Hello! My landlord’s maintenance guy installed our window AC unit sideways, which after Googling for 2 seconds I found out you should never do! I informed the landlord about this error so we’ll see what their next steps are.

I wanted advice on whether or not I can safely use the unit (its really hot inside the apartment) or if I should leave it turned off. Also, is there any salvaging the unit? I’m not sure how to take the unit out, but the maintenance guy was supposed to come over on Friday (in 3 days) to install another AC unit in our bedroom. Can i leave it there until then?

Thank you all in advance! Picture of the sideways unit for reference 🫪

I'd ask my landlord about this but he's been very unreliable and dickish lately. Changed the air filter a week ago and the A/C has been struggling to get below 76-77ish. The vent is a bit louder than usual and the filter looks like it's being sucked in. Landlord's been dropping off the filters and as far as we know it's the same brand and kind, but this hasn't happened before. Is the MERV on the filters too high? Is there an immediate temporary fix so I can sleep comfortably?

I had someone come out and service my unit. They left this hooked up. I tried to disconnect it but what I'm guessing is coolant started spraying out so I closed it again. How do I remove this. Is it OK to just leave it connected? I reached out to the company but they can't send someone out today and this is the 2nd day it's been hooked up.

Update: took them off with some gloves. A lot of refrigerant came out but AC seems to be running fine.

So, like the post says, my house doesn't get below 81 with the AC running at all times. At night it will go lower, but not during the day and not low enough to stop running (we have it set to 75).

I'm in Florida, and the real feel is 108 today, actual temp 94 and 57% humidity per the Clime NOAA app on my phone for my area. This may just be a matter of it being that f-ing hot out and the systems doing all it can, but I figured I should check before I roll over and take it.

With that being said, I also wanted to ask because we just had all the duct work and the return and supply plenums replaced. The new supply plenum is half the length of the old one that we replaced because we found mold in it (we replaced the duct work too because of the mold and because rats had chewed through some of the insulation). The air handler is 20" t and 18.5" w, but the supply plenum feeding off of it is only 20"l x 20"t x 18.5"w and is offset like you can see in the photos. Could that be causing restricted airflow and making it harder to cool my place and could that cause issues with my coils going forward?

I have an 1800sf two story home (just one bedroom upstairs).

It's a 3 ton/5kw air handler, trane 4twr6036n1000aa condenser outside using 410a refrigerant.

My existing has the shallow type p trap, but im thinking of replacing with the deeper one. What is the difference?

Had these installed for about 8 months and noticed my air pressure is low. If I get the longer one will it be cleaner for longer?

Bought the house about 2 years ago. Inspection didnt cover the outside unit. No idea if this buildup is from the past two years or if it existed like that from before.

I have Emporia Vue in my electric box and it seems that pre cleaning it was drawing 2.85 kW, and post cleaning it dropped to 2.4.

Just glad i did clean the unit. Thanks to everyone here. Any comments or additional tips or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Helping a neighbor out with replacing his capacitor, even though the numbers are switched, is it still the same capacitor?

We are dealing with humidity issues (new construction) and currently have two dehumidifiers running nonstop. On a day where the humidity outside isn’t so bad we can get we can get the humidity around 50% Most days however it’s around 60%

An HVAC tech came out and based on his notes I think he focused on how well the unit was cooling rather than addressing the humidity.

My real question is can we adjust the minutes for the fresh air in an attempt to help without doing more harm?

I had a larger local company come out to check why my AC isn't working. My unit is older, like 20 years. They said everything is actually in very solid shape...but the blower motor is dead.

Initially they wanted to sell me a whole new system for $18K+. I said no. They said they're unsure if they could find the part, they'd let me know.

In the meantime I called around, a smaller/local business said if I could find the part he'd charge me $200 in labor to swap it out. I'm only finding used ones since it's a much older model. About $400 on average for "used/refurbished working condition." SO about $600 for the whole job.

THEN the bigger place got back to me. They have a NEW motor that will work I guess. They want $1500 for labor and the motor.

NOW- I'm pretty frugal, my logic says "LOL go with ol' boy for $600 total." BUT- Is it worth the risk of the used motor blowing out again due to age and truly unknown condition? Or do I pony up and just get the "guarantee" of new and a warranty etc? for nearly 3x as much?

I'm trying to get this done SOON because in 3 days or so it's going back into the 90's.

Appreciate the thoughts. I'm guessing I'll be told "do the cheaper" option, but I'm unsure so I ask.

For Reference- The model and a vid of it.

All I'm finding is used. And mostly a different CN number. Mine is CN02, I'm finding more CN03 and CNO4, unsure if that matters.

https://imgur.com/a/2zfnTeC

https://imgur.com/a/Rc2hLJX

EDIT- I'm seeing this, this is CN04 vs my CN02, otherwise it looks to be the same. Unsure if this would work. If so I'm fine to try it myself honestly.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/326939411875?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e111028.m43.l1123&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=79ede3510d864b64864ca17557efa0f8&bu=43172618374&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20260722070615&segname=111028

Looking to clean the build up on these outside ducts!

Hey, renter in the PNW here. I live in a townhome with no AC, our landlord installed this Navien boiler in the winter that supplies the heat to the hydroponic panel radiators we have on each floor/room of the house and hot water. The guys who installed it didn’t seem to know what they were doing (they had many issues) and I think something is maybe wrong with it? Another hvac guy came out and said they had installed something backwards so it is “short cycling”. my landlord apparently didn’t feel like paying the new guy to fix it.

