PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

@Lt. Dangle

The data sheet on the Bryant was very faded, but I was still able to get the size and manufacture date off of it; 2.5-ton unit manufactured in the 4th week of 1999!

 

Almost 26 years ain’t bad for a residential unit from the late 1990s; it also had shockingly little rust for such an old unit in PA!

 

@Lt. Dangle

The ‘99 Bryant had a Bristol reciprocating compressor in it, and if I had to guess, I’d say the reason they replaced this unit is because the compressor failed. The unit had no R-22 in it either, which is a clue that it was nonoperational when it was removed. The last two central air-conditioners that I scrapped were both fully operational, and had been replaced simply because the previous owner wanted something more efficient…

 

The scrapyard is closed tomorrow, for obvious reasons, as well as Friday; I don’t want some asshole to steal all the valuable bits, so I am stashing them in the garage until I can scrap them. Yes, @Lt. Dangle , I folded the condenser down again like you recommended!

 

I still see that U-haul dolly.......

 

My dad wants it gone, and I don’t want to scrap it, so I’m giving it to Amanda’s landlady; I regularly give her stuff that I deem too nice for the scrapyard…

 

Never get rid of an appliance cart! You'll need it for the next 50 years.

 

I’ll be able to borrow it whenever I want. Amanda’s landlady is 83, so
I’ll probably be able to get it back within the next two decades…

 

Whenever your Tacoma shits the bed….

https://youtube.com/shorts/hQxXbMtzc34?si=f_F8VADz_G9J8pzP

 

I want one! It would be really fun to build a bigger one and put a 2TR-FE in it!

 

I scored a Danby portable A/C with bad blower motors for free on Facebook marketplace yesterday…

 

And I reduced it to a pile of valuable scrap in record time!

 

@Lt. Dangle

Remember the old Maratherm heat pump and Bryant air handler at Emily’s apartment that still worked but had to be replaced due to a black mold infestation? Well, this is the replacement…

 

@Lt. Dangle

The data sheet was worn off the Maratherm, but whoever did the install got a serial number form elsewhere and determined that the unit was about 24 years old. The Bryant air handler was an about two years newer, indicating that different components failed at different times. The shiny new Carrier heat pump is a 1.5-ton (18,000 BTU), which in this area is appropriately sized for a 2-bedroom/1-bathroom condo of less than a thousand square feet.

My parents’ house has a 2.5-ton for the 1st floor and basement, and a 2-ton for the 2nd floor, both Goodmans. This is just a base model Carrier, but what I can’t get over is how much larger the of a footprint this 1.5-ton Carrier has than my 2-ton Goodman! Honestly, the two Goodmans at my house are roughly the same physical size, but if you look closely you will see that the 2.5-ton has a Copeland Scroll compressor, while the 2-ton unit has a smaller rotary compressor.

I am 99% sure that all non-inverter Carriers have scroll compressors, regardless of size, but my guess would be that larger outdoor coil means that it’s more efficient?

 

@Lt. Dangle

Take a look at the 1999 Bryant 2.5-ton A/C that I scrapped last week; the Bryant was a straight-cool unit and the Carrier is a heat pump, and I have no idea if being a heat pump means a larger coil by default, but look how much smaller the Bryant is than the Carrier despite being a full nominal ton larger than the Carrier in cooling capacity! Also, the Carrier is probably about a 15 SEER while the Bryant is likely a 10 SEER, and I’ve noticed that higher efficiency units have larger condenser coils; I don’t seem to have noticed a huge difference in size between straight-cool units and heat pumps of the same basic model (if any at all).

My best friend’s parents’ house has a 2003 Dave Lennox Signature Series 2.5-ton straight-cool that seems to be about the same size footprint as the older (than the Lennox) 5-ton Ruud that I scrapped a couple months ago. I don’t know if it’s a brand thing or an efficiency thing…

 

@Lt. Dangle

Emily had to wait a few extra days for the new air handler, because “apartment size” air handlers are not very common anymore and harder to come by…

 

Ecobee makes a good stat.

 

We had one. I had wiring issue and contacted. They got back to me in 2 days. All has been good since. Never any remote issues with WiFi. It was a good stable unit.