PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

After I admonished him for not allowing me to respond and told him that I was just looking to buy a scrap air-conditioner or two, he left the chat. This is not the first time I've encountered a guy selling used HVAC equipment who turned out to be nuttier than the turd of a squirrel...

 

@Lt. Dangle

I replaced the cord on the 1992 Whirlpool, and it blew cold, but it had rust and mold. The rust was not bad, and neither was the mold, but I damaged some of the styrofoam bits while trying to clean them; I regretfully ended up breaking down the Whirlpool for scrap, but I only ended up scrapping the coils, compressor, and copper bits. I will be selling parts of this unit to fellow HVAC enthusiasts next month!

Also, when I first fired this thing up after swapping the cord, it was too cold for the thermostat to engage the compressor; I fired it up the next day and it blew ice cold, but the coils were freezing up...

 

The freezing coils went away after I turned the unit off and let it sit for a little while, then turned it back on...

 

2015 GE that currently cools my girlfriend's bedroom. It's a wee bit undersized, but it gets the job done and it was free. The house has central air, but her landlady is stingy with the A/C, and my girlfriend is on the highest floor in the house so having a window unit is basically obligatory...

 

This is the aforementioned styrofoam piece that I unintentionally destroyed...

 

Judging by the looks of it it needs a good cleaning. Freezing up occurs due to an airflow issue, or refrigerant issue, that's about it typically.

You do make me wonder if there is a whole world of underground, secondhand HVAC enthusiasts I am completely overlooking lol.

 

I scored a 1.5-ton Weather King (rebadged Rheem) on Facebook marketplace; I have no idea if it works, but it doesn't really matter because I am scrapping it. The unit was manufactured in May, 2009. The guy I got it from got it from an HVAC tech who replaced it. That would lead me to be believe that there is something wrong with it...

I have only ever seen one instance of 1.5-ton (18,000) BTU central air-conditioner being used to cool an entire house in Pennsylvania, and that was the townhouse in Lancaster that my cousin rented with two other girls while going to grad school. The townhouse was fairly new, but an incredibly small interior unit. The A/C unit was matched with a gas furnace.

Around here, houses with single systems tend to have anywhere from 2.5-ton (30,000 BTU) to 5-ton (60,000 BTU) units. 5-ton units are fairly uncommon because the majority of houses around here that need that much cooling power are divided into zones and have at least two separate smaller units. For example, my parents' house has a 2.5-ton A/C for the first floor and basement, and a 2-ton for the second floor. My neighbor's house is slightly bigger and has two 2.5-ton units.

Around here, 1.5-ton units are generally installed in additions, and I suspect this one was in a sunroom or guest house, and got replaced by a mini-split...

 

@Lt. Dangle

Do know how long the industry standard for nominal tonnage has been a thing? I've never seen a central A/C unit or heat pump from the early 1980s or newer that wasn't a 1.5 to 5 ton. I know older units came in odd sizes, and I know that Trane made the XB1000 in a 1-ton (12,000 BTU) size, but I've never seen one in person and I've never seen a central A/C in person that was smaller than 1.5-tons...

The last house my parents and I lived in (2007-2016) was a 3-bedroom townhouse. It was probably 2,400-2,500 square feet if the finished basement was included, and a single 3.5-ton A/C was standard. My parents paid an extra six grand for 2-zone. This gave us dual 2-ton A/Cs matched with dual 40,000 BTU gas furnaces, and it was worth every penny. Our neighbor had the exact same house, but with one system, and it was a 3.5-ton instead of a 4-ton...

 

@Lt. Dangle

2009 was the very year it was possible to buy an A/C unit factory-charged R-22...

 

Weather King is basically a low-end Rheem/Ruud; I've also seen these units branded as "Corsaire" and "Comfort Zone"...

 

I will not be dismembering this thing until Monday, and I don't want anybody stealing it out of my truck, so I talked my parents into letting me stash it in the garage for a weekend; I got this A/C unit Allentown, and I am also picking up a junk refrigerator from the same guy on Sunday when I go back up there for the cars and coffee at SteelStacks...

 

Guess who gets to destroy another air-conditioner with his sawzall?!?!

 

This guy! Taking apart air-conditioners is both fun and profitable...