Any Home AC experts out there?

[SaltyDawg]

Boy oh Boy Friday the 13th has bitten me in the backside once again. It finally cooled off to a chilly 87 degrees this evening and I went out to mow the lawn. Well as I was mowing around our outside house AC unit I hit something and it put a hole in the coil of the unit near the bottom. Do you know that it gets warm in the house when you let all that freon out of the unit? Well trust me on this one it does!!! You can't do anything but laugh at this point. Friday the 13th nothing open on the weekend in this little podunk town.

 

Anyway my question is: Can the coil be welded and the system recharged? Or am I looking at a new outside unit. To make matters worse it went out 2 weeks ago, had the capaciter go on it. The repair cost me only labor since it was still under warranty, but only for 5 more days. Not that this would be a warranty repair anyway.

 

Thanks in advance. Now I'm going to go cry in my grape juice.

[gunboat]

hi salty

sorry to hear the bad news, if the hole isn't real big (bigger than your little finger) a good a/c tech should be able to silver sodder / weld it closed. then pull a vacume on the whole system to make sure the weld job is good. if it holds a vacume, then they should recharge the system with freon. hope this info helps.

don c.

[BuddyRich]

What he said. The tech will have to see how big the hole is. I did HVAC back before they banned R12 and venting to the atmosphere. If its repairable it will be a lot cheaper than replacing the condenser. That's the part you hit

[BEER30]

Hey Salty , Homeowners Insurance . Few years ago , hurricane set a tree limb into my neighbors A/C . Being his older unit was outdated , I think a 11 tier , not he has newer 15 tier unit and cools much better and more efficient . Just a thought .

 

BEER30

[BEER30]

hi salty

sorry to hear the bad news, if the hole isn't real big (bigger than your little finger) a good a/c tech should be able to silver sodder / weld it closed. then pull a vacume on the whole system to make sure the weld job is good. if it holds a vacume, then they should recharge the system with freon. hope this info helps.

don c.

 

Have you seen Salty's little finger ? :rotf::rotf:

 

BEER30

[SaltyDawg]

Very funny Beer, I'll remember that. LOL. You know what they say about big hands and big feet. Yep that's right big gloves and shoes.

 

I looked at the hole it's actually about the size of a ball point pen head. Maybe 2-3mm diameter. Hopefully it can be fixed. Gonna have to sweat it out over the weekend though. Serves me right for mowing my own lawn.

 

Thanks a bunch everybody, it puts my mind at ease. It just sucks because I just dropped a grand on a MC for my son not 30 minutes before that happened. Makes me sick to my stomach.

 

Beer that's a good idea about checking with my homeowners insurance.

[saddlebum]

Very funny Beer, I'll remember that. LOL. You know what they say about big hands and big feet. Yep that's right big gloves and shoes.

 

I looked at the hole it's actually about the size of a ball point pen head. Maybe 2-3mm diameter. Hopefully it can be fixed. Gonna have to sweat it out over the weekend though. Serves me right for mowing my own lawn.

 

Thanks a bunch everybody, it puts my mind at ease. It just sucks because I just dropped a grand on a MC for my son not 30 minutes before that happened. Makes me sick to my stomach.

 

Beer that's a good idea about checking with my homeowners insurance.

 

and this is why my wife insists on cutting the lawn herself:thumbsup::thumbsup:

P.s.Myneighbour put a stone through his big front window that way and the insurance covered it

[Dragonslayer]

Hey Salty , Homeowners Insurance . Few years ago , hurricane set a tree limb into my neighbors A/C . Being his older unit was outdated , I think a 11 tier , not he has newer 15 tier unit and cools much better and more efficient . Just a thought .

 

BEER30

Yea, tell the insurance company that your condensing unit was an innocent bystander of a lawn mower drive-by. They'll understand. Then You and your wife check into a hotel with good AC until it's fixed then add the hotel bill to the insurance claim. They'll understand that too.

[gunboat]

hi salty

that size hole is realy a fast fix for any a/c tech. it should only take an hour or two at the most. may have to tear away some of the conderer fins to solder the hole . they will have to pull a vacume on the system to see if they fixed the hole. they should know in about 30 minutes or so. and then start adding freon back to the system. good luck, have a great weekend.

don c.

[tazmocycle]

yea it should be fixable, just call a couple of companies and get a quote to keep them honest. make sure they put a filter/drier on it and pull a good vacuum on it before they charge it up. i just finished replacing 5- 5ton gas package units that thieves hit and stole all the copper out of them. it's getting bad around birmingham, al these days, about everyday they hit churches and commerical building. we did one hose in a neighbor that they took all the water pipes, copper wiring and a/c system out while owner was awayon business trip. welding shop are building steel cages to put around them so they cann't get to them.