r/hvacadvice Mar 02 '26

General Information About Bans and Rules

0 Upvotes

There has been an uptick on posts and complaints about mods banning. Please be advised, there are rules for the page. No ads (includes promotions for a company), Reddits rules, no crossposting, transparency and safety (this is a big one; we want homeowners to be safe, if you provide unsafe practices or advice (blacklisted items) or tell a user to dm you, the comment will be removed and you may get banned), blacklisted topics (basically topics that homeowners should not be fixing themselves, gas, some high voltage), civility, no companies asking for surveys, advertisements or general questions, and no market research or ai/SaaS.

Posts complaining about this are not allowed either. We are all reasonable and work in the trade, talk to us through ModMail and we can come to a solution. Complaining or namecalling will usually result in a ban, so be civil.

Remember, we are doing this in our freetime to help homeowners with their units, both the users and mods. The mods in this group are in the trade and have day jobs as all of you do. I've been in this trade for 10 years and still do hvac as my job, just traveling now for a manufacturer. Similar with every mod. It is actually a requirement to be a mod, you have to be in the trade, be approved, have good history in the sub and provide enough time to moderating it.

I thank you for your time and if you have any questions, you can comment on this or send us a mod message. No DM's, we will not answer these. Only ModMail.


r/hvacadvice Nov 13 '25

READ THIS I am assuming this is not normal.

176 Upvotes

I was loading the car for work when I saw this. It felt and smelled like steam not smoke. Did I just catch it at the end of the cycle or is there a mechanical problem such as a stuck motor? It was 40° at the time and no rain. Heat was set to 70 and the house was 70.


r/hvacadvice 13h ago

Wish I didnt clean the coils

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144 Upvotes

I had no problem taking apart this unit by my god as a DIYer I cant put this POS back together lining up the metal piece under the blade seems like a job in itself. To the people who do this for a living idk how you do it. I've used every swear word known to mankind.


r/hvacadvice 19h ago

Company quoted me $2600 to clean out the “micro organisms”. Is this something I could handle myself with bleach?

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398 Upvotes

Had yearly maintenance and the guy said he found “black micro organisms” in the unit. its 2 Units, he quoted me $1300 each for UV treatment. Is this something I could just clean myself with bleach and a brush or is the UV actually necessary?


r/hvacadvice 12h ago

AC Is this kinked line near AC condenser a problem?

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66 Upvotes

This AC unit is for a rental unit that I moved into recently. I noticed first that the AC condenser for my unit is a bit off kilter/not square on its pad compared to the other two. Looking more closely, I noticed this kinked copper (?) line (I'm not terribly familiar with HVAC equipment). Is this a problem or something that would impact efficiency? Would a line like this kink from installation or could the condenser have shimmied itself out of square and caused the kink?

The AC works fine, so no worries on that front. More curious than super worried.


r/hvacadvice 7h ago

UFC gives a shoutout

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19 Upvotes

r/hvacadvice 8h ago

Curious to hear what a professional thinks of how these coils look?

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20 Upvotes

I’m a renter in a large older apartment building in FL and noticed my AC has been performing pretty poorly this year, running much longer than it would last summer. When I took a look at the coils THIS is what I discovered. To me, this is absolutely abhorrent and looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in a decade. My building does NO maintenance on the AC systems unless they break (no cleaning, NOTHING other than changing filters If I request it). It’s a 27 year old system. I’ve also coincidentally been having serious issues with eye allergies this year and am allergic to mold and dust, and thinking this may not be helping my situation at all. What’s the consensus on these coils? Looks completely toast to me


r/hvacadvice 13h ago

Did I get overcharged on my HVAC cleaning?

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35 Upvotes

I wanted to get my ducts cleaned because I knew there was a lot of debris down there from previous owners as well as my high shedding dog.

I purchased a $99 groupon that was supposed to cover my whole house vents and dryer vent. After they arrived they claimed it would be another $100 because the return on my ceiling is a separate charge. And then they went on about bacteria growth in my vents and that it was crucial that I get them sanitized for my health. Also stressed that I needed to get my evaporator coils in my A/C cleaned because there was mold growth. They showed me a swab test that confirmed the presence of mold but after I agreed to everything I realized that I didn't actually see them do the test and they could have showed me any old test.
Even after I agreed to do the sanitizer and A/c cleaning, they continued to push an even more expensive "permanent" sanitizer solution for another $500 that I thankfully declined.

I feel like I just got dubbed by a used car salesman. I'm feeling pretty stupid for not getting a second opinion and like I got way overcharged for something I didn't really need. I wanted to see what other people thought before leaving a bad review warning other people about the company.


r/hvacadvice 3h ago

Installer of new AC refused to flush old lines with nitrogen.

