% the capacitor. As mentioned above, the most common problem, followed by blown circuit breaker, followed by bad fan engine. If it's not any of those, prolly time to call a pro.
The BR sensor came yesterday. Connected right up. Got the thermostat configured for the various areas and schedule combinations.
Didn't notice any particular difference in the heating pattern this AM. Hopefully it will make things more efficient.
Also, 👍 to Didace on the adaptive recovery. Heat came on before the scheduled time this AM. By the time I rolled out, it was getting comfortable.
Frustrated by my washer. It's (I think) a pretty decent one, a Samsung I got ~ covid times. By that I mean I think it does a good job getting things clean.
It's one without the agitator. Often (but not always--handled sheets just fine earlier in the week), when it's going to the spin cycle, it will be unbalanced. Unattended, it will dump more water in there, wiggle back-and-forth for a while (which has never done anything to remedy the situation as far as I can tell), try to spin, and be unbalanced again, and go through that cycle ad infinitum.
If I open it up, it often takes two or three tries for me to get the wettish clothes arranged so it can spin. Sometimes (like this morning), it never does, and I put the stuff in the dryer still fairly damp, and let it work things out. This load was some pairs of jeans, sweatshirts, tees, towels--all normal things, not something super heavy like blankets.
One of my super pet peeves is stuff that doesn't just work, but should. I have no idea how to do things differently to make it work right more often.
Is the washer completely level?
I bought an LG washer in 2023--same design, no center agitator. I have only had to intervene a few times to rebalance the load. After the first time, I anticipated the issue occurring the other times when I had only one or two heavy items being washed. The trick is to intervene when the water level is zero or close to it. It's not a big deal to me in the grand scheme of things.
What does bother me is that the washer spins all loads so hard and so well that I have to straighten items out when putting them in the dryer so that they dry evenly and don't come out wrinkled.
eta: What might help in your case is the advice they gave me when they installed it: load items around the perimeter of the washer rather than in the middle. That might help to keep them from getting unbalanced.
Center bubble left-to-right. The chassis is sloped front-to-back, but it seems level that way too.
Yeah, when I rearrange stuff, I try to distribute (say) the pairs of jeans evenly around the outer edge, hoping that it won't go sideways on the next spin out. Give it a spin by hand, to try to evaluate whether it's kinda evenly distributed, then turn the spin on.
I'm sure I'm doing something wrong at some point, but not sure what it is yet.
Ideally it should be flat. No slopes. It's simple to screw the legs in and out.
The fan will still be running on a lot of systems, but the condenser won't be. Open the panel and feel if the condenser is vibrating. Check the outflow pipe and see if it's cold, and check the one that runs to the coil/fan and see if it is hot. If so, that's not your problem. If the fan or the condenser is off even though the thermostat says the air is on cool, that's your
I was asking how people know it's a specific capacitor instead of one of 500 other components? Aren't' there like a dozen caps in these systems?
During the summer I got tired of sweating to death and had mentally committed to buying a mini-split in the fall. Five grand is an ouch but there's no way I can install it myself. The time passed and the weather changed so fast I forgot the suffering during the summer. The average temperature here changed frcom 90 to 80, literally overnight. I know it'll get hot again in the spring, so I'll buy it next year. With my luck the price will go up.
I was asking how people know it's a specific capacitor instead of one of 500 other components? Aren't' there like a dozen caps in these systems?During the summer I got tired of sweating to death and had mentally committed to buying a mini-split in the fall. Five grand is an ouch but there's no way I can install it myself. The time passed and the weather changed so fast I forgot
There is usually only one large main capacitor in the outdoor unit. If it has three terminals, it's a dual capacitor for both the fan motor and the compressor. If you can't spin the fan easily by hand (with power off), the fan motor is likely seized. The capacitor's purpose is to help the motors get started from a dead stop. So one thing I do, if you can spin the fan, is turn on the power and thermostat, and try to give the fan a push with a stick or screwdriver. If you can get it to spin up and run like this, it's almost certainly the capacitor. You won't be able to test the compressor motor like this, as it's a sealed unit.
Be careful with capacitors as they sometimes can hold a charge even after power is turned off.
Yup. Sometimes there are two capacitors, one for the fan and one for the compressor. You can follow the wires from each to see which it goes to, and whichever isn't running, that's the capacitor that is likely dead. More common, though, is the dual capacitor. Most systems can be run either way, so you can either buy a 60/5 dual cap (for example) and hook up both the fan and the compressor, or you can buy a big one and a little one and have one for each.
Mini-split installs are pretty easy. Just make sure you don't kink the coolant line or cross thread its connection and that you anchor the indoor unit into the studs. Everything else is cake, and there are lots of good youtube videos on it.
Out there leaf blowering today. Got about 2/3 of the yard done, the motor quit.
The wind was picking up, which makes yard work Sisyphean, as more are coming down while I'm working. Plus, it was about 50 minutes til kickoff. So, it's not a bad thing.
With the wonderful modern world, checked on lowes & hd, already have a replacement on the way, arriving Wednesday. $0.28 in charges to have it shipped to my door. Sure, I'm in, OK.
