one thing after another

[GoodOlBoy]

well monday I am home sick with bad sinuses and the ac goes out at 10 am. at 5:30PM or so the ac guy finally gets a circuit board in the outside unit replaced and the ac starts working again. Wed my wife calls me at 3:30 pm the unit has blown the circuit breaker. I have her reset it, no cold air. I take Thursday off and wait until 7:30pm at night before the guys show back up. They check the unit. It is on a 20 amp breaker. It should be drawing 10 amps or so. It starts up drawing 54 amps. 45 seconds in it hits 67 amps and the compressor fails 2 minutes in it hits 97 amps of draw and the breaker throws. . . . . Yeah the 20 amp breaker doesn't throw until 97 amps are pulled. The unit is an r22 unit. I can get a replacement r22 unit for around 2 grand, but my inside coil apparently is going bad, and you cannot get a replacement r22 coil anymore. SO they are showing up today to install my new 410 unit, inside, outside, etc at the nice little cost of $4grand. . . . . . . . crap. . . . .

GoodOlBoy

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Sorry to hear it, GOB.....went through the same thing back in June, just before a span of hot weather. Also had to have my furnace replaced as well; fortunately, my friend is in the heating/cooling business, so he gave me a break where he could.
Was kinda grumbling about it (cost was approx $5500) and thinking what I could do with the money (elk trip, college tuition, ect) when he came upstairs with the heating coil....it had rusted through and had a huge hole in it! A potential carbon monoxide poisoning (in the winter) in the making!
Guess you can't go elk hunting when your dead! I consider myself fortunate and thank my lucky stars we found it when we did (house was built in 1972 and it's the original furnace/AC, so I guess I can't complain).

[fabsroman]

Originally Posted by Mr. 16 gauge

Sorry to hear it, GOB.....went through the same thing back in June, just before a span of hot weather. Also had to have my furnace replaced as well; fortunately, my friend is in the heating/cooling business, so he gave me a break where he could.
Was kinda grumbling about it (cost was approx $5500) and thinking what I could do with the money (elk trip, college tuition, ect) when he came upstairs with the heating coil....it had rusted through and had a huge hole in it! A potential carbon monoxide poisoning (in the winter) in the making!
Guess you can't go elk hunting when your dead! I consider myself fortunate and thank my lucky stars we found it when we did (house was built in 1972 and it's the original furnace/AC, so I guess I can't complain).

Built in 1972 and it is the original furnace/AC? YOU HAVE NO ROOM TO COMPLAIN. Our place was built in 1997 and I had an HVAC buddy out last year to repair it for $240. He was hinting at replacing it. Several people in the development have already replaced theirs and our townhouse was one of the first ones built in this development. Hoping we move before it needs to be replaced.

Edit to add: They just don't build things like they used to. Found out that a cable modem, VOIP adapter, and router have useful lives of 3 years. My cable internet provider and Vonage were both shocked to find out that I was using the same router, cable modem, and VOIP adapters for the past 6 years. Needless to say, the reason I was on the phone with them was because nothing was working (i.e., internet, phones). Replaced the router first and had everything working for 2 days and then the cable modem went. Replaced the cable modem and the phones would work intermittently so I replaced the VOIP adapters. Came to the conclusion that I need to save up $300 every 3 years or so to replace this stuff.

[fabsroman]

Originally Posted by GoodOlBoy

well monday I am home sick with bad sinuses and the ac goes out at 10 am. at 5:30PM or so the ac guy finally gets a circuit board in the outside unit replaced and the ac starts working again. Wed my wife calls me at 3:30 pm the unit has blown the circuit breaker. I have her reset it, no cold air. I take Thursday off and wait until 7:30pm at night before the guys show back up. They check the unit. It is on a 20 amp breaker. It should be drawing 10 amps or so. It starts up drawing 54 amps. 45 seconds in it hits 67 amps and the compressor fails 2 minutes in it hits 97 amps of draw and the breaker throws. . . . . Yeah the 20 amp breaker doesn't throw until 97 amps are pulled. The unit is an r22 unit. I can get a replacement r22 unit for around 2 grand, but my inside coil apparently is going bad, and you cannot get a replacement r22 coil anymore. SO they are showing up today to install my new 410 unit, inside, outside, etc at the nice little cost of $4grand. . . . . . . . crap. . . . .