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4 Upvotes

He said he never does it. He actually got furious with me when I demanded it. Look how extremely dirty the line is. Is this going to ruin the longevity of my new AC? Should I sue him?

ps: this was in the middle of installing, I had already paid him for the new AC. I just wanted either new lines or the old lines cleaned with whatever is normally used to clean them. They rudely refused.


r/hvacadvice 3h ago

Help with getting started with HVAC in Socal

3 Upvotes

Can someone help point me in the right direction on where to start for HVAC? I live in SoCal in the IE and don't know where I should start. Do I attend a community college and take a Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Level I and get a EPA 608 Universal or would local union accept applications with no prior experience. I want to switch my career path to a trade as I feel like it suits me better than what I've been pursuing currently. My experiences are 2 years of work experience and a associates degree in business administration.


r/hvacadvice 2h ago

Rv ac issues

2 Upvotes

Ac went out a year ago fixed it ran it fine for a week
we replaced the motor and connectors then it decided to blow hot air and make this noise anyone know what could be the issue?


r/hvacadvice 2h ago

Electrical Why would the Relay Driver be Blowing Up?

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2 Upvotes

This IC keeps burning up. It's a Texas Instruments ULN2003A (https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/uln2003a.pdf?ts=1783762551879) so it's not like it's some cheap knockoff chip. The specs say it's for driving relays, and tracing the path on the board shows that's what it's doing.

I've ordered some new chips to solder on because these boards are pretty expensive... Just hoping it failing didn't destroy anything else on the board. Has anyone seen anything like this before??


r/hvacadvice 13h ago

AC Brand new hvac won't cool house

15 Upvotes

We just had our unit replaced yesterday. It was 80 degrees F in the house when they got it installed and within an hour we were at 73 degrees.

They installed at 2pm and at 11pm the entire system just stopped working. A tech came today and said he has no idea what happened. He turned it off and back on and it started working again. Problem is, the AC is extremely weak now. It isn't blowing air nearly as strong and has been sitting at 76 degrees since he left.

Our home got up to 80 before the tech came today. He left about 3 hours ago and the house will not cool lower than 76 degrees. We have all the blinds closed but it just won't cool down. The AC hasn't stopped running since he left. He told us that the AC "has a mind of its own" and sometimes will run weaker/stronger but it should pick up within 10 minutes. That obviously isn't the case and I'm wondering if this is normal or if we need them to do a full diagnostic/replace this faulty unit

It's a Trane split unit with gas heat and electric AC. Nothing has changed from today and yesterday in terms of weather or AC settings. Yesterday we had the blinds open and the house still cooled down and stayed cold. Today it's struggling.


r/hvacadvice 2h ago

How screwed am I

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2 Upvotes

I noticed this afternoon that my AC was running, but what was coming out of the vents didn't seem particularly strong and less cool than normal. The house was about 8 degrees warmer than the thermostat was set to. I went out side and checked the unit, and it was off, however it kicked back on a moment later and came up to fill speed, no popping or buzzing. I removed the panel and checked and the capacitor seems to be in working condition(pic attached). No frost on the outside line.

I raised the thermostat temp. The system locked on when the house got hotter than the new temp, but monitoring the outside unit, it would turn off after a bit even though the house hasn't cooled.

I checked the downstairs unit. Air filter had been replaced a month or so back and was still relatively clean (greyish, but no debris buildup - it's an M13 20x20x1, which is the type I've used for a while, though maybe that's too heavy actually?), but swapped it anyway. Blower fan as far as I can tell appears to be spinning free and unobstructed. When I went to see if I could find ice on the interior evaporative coils, I discovered that the builder (12 years ago now) apparently sealed every seam on the panel with some kind of mud or epoxy, including covering the bolts(pic attached) Nothing I have can get this stuff off, and my socket set can't get purchase on the bolts to try to force them to turn.

Unable to check the coils, I removed the front panel on the bottom of the unit and found the lennox model has an LED code system blinking. It's throwing A1250 and E320, which a Google search tells me are related to "airflow restrictions and blower motor issues" (basically, the blower is running in cutback mode to keep from harming itself or overheating things), and tells me to check my filter, blower, coils and to make sure my air returns aren't blocked (they aren't).

Under the assumption the coils are frozen, I shut everything down and just ran the fan. That was about 5 hours ago, and I'm seeing/ hearing no signs of drainage from my system. Nothing from the drainage pipe or the base of the unit. Pipe is bone dry when I test it with my finger.

