Top 5 Things AC Companies Don't Want You To Know How To Do!

How many of these issues have you experienced? If you found this helpful, if you could let me know by leaving the video a like and leaving me a comment letting me know. Thanks a lot!

I live in AZ and have done HVAC for 40 years. In my opinion, some of what he's saying is correct. Having a clean coil, drain and changing the filters regularly are no brainers. Using a coil cleaner of any type is not a good idea because I don't care what they say, they deteriorate the aluminum fins and there's not much there to begin with anymore. Even the mfg's will say to not use coil cleaners typically and only use water. Even aluminum 'brighteners' take some material away and often that's what they're using rather than real 'cleaner' because the end result is more impressive and shiny. It's 'value perceived' for the customers. There's 'acidic' and 'non-acidic' coil cleaners. Acidic are for commercial applications where they can be rinsed away easily with non-acidic for residential. Both need to be rinsed very, very well to prevent some of the cleaner from laying in the end rows of the coils and continuing to eat away at the aluminum which is very common. Best not to use them at all. With drains, more often than not, there is a tee/vent in the drain line after the trap so if you don't plug the tee with a piece of tape or something, you're not sucking anything out of the trap, which is the point. The contactor he's has in his unit is call a 1.5 or a 1+ shunt contactor. Only one side is switched so there is one side/leg of power there at all times unless the disconnect is out or the breaker is off. He's not using his meter right to read voltage. If he were to go to ground with one probe and the other on the right/non-switched leg he'd see there is 120V there. And he doesn't know the condition of the contacts in the contactor because he didn't remove the cover and inspect them. VERY IMPORTANT in older units. The bar/contacts will burn and you won't see it coming if you don't look. Checking continuity/ohms on the contactor coil is pointless and ambiguous because you don't know the ohm rating and aren't typically going to call or email the mfg to find out, unless you're a nut. Just read the 24v coming from the t-stat and know it's present. If you've got 24v and it's not closing, the contactor is bad. He's starting at the end and working backward rather than reading low voltage going in to assure it's there first. I don't like the way he's pulling the spade connectors on the end of the wires off of the terminals. You don't wiggle them, you pull them straight off. Otherwise you're bending them and they won't reconnect as tight and that can mean trouble down the road. Electrical connections, particularly any of those going to the compressor, have to be tight to prevent them from getting hot and burning off. Good connections are very, very important from the breaker to the disconnect to the unit. These are the reason many capacitors fail. Capacitors are junk anymore. Once they removed PCB's, in the late 80's I think, that ruined the program. I still have some from prior to the change that are still in value. Now, if that cap gets hot for any reason like a bad terminal or you lose a condenser motor, it's going to go out of value in the next few weeks. Seen it hundreds of time. If you lose a condenser motor that compressor cap is going to get hot and should be changed with the condenser motor and it's cap. Doesn't take much to ruin a cap now-a-days. And on an additional note, it's important to look inside of your disconnects for anything getting hot. There used to be a company called Connecticut Disconnect. Their disconnects would last 20+ years in most cases. They had dots of tar on the block you would pull out. If the tar was melted that showed that particular terminal was getting hot. More often than not simply bending the prongs that held the fuse would solve the problem. Their disconnects lasted so long they went out of business and now all we have is this chinese crap like he has. Make sure none of the plastic in these new ones is disfigured at all. That means it's getting hot and has to be replaced. No fixing these. I don't have a problem with people doing their own work. A lot of this stuff is simple. But what you and I see when we look in that control panel is completely different. That's why you pay me what you do. It's not what I do. It's what I know. When we service a unit we're looking at a lot more than what I've covered here. Keep doing what you can but every couple of years or so have someone that really knows what they're doing take a look at it. If you don't like the price you can always go and buy whatever you need and do it yourself. Avoid the large shops. Find a man that depends on his reputation to survive.

Good tips. TLDR: 1. Clean your condenser coils. 2. Change your air filter. 3. Cleanout your condensate drain using a shop vac. 4. Check your condenser contactor. 5. Check your run capacitor.

Purchased: August 2022 - still works GREAT! youtube.com/post/UgkxxsUnXhGsSJLim_XnMHyQK0u3XVaW-… I live in a studio and during the summer it gets scorching hot - really old building with no ac units. I can’t express how EASY it was to install.This unit has been a life savior during the summer and some days during other seasons where it can still be a bit warm at night. In this small place is my friend, a husky, poodle mix and myself. We need AC - lolI don’t use the dehumidifier option - I’m not sure if it will leak in my house, since I did not install the small draining hose that came with it. May look into it late but I don’t worry about much humidity in the apartment.I don’t understand why the negative reviews since all things mentioned, I personally did not find issues with. Definitely worth it!

DO NOT 🚫 use a pressure washer to clean your coils!!!

