PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

@Lt. Dangle

I was scared of all central air-conditioners when I was little, but I do seem to remember that the 1990 Comfortmaker at our house was rather noisy for era. The 1987 York heat pump at my aunt uncle's old house in Maryland was also incredibly noisy. My parents sold the house with the Comfortmaker in 1996, and we moved backed to Northern California, where we lived in government housing provided by the United States Navy. Houses in NorCal commonly do not have central A/C, even today, and military housing certainly didn't; I was not around central A/C units for about two years as a result.

In 1998, my dad was transferred from California to Norfolk, Virginia; A/C is obligatory in Virginia, especially that area. My parents bought a house in Virginia Beach, and the house was only two years old at the time (built in 1996). It of course had central A/C; I believe it was a Carrier, but I do not remember. Based on my memories of that unit, it mostly closely resembled a builder grade Carrier. The house had a straight-cool A/C and gas heat, with the furnace located in the attic if I'm remembering correctly; I was nine years old when we moved in, and I'd physically grown quite bit since I'd last lived in a house with central air. In the summer of 1997, remember I'd been afraid to play in the fort my cousins made because it was right next to the house's a 1981 Trane Weathertron heat pump. Air-conditioners had become a lot less intimidating as I'd gotten bigger, and the noise didn't bother me as much as it had used to. The Trane heat pump at my aunt and uncle's house in Norther Virginia had been a 5-ton unit, which is the biggest residential unit you can get. Based on the size of house in Virginia Beach (just under 2,000 square feet), I'd say the A/C unit at that house was probably a 3.5-ton at the most, so it was a lot smaller and thus less intimidating. I walked right up to that air-conditioner and conquered my fear for good, though I thought I would burn myself if I touched the condenser coils and was thus afraid to do so. Nowadays, I'm brave enough to touch the lineset of a heat pump while it's running in HEAT mode!

 

The 1998 Whirlpool turned on and the compressor definitely worked, but the blower did not; I only try to save window A/Cs older than 1995, so I immediately cut it up for scrap...

 

I cut up the Weather King this morning as well...

 

@Lt. Dangle

2011 and it has a hard start capacitor; I'm thinking this unit was not functional when it was removed...

 

The most profitable bits of any scrap air-conditioner!

 

The Copeland-Scroll compressor obviously came out the Weather King, the rotary compressor came out of the 1998 Whirlpool, and the recip came out of a refrigerator I got for free...

 

The Sawzall made quick work of the coils...

 

The copper is always the most profitable part!

 

@Lt. Dangle

I have had a serious soft spot for pre-2005 Rheem/Ruud units, which I lovingly call "Stamped Octagons" due to their unique fan grille design, for years; I found one on Facebook Marketplace about an hour away from me in Jersey for $100, and asked the guy if he'd take $50. He said that was fine, and I picked it up on Tuesday afternoon. This 2-ton Ruud Achiever, manufactured in June 2000, was still fully operational. The house was a small older rancher, which already had gas baseboard heat, and the owner had decided to leave the gas heat but switch to ductless mini-split heat pumps; I have decided to turn this unit into a coffee table!

 

Back in the day, these units were among the first to use the venerable Copeland-Scroll compressor...

 

This is a 2-ton unit (24,000 BTUs), manufactured in June 2000. My grandma had a new Rheem Classic X installed in 1987, and the thing lasted over 30 years!

 

@Lt. Dangle

Everyone has their opinions, but I think that pre-2005 Rheem/Ruud units are some of the best ever made! Even the older units with reciprocating compressors are incredibly quiet. These units also don't rust like other brands from the same area, though I have never seen one in a salty beachfront environment. One of greatest features of the newer "Stamped Octagon" units is the isolated compressor area, that doesn't require disassembling the whole unit to service it. This Ruud Achiever is from 2000, and I believe the oldest "Stamped Octagon" I have seen with this setup was a heat pump from 1992 at a commercial property in Warminster (I forget whether it was a Rheem or a Ruud). The "Stamped Octagon" design has been around since probably the late 1970s, and 2004 was the last year. It's possible that the isolated compressor design debuted in the 1980s, but the aforementioned '92 heat pump is the oldest one I've seen...

 

@Lt. Dangle

My aunt and step-grandma both lived within a mile of each other in New Jersey for several years; my aunt had 1987 Ruud Achiever 10 straight-cool unit matched with a Ruud oil furnace, and my grandma's house had a 1987 Rheem Classic X matched with an air handler because the house already had oil baseboard heat...

My aunt sold the house with the Ruud over a decade ago, and the unit was still working fine when she sold it, but it's highly probable that it's been replaced by now. The Rheem at my grandma's was still technically working when it was replaced about four years ago, but it had a Freon leak and my grandma got sick of paying to get it recharged every year. She had it replaced with a brand new Rheem a few years ago. The original Thatcher oil boiler from 1947 also gave up the ghost around Christmas 2022, and now that there are public gas lines on my grandma's street, she converted to gas and had a Weil-McLane gas boiler installed. The Thatcher is full of asbestos and has been sitting in the basement for a year and a half because it is very heavy, and more importantly, requires a professional hazmat team to remove. If the damn thing didn't have asbestos, I'd drive up there with my trusty Sawzall, chop up the boiler myself, and remove it at no charge to my grandma! But, I'm not trained to deal with asbestos, and not dying from cancer would be awesome!

 

The venerable Copeland-Scroll compressor, once a Rheem/Ruud exclusive, but now found in everything except Trane and American Standard!

 

Easy access to capacitor and other stuff...

 

The area directly below the fan is empty, which results in a quieter unit...

 

Easiest fan motor removal ever!

 

The 2000 Ruud still worked great at the time it was decommissioned according to the homeowner, but I suspect it wasn't operating with peak efficiency levels; I don't thing it was ever cleaned...