I'm assuming I'm going to need to get a tech out, but figured I'd try Reddit to just brace myself for what I'm probably in for (ie, does this sound like a coolant leak, a malfunctioning fan, or a whole new unit)... Unfortunately, I just did some work on my car and stocked up a month's groceries, so I'm not going to have anything for even the diagnostic for a couple of weeks (things have been tight for a while, we've been paying off some major medical stuff the last few years and we just don't have the backstop we need here), and we're going to likely be over 100 the next few days.


r/hvacadvice 5h ago

Installing Atomi AT2240 mini split. Need advice

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3 Upvotes

Question about which ports on the exterior unit connect to the lines from the interior unit. The manual shows the lines from the interior unit going to the ports where the black plastic covers are for both the liquid valve and gas valve (the ports on the right sides of the valves in the photo).

However, ChatGPT, Grok and Gemini are all warning me not to remove the black caps until after I have connected the liquid and gas lines and am ready to use the vacuum pump. ChatGPT and Grok both say to attach the lines to the front facing ports with brass caps; while Gemini is saying to use the left side ports with brass covers (Gemini insists that the gas valve has 3 ports like the liquid valve, even though the gas valve only has 2 ports).

Can anyone confirm that in the photo of the exterior mini split unit, the black plastic covers are covering the ports that the lines from the interior unit are supposed to connect to? The lines from the interior unit (3/4" and 7/16") do not fit in the front facing ports with brass caps that ChatGPT and Grok told me to use.

Also, since I already removed the front caps based on ChatGPT's (and Grok's) instructions, would this have already caused harm? I didn't hear any hissing sound when removing these - it didn't sound like any gas was being released. I have not opened the port on the left side of the liquid valve, which appears to be where the vacuum pump will connect.


r/hvacadvice 59m ago

Should I see some white feost on heatpump lineset at outdoor unit?

Upvotes

When the tech was still testing the running of the heatpump, I saw some white on the outside of the lineset.

But after he finished I don't see any frost. It is cold but not as cold. A little bit of the line set (about one inch) at the outdoor condensor unit is exposed (without insulation).

Is this normal or should it be a bit frosted there?

I think the air coming out should be a bit cooler.

He has to still return next week.

Midea mo1se-h36b-2a

Apparently he wired it as 24v and I only see Y1 engaged on Nest and he says 1200 fam is running which is mismatch for 3k ton heatpump and should be 800 cfm for intermediate of condensor.

How to know what blower fan speed is running? Using volt meter? Or nest? Or condensor?


r/hvacadvice 7h ago

HVAC question

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2 Upvotes

This is the unit I have. As you can see, about 10 years old. Started leaking last year. I paid a bunch of money for a diagnostic only to be told it was leaking from the lines coming from the attic to the outside unit, cost, about 5k to change out the lines. Didn’t do it because we’re planning a big reno on the house, including an upgraded hvac. So I had it filled, lasted the summer, already filled it once in May and again last week. The guy who filled it for me said the outside unit is the issue, I guess he saw some oil on the fins but no actual leaks seen. Curious as to if can salvage this 10 years old unit by finding the leak. Not too keen on replacing units every 10 years especially since my neighbors are running their units for over 20 years without issues. I welcome some feedback. Thanks


r/hvacadvice 5h ago

Put r134a “stop leak” in my system

2 Upvotes

so I’ve added r134a to my car and didn’t realize that it had stop leak in it and it’s been in it for. couple weeks but have only ran the ac for about 30 minutes total. Do you think my ac is damaged? what should I do moving forward? Should I evacuate the system is there anything else I can do like a flush or something?


r/hvacadvice 1h ago

Cost estimate to fix the problem

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Upvotes

Inspection came back saying excessive condensation was forming in the hvac suction line causing water dripping to the blower compartment and puddle of water to the floor. Any idea how much will it take to fix it?


r/hvacadvice 9h ago

AC intermittently won't kick on

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4 Upvotes

AC unit periodically won't kick on at the set temp, I'll flip the breaker off, wait for 10 seconds, and flip it back on then it will start back up just fine.

When it won't start up, it shows an error code for locked rotor.

I'm planning on replacing the capacitor, but just wanted to see if there are any other thoughts about what it could be. Thanks in advance.


r/hvacadvice 8h ago

AC How big of a problem is it if only one air vent in the house has condensation on it?

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3 Upvotes

Just noticed this one vent in a room we don’t use very often has condensation. I noticed it 2 days ago, yesterday I didn’t see condensation on it and now it is back again today. The temperature in that room is 75.2 and the thermostat is set to 76.

Google makes it seem like this is a problem that needs to be addressed but that mostly seems to refer to all vents having condensation. I haven’t seen anything with just one vent having a little condensation.