Do not trust the disconnect to cut the 220v to the condenser. I did HVAC for 25+ years. I’ve seen several times where someone had jumped out the disconnect. I always verify the power is cut by checking it with a multimeter. If the power isn’t cut, you could be seriously injured or killed. When picking a coil cleaner, look for one that is not acidic. The ones with acid can damage your coils. Just use a garden hose with a nozzle to rinse the coil. Do not use a power washer. A power washer will blow the fins on the coils apart. If your air filter gets too dirty, it can cause your blower motor to overheat and fail. The motor needs air moving over it to stay cool. A dirty filter can also cause your system to freeze. Do not run your AC when the outside temperature is below 70F. Some systems are equipped to run at low outdoor temperatures. Most residential systems aren’t. At worst, you can damage your compressor. At best, the system will freeze and you’ll have a mess when it thaws.

Well I followed your advice and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I usually have my HVAC but do it....for $100. It took me about 20 minutes. I used a couple of drops of Dawn and a little bleach in a spray bottle and my hose. Holy cow the amount of pollen and dirt that washed away was amazing! The hardest part was.getting the top back on, I had to have everything lines up and give it a nudge, but I did it. I'm a 69 year old woman and am happy I learned this. Thanks!!

You’re a good man, the world needs more honest people like you. Thank you for this information…

Note that some outdoor units are held in shape by the sheet metal top cover. When you pull it off, the unit will sag and go out of square. You'll have to struggle with it to get it back on. Don't force it; when you get the sides right, the cover will drop right into place. Put the screws in opposite each other rather than working your around.

Cleaning the coils is easy. There are a couple of things to be aware of. 1) Don't blast the coil with a high pressure jet of water. You'll bend the fins, blocking airflow. 2) Some condensers have the coil on all 4 sides, but 1 side is covered. As long as you have the power off, you should be in good shape, but be careful with the water because under that cover is also where your electrical connections are located. There could be a charge on the capacitor and also, you don't want a water drop left over that may be shorting 2 terminals when you turn the power back on. In this video, his connections are on the corner of the unit and you can get to all sides of the coil without removing the cover. Also, close the cover on your disconnect so that you don't accidentally spray water into it. It is still energized, it's just no longer sending power to the air conditioner unit. I can confirm, cleaning the condenser coil can make a huge difference in efficiency. It may cause the air coming out of the vents in the house to be a little bit colder than they were before the cleaning. If the thermostat doesn't cause the contactor to pull in, one thing to be aware of is that there may be a time delay, especially if the unit has be run recently or power to the thermostat had be lost and was just restored. This delay is usually 5 minutes and is there to keep from doing a hot start on the compressor before the low & high side pressures have had a chance to equalize.

In all my 35 DIY homeowner years it's almost always been the drain(condensate) line or the capacitor. Both, relatively easy fixes. Thanks for the reinforcement.

new home owner here. wow. no AC two hours ago. now it's getting nice and cool. not sure what I fixed, but seems testing contactor manually kicked it on, and it runs great now. Also had the confidence to disassemble and clean the unit. THANKS!!!!!

+1 for vacuuming out the condensation lines. You can usually find pieces at your home supply store (PVC pipe section) to make and easy adapter. Others may think blowing them out (compressed air, etc.) is a solution but DON'T DO IT! If your AC contractor was lazy when the house was built AND DIDN'T GLUE-UP THE CONDENSATION PIPES, blowing the lines to clear an obstruction may blow them apart in a wall or other inaccessible spot, which is a real bummer (ask me how I know).

As an hvac technician. I tell my customers everything, heres why, im lazy and i dont want to do it. If you feel confident go for it. If you screw up, guess who has a bigger charge, and guess who also never gets blamed for it.

The contactor on the unit is shunted on the right and switched on the left. When there’s 220v present, both terminals on the right side of the contactor will be hot. The top terminal on the left will only be hot when the thermostat is calling for AC. When the thermostat is calling for AC, there should be 24v present on the the contactor side terminals. If you remove the wires from the side terminals with 24v present and they touch metal, you can short out the transformer or blow the low voltage fuse in your furnace or air handler

5 great tips in 12 minutes ,clear concise to the point! The way it should be!

Thank you for your content. I am a new homeowner with gaps in my knowledge of how to manage many home care issues. I just discovered your channel today and have already found two of your videos helpful. You explain things very well.

Very good job. youre a good teacher. I wish more people would be honest and upfront with things. Plus this really protects the consumer from all of the crooks out there.

I changed out my capacitor about 3 years ago and I added a hard start capacitor as well. One of the wires to the capacitor had been getting so hot it finally burned away the insulation. I made 2 equal length pigtails to replace the one wire. Resistance causes heat so the extra wire reduces the resistance. It’s been working flawlessly ever since. I bought a can of the coil cleaner but never used it. After watching your video I’m going to tackle the cleaning next weekend, including condensate and filter. Thanks for the video.

Wow! I have a little bit of background of electronics from working 20 yrs of radio maintenance in the AF. I had no idea how easygoing AC repairs could actually be. Thanks for giving me the confidence to do my own repairs from now on.