GoodOlBoy

GOB,

That is life. It is always one thing after another. Tried fixing the Sonata this summer and it was a disaster. So, we went out and bought a new car. Spent an entire weekend scraping, prepping, and painting our 2 car garage door. I had hit it with the house one night about a month ago to wash all the dirt off and the paint came off with the dirt. Now, I need to paint the trim, bay window, and door on the front of the place. Plan on spending a couple weekends doing that.

The front passenger side wheel, CV joint, or what have you is making a horrible sound on the Taurus so I have to look into that. Back in March, in the middle of tax season, the stupid ICP sensor went bad on my truck. The dealer wanted $900 to replace it so I spent 6 hours under the hood fixing it. Then, in May I went to change the fuel filter and cross threaded it. Cost $240 to have the dealer fix that one.

The doc found a nodule on my wife's thyroid on my birthday last week and thinks it might be cancer. She went for an ultrasound today. I was extremely sick for 2 months last September/October. My daughter almost died on my son's first birthday in May because she ate a peanut butter Lindt truffle and is highly allergic to peanuts (That is an extremely long story that makes me cry a lot and which ultimately was my fault with several lapses in judgment/memory occurring altogether to lead to the incident). I am sure I could pile a bunch more onto the list, but I will leave it at that.

Sometimes, a $4,000 A/C repair bill isn't a big deal. Kind of like a $900 ER bill for my daughter versus a funeral. I was extremely happy to pay that $900. Best $900 I have ever spent. I was happy to pay $200 to the allergist a couple weeks later to find out that she is extremely allergic to peanuts, pistachios, and almonds and generally allergic to all tree nuts. Also learned that she is so allergic to peanuts that she will never grow out of it.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but glad to hear that it is just an A/C repair bill and no longer your health. I would paint my garage every weekend of the year and work on the cars too if I never had to go through anything like this thyroid nodule issue with my wife, my daughter's allergic reaction to the peanuts, and my illness from last September/October. Yep, repairs and maintenance are cake compared to health issues.

[Jack]

Fabs, I'm very sorry to hear about your family health problems.

[fabsroman]

Originally Posted by Jack

Fabs, I'm very sorry to hear about your family health problems.

Thanks Jack. Didn't really want to make this a pity party for me, but wanted to show to GOB that things can always be a lot worse than a $4,000 repair for AC. Especially since AC is a luxury and we can still live without it. Albeit, not as happily as with it, but people were able to do so 60+ years ago. My dad mentioned it to me a couple of months ago. He said they didn't have AC in Italy when he was born and they didn't have it here when they got here, but somehow they still survived.

A couple of years ago, before we had kids, my wife was getting all bent out of shape over a couple of issues we had to deal with. They were so insignificant that I cannot even remember what they were 4 years later. My response to her was that life is going to be a bunch of struggles for our entire life, even if we are rich. The rich have their own issues.

Now, if we can just get through this thyroid thing with my wife life will be back to "normal".

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Now, if we can just get through this thyroid thing with my wife life will be back to "normal"

Alright, Fabs....we won't make it a 'pity party', but we will wish you all well and say a prayer or two, O.K.?

[fabsroman]

Originally Posted by Mr. 16 gauge

Alright, Fabs....we won't make it a 'pity party', but we will wish you all well and say a prayer or two, O.K.?

Sounds good, and thanks.

[DON WALKUP]

i worked on heating/ac for 32 years and saw lots of potential problems on old, and new, units especially if a cracked/sooted heat exchanger was involved; professional services are ALWAYS the best remedy and one should not feel badly about paying for professional services. (at least i don't)

worst one i ever investigated killed five people; a baby-sitter and her child and the three children she was baby-sitting. a forced air heater that the blower motor door had fallen open causing the flames to be cycled into producing a lethal amount of CO.

[Adam Helmer]

Fabs,

Best wishes on dealing with your wife's health issues.

I was going to say to GOB, "No matter how bad things get, they can get worse." I know it is a small consolation, but stuff happens.

Adam