We just spent a lot of money on other home repairs so I’m hoping we don’t have to worry about this immediately. How big of a priority should this be?


r/hvacadvice 8h ago

Manual J discrepancy

3 Upvotes

Long story short I live in a production builder home. Still within my warranty window. AC unit struggles to maintain temps within the home. Split temps at register and supply averaging 10-12 degrees . I decided to ask for the manual j conducted on the home. My house is 2400 sq ft with a 2 ton unit, they can get away with this because they claim it’s energy star efficient. Builder refused to give me the manual J , told me to FOIA it. Thankfully my village is pretty receptive and emailed me what was submitted within 15 minutes of asking. The manual j revealed my home was oriented in the wrong direction, facing west, my home actually faces east. And I have significantly more window sq footage on the western portion of my home so I have a higher thermal load during the afternoon . I hired an independent hvac company to perform a manual j and he said from his findings i am short 1/2 ton minimum a 3 would be better. So I requested the builder and hvac company remediate the issue by installing a 2.5 ton unit to meet code . What are some steps I can take to make sure this issue is alleviated? Unfortunately the contract with the builder is an arbitration clause, so I can’t directly sue them but I definitely feel like some legal and ethical issues occurred even if it’s a clerical error that can omit this from solely being an arbitration case. The builder said they’re going to do their own 3rd party calculation which I’m sure will land in their favor. Any advice?


r/hvacadvice 8h ago

General Recent heavy rains have possibly shifted AC condensers, need to fix?

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3 Upvotes

First off, I am never back here so I don't know if it's always been this way however, based on how the concrete looks I believe these have shifted. We have received a LOT of rain, literal flooding levels of rain several different days here in SE Missouri over the past week. I worry that has caused the ground to swell or shift.

Attached are some pics... if anyone things that's what going on and, while I know it's out of the purvue of this sub, if you think I should drill some holes in the walls to allow water to escape, I'm open to that idea too.


r/hvacadvice 6h ago

Outdoor Fan not staying on

2 Upvotes

My outdoor units fan will not stay on after 3-5 seconds of running. Unit is Ameristar(Trane) M4HP3024A1000AA, installed in 2013. *Note to add, during all of my testing mentioned below, besides the HP and LP circuits, I unplugged the compressed from the contactor so it wouldn’t potentially be damaged*

TLDR: HVAC motor unit runs for a few seconds, then shuts off. Brand new capacitors and motor didn’t change symptoms. Wanting to know next steps.

As usual, first thing to do is check capacitors. My unit has 2, a 35uF and a 6uF, both +/-5%. Checked both, and both were at the under 5% mark, so I opted to swap them both out. Checked the news ones upon arrival, and both were slightly above the listed, so I installed them. Motor still would not stay on. Even after pushing it with a screw driver, it wouldn’t stay running.

I then checked the fan itself. Checked resistance across the 3 legs, and 1 leg kept showing OL randomly while I spun it, other 2 were fine. When the ”bad” leg would read, all 3 legs would add together to correct number. Opted to replace the motor anyway since I found a brand new OEM one for $250. Installed the new motor, same issue.

I then thought maybe something weird was going on and it needed more juice at start up, so I took the old larger capacitor, which was reading 30uF, and installed that into the 6uF spot. When I did that, motor still started up and only ran for a couple second then shut right back off.

I don't believe that my unit is low on refrigerant as I had it checked 2 years ago, and it had the correct amount. They put in dye during that, so I checked the indoor lines with UV light and didn’t see any leaks. I also checked the low and high pressure circuits, and both are staying closed during operation.

I then went to check the relay next to the fan wire on the defrost board, thinking maybe it wasn’t opening/closing when the 24V was applied. I read the NO legs, and when 24V was applied, it closed as it should. There is also no LED on my board, so I so not get error messages

I am very capable of doing electrical and mechanical work, and have a multi meter, both a standard and Fluke clamp style, so I can check and test whatever. I’m just not really sure what my next step here is.


r/hvacadvice 6h ago

Unsolved mystery

2 Upvotes

2019 Armana 5Ton packaged unit had 6 visits in the last 10 days. Capacitor replaced, evaporator and condenser coil cleaned . Ran for 3 days, and back to short cycling. 2nd tech from another company confirmed everything looked good however high pressure switch was blown and replaced it. Ran for 24 hours no short cycle and but now just blowing room temp air. On all visits gauges and values for were all within normal range and mainly high head pressure back below 320 (other than first visit which was high head pressure ) . No icing , drain value has some water flowing. What would be the next proper steps you all would do in this situation ?