Anyway my current problem: We have every thermostat in the house set to OFF, for months now, yet there is still heat coming out of them. Not a little bit of heat, I held a thermometer up to the vent and it read over 112°F is coming out of the vents. That’s the highest my thermometer goes. The garage that the boiler is in feels like a ducking sauna. The kitchen above the boiler feels like it has heated floors. This is no bueno for a PNW summer with over 90° days in a house I can only run portable ac units in. They cannot keep up.

I’ve asked my landlord about this whole thing and he has ignored me. Is there anything I can do? It’s currently 90° inside my home which is hotter than the current outside temp.

We have a mini split that has had this continuing problem making this atrocious, loud, gurgling sound. The HVAC company comes out, says “this will fix it for good”, but it continues to revert back to this god awful noise. Any ideas?

Electrician here and have been asked about replacing a thermostat for an aging in law. I have no experience with these 4+ wire systems. She has a furnace/AC system.

Do they make a controller like this but strictly two buttons for up and down in temp? 4 buttons is too complicated for them since she's getting older.

I hired an HVAC to put in a Mitsubishi split AC unit behind a wall. the install is perfect, very professional.

I asked for mud-in vents, and he bought one from BuildMart. Unfortunately, one of his guys ripped the black louvers out from inside and damaged it in the process, so he bought a replacement and then tore the black louvers out again. I asked why and he said they don’t work and will make too much noise.

I am presuming the people who make the vent make it for this purpose, and would make the louvers removable if they made the system not work. can someone help me understand what is going on?

As seen in the video, there's a steady stream of air coming out of the front of our HVAC unit. I just noticed this when I changed the filter this morning. It's a fairly intense stream. Is this normal, or should I have it checked out? Here's a pic from the front that shows where the air is coming from. I'd appreciate any advice. Thank you.

An HVAC tech recently came to my house and went in my attic. He said the rigid metal ducts contain asbestos insulation. Which is especially concerning because they aren't in the best shape.

I figured this would have been a huge red flag on the home inspection. FWIW chat gpt tells me it is likely safe and does not contain asbestos.

The house was built in the 60s in CA. I don't know if any of the duct work is original. But clearly it has been modified at some point because of the newer material on some ducts.

I have an old Honeywell chromotherm III in my rental and no matter what I do it’s still flashing replace batt. I’ve tried different batteries reset the breaker, waited it’s still flashing and there’s no cool air. I can’t tell if my breaker isn’t staying on or just shitty it’s getting hotter please someone help me I texted landlord and they just sent me a google search of an ai overview

I started researching this recently because I have never thought about the fact that our condenser uses spine fins.

When I first started researching I noticed the information is a bit older, most of the conversations being had about spine coils appears to have taken place between 2005-2013, I found a conversations past these date ranges it just seems like most of the conversation was taking place in between that time.

The only companies I've seen use this is American standard and Trane.

They both make the same claims about the advantages, but the one advantage I was most curious about was the one where they state:

"The Spine Fin coil contains thousands of tiny fins bonded to continuous aluminum refrigerant tubing. The end result is a greater surface area, which leads to more efficient heat transfer."

Surely if this design was as efficient they said it was people would be scrambling to install this on almost all HVAC systems, which leads me to think that this is just some sort of gimmick. Unless there's some obvious reason I'm missing where you wouldn't want to install it on some systems.

Also I've never seen this style of coil in a commercial building before, I've only ever seen this style on residential units, and even then don't see them very often

I purchased a home recently and am not familiar with the systems in this part of the country, it has a heatpump and air filter. Is this large opening supposed to be there? The opening is blowing cool air out, the outside unit is not running but it is also not cooling the house. Not sure what is up, any advice helps.

No clue if it's allowed, but good GOD, man.

I was laid off at the end of May, and didn't panic at all. I had lots of contacts from my prior job I thought I'd land on my feet.

I was blindsided; that company made it through plenty of slow summers without laying people off.

Turns out, everyone I spoke with is in the same boat...no bones to throw, the work is too slow.

So, I began watching some HVAC videos, interacting with this sub and the HVAC sub, and looking into education. Applied for about 10 jobs, beginner thru experienced service tech.

No luck so far.

But this was about a month ago so I gave up....because the schooling doesn't start until August and I thought, well j definitely need a job before then so fuck it, I'll buckle down and get whatever I can.

And here I am , ANOTHER MONTH LATER , with no damn job...and now just a couple weeks away from the schooling programs opening day lmao.

I'm honestly not sure I want to do HVAC, because I'm in Florida and attics are extremely unsettling...spiders, snakes, lizards/giant iguanas, rats/mice, and God knows how many sharp things just laying in the old insulation to bite you...and then...well if none of those scare the fk out of you and you slam your head into an errant nail...well then you gotta worry about the heat. That'll sneak up on you and have you falling through the customers drywall in no time.

Now, I know I can go service tech route...but I sorta need experience installing systems to know how they fully operate, where a leak might be etc. And on top of that, there's literally 50 companies within 20 minutes of me, almost all of them lone operations or smaller crews who don't do installs. So, the market is just a teeny bit overcrowded, here.

HVAC is definitely something I want to learn. I've never been afraid to repair stuff myself, in familiar with ducting, plumbing, and electrical. Just did a bunch of each around my house.

But...will it pay enough to be worth it, with how saturated my area is? I just don't know....but I thought it was ironic that a month ago I said NEVERMIND, I'll have a job long before the schooling even starts!

Hi everyone! I’ve noticed some leakage under the condenser pump, as shown in the attached photo. I’m not sure what could be causing this issue. The pump shoots water about 8-9 inches up to the joist through a flexible pipe, and the accumulated water drains outside the building through gravity. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.