PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

I have "autopsied" the following HVAC units...

• 1987 Carrier "Round One" straight-cool A/C in May 2009
• 1998 Trane XE1000 heat pump and 1987 Trane Plus Air Handler in June 2010
• 2013 ICP straight-cool A/C and gas furnace in November 2022

 

@ColoradoTJ
@shakerhood

So, my latest is acquisition is a Whirlpool, circa 1990s; I tore it apart relatively quickly, and one of my friends suggested that I try to fix it up, but quickly redacted that statement when I sent him pics and he saw what a health hazard it was. The unit had Freon in it (emphasis on had), and that's all I that am going to say...

 

I thought it was R410a, but it is actually R-22...

 

The most valuable parts of the unit...

 

It is a Whirlpool, which a fellow autistic HVAC enthusiast tells me is a piece of shit except for the compressor...

 

Don't know why it says "HEATING" on the data sheet, as there was no button for heat on the control panel. They do make window heat pumps, but I tore this thing limb from limb and did not find a reversing valve. There are also cool-only window A/C unit with electric heat, but this unit did not have that either...

 

I hope, for the health and safety of the person who discarded this thing, that it was not in use recently...

 

@6 gearT444E

Here's the compressor I yanked out of the the Whirlpool...

 

I refer to this monstrosity as a window unit for the same reason people refer to any body-on-frame SUV as a truck. This is clearly a unit that was meant to be permanently installed in a wall rather than installed in a window on a seasonal basis; I found it at the edge of a steep, winding driveway that went up to an older ranch-style house. This was in New Hope, where even modest houses like the one this unit came from have been going for obscene prices for well over a decade, and adding central air can increase the resale value to even more obscene levels; I believe that this unit was not used for many years, the house likely had central A/C put in a while ago, and the owners just sick of this eyesore sticking out of the side of the house. It was also appear, based on the damaged casing, that removing this thing was not an easy task. The casing was already damaged when I picked it up...

 

$26 for everything, including the nonferrous metals, at Sullivan Scrap! By comparison, I scrapped probably a dozen obsolete laptops and other E-scrap for the IT department at work and got $24 for everything; I've literally made a hundred bucks just from scrapping two air-conditioners and a gas furnace in the last month!

 

Yup, and categorized them; I got $4 just for the nonferrous metals, which is a record!

 

@6 gearT444E

In June 2010, my friend Doug's parents replaced the 1998 Trane XE1000 heat pump with a Bryant Evolution heat pump; I helped them pick out that heat pump, and nearly 13 years later it still works great! The house was built in 1987 and had the original Trane HVAC system when they bought it in 1995. The original heat pump, which was virtually identical to this one but an XE 800, died in 1999. The Trane air handler was still good, so they didn't replace it, and it was still working when the whole system was replaced in 2010. I forget what killed the first Trane, but the compressor failed in the one that I got to to take apart...

 

The oldest houses in this neighborhood were built in 1969-1970, and have gas baseboard heat. Some the houses built in the late 1970s have oil heat, and some of have heat pumps. The newest houses were built in the 1980s and 1990s, and most of them have gas heat. There is one stretch of road where about 20 houses one side and an entire condo complex on the other side, all built in the late 1980s, have heat pumps. One of the 19 houses on the street, according to the owner, has dual-zone with a straight-cool A/C and gas furnace for the floor and heat pump for the second floor with the air handler located in the attic. At least two houses do not have a basement due to lot conditions. Here is a newer heat pump at one of the condos, which had developed frost on the coils due to the weather conditions...

 

Heat pumps at two different single-family homes across from the condo complex, both displaying frosty coils. The house in the second picture is actually on the same side of the street as the condos, and appears to have a propane tank, likely for the stove or the fireplace...

 

@6 gearT444E

Does your house have an 80% or 90% efficiency gas furnace?

 

maybe you guys can help me with this issue. Woke up this morning at 4AM and the temp in the house had fallen to 50 degrees. Furnace wasnt responding to the T-stat. Got up in the attic and fiddled around checking the wiring. Eventually decided to Turn it off and back on that made something happen and the furnace started working but the fan wouldnt blow decided to cycle the power again and that did the trick. Does anyone know what might be failing?

 

@6 gearT444E

What do you think?