The DIY thread - DIYourself

jmanic said:
Nah. Ima just get a WiFi repeater for the basement.
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My work from home office is the corner of the basement which gets cold enough after a few hours of conference calls I have to either turn the space heater on low or wear sweatpants and a hoodie.

However today I just had to come up one level from the basement where the ambient temp was around 75 ish
 
jmanic said:
So we just got an email from our HVAC company that said to not to set the ac more than 20* below ambient.
The logic is that it stresses the system and can cause failure over time.
I’ve heard this before, but don't like it.

Remember blinds and curtains are your friends in keeping temps down.
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never heard that, but i also dont like it, as such i dont follow it, we already have blinds and curtains so we are set in that dept, thanks for the reminder tho
 
shrpshtr325 said:
never heard that, but i also dont like it, as such i dont follow it, we already have blinds and curtains so we are set in that dept, thanks for the reminder tho
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I've heard this info on the various camper trailer forums that I follow. Many owners complain that the AC in their teardrop camper can't keep up. Suggestions are made about the 20deg thing. Usually they're in FL, TX or somewhere on BLM land with no shade.

After almost 14yrs with temporary paper shades on many of our windows, last year before the summer we upgraded to real window treatments and curtains. It has been amazing how our units are able to keep up now.
 
So you all went ahead and jinxed me.
AC died last night…
Got lucky and got an appt this morning, dudeman showed up and we were running 15 minutes later.
Capacitor was ded. 7 year old system?
I’ll take it.

While I was waiting on him, I popped into the attic, since it wasn’t hot enough in the house.
Yup, attic fan ded too.
Had him do diagnostic on it while he was here, motor is ded, and he’s calling for swapping out the t-stat switch too.

How do I match that motor?- no manufacturer/model sticker, maybe a few specs.
 
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shrpshtr325 said:
Our system is only 8 years old and the capacitor went out.
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Yeah, guy said there’s no set life expectancy on those.
He said we are lucky, our unit doesn’t use the banned refrigerant, so it’ll still be serviceable for a few years
 
Jeremy said:
I did not get that lucky. I called this morning and am still waiting. Current situation:


View attachment 263375
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did you try a capacitor already? found out today at work that out of 5 guys who were in the conversation all of them keep a spare on hand bc this happens so frequently.


jmanic said:
Yeah, guy said there’s no set life expectancy on those.
He said we are lucky, our unit doesn’t use the banned refrigerant, so it’ll still be serviceable for a few years
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yea thats the consensus from the EE i spoke to about them today too, wanted to make sure i didnt need to do more root cause diagnostic to avoid another a/c outage.
 
jmanic said:
So you all went ahead and jinxed me.
AC died last night…
Got lucky and got an appt this morning, dudeman showed up and we were running 15 minutes later.
Capacitor was ded. 7 year old system?
I’ll take it.

While I was waiting on him, I popped into the attic, since it wasn’t hot enough in the house.
Yup, attic fan ded too.
Had him do diagnostic on it while he was here, motor is ded, and he’s calling for swapping out the t-stat switch too.

How do I match that motor?- no manufacturer/model sticker, maybe a few specs.
Click to expand...
Pull out motor and bring to a grainger type store in your area.
 
jmanic said:
So you all went ahead and jinxed me.
AC died last night…
Got lucky and got an appt this morning, dudeman showed up and we were running 15 minutes later.
Capacitor was ded. 7 year old system?
I’ll take it.

While I was waiting on him, I popped into the attic, since it wasn’t hot enough in the house.
Yup, attic fan ded too.
Had him do diagnostic on it while he was here, motor is ded, and he’s calling for swapping out the t-stat switch too.

How do I match that motor?- no manufacturer/model sticker, maybe a few specs.
Click to expand...
Mine had the sticker up on the side of the fan housing, not on the motor itself. Motor is $60, T'stat about $40. Let me know what he's going to charge you. It will make it less painful for me when I'm in the hot attic doing it myself.
 
Jeremy said:
i don’t know shit about a central air unit. But I just googled that shit and see a trip to Home Depot in my future.
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Dude I was in the same boat a few years back. My AC guy called me back from his beach vacation and talked me thru what to do and what to buy. To be safe I took the old capacitor with me to a supply place somewhere in dover and the guy behind the counter could not have been nicer and more helpful.

If you watch 1-2 YouTube videos it’s so easy and it’s probably 80% of the repair jobs they do as evidenced by this thread.
 
Guess I should order a spare too, mine crapped out a few years ago so I’ll probably be due again sooner than later.
 
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