...at the folks house. 70 year old Carrier system, which is a 3-phase system with a chill tower outside. Very efficient system and much cheaper to run than a new modern system. Flat coil needs to be replaced and the Condenser Barrel needs to be replaced. Problem is that the coil is not available and Carrier no longer has the schematics. Found several companies that build flat coils, but they are all 8 weeks or more out.

Had several HVAC companies come by to give us a quote on a new system. Prices ranged from $19K on the low end to over $50K - I ran those price gougers off and cussed them out for trying to take advantage of my 80 year old Mother and my 83 year old Dad.

Picked up $800.00 of portable evaporative coolers for the house las' yessirday and they don't work worth a schit. Thinking of getting several window units and somehow running a hose to the shower to drain the condensation. Not sure what else to do.

Repairing the old Carrier will take too long and won't guarantee that something else critical won't break. A new replacement system will be very expensive and won't last more than 10-15 years, b/c new HVAC stuff is pretty much crap.

& right in the middle of a terrible heat wave. The humidity here is fuggin' terrible. We're screwed.

Any and all ideas welcome. Thanks.

Reckon you already know.


Bite the bullet and get a new one.

Window air would have the drain outside.

Window units drain outside.
Look into mini-splits, DIY and reasonable.
Readily available.

Mini splits nowdays, the easiest and effective way to go!

That $19k on the low end isn't all that out of line considering they have to install a new type of system in an already built home.

Mini splits are getting popular around here.

it's a fairly big house - 4,000 sq. ft. Not sure mini splits would work.

The existing 3-phase, Carrier system is 7 1/2 tons.

Thanks.

It’s Texas. You really don’t have a choice. Suck it up and pay it or install a couple of mini splits and keep a few rooms cool while you have the coil made for the old system.

Yessir.

Just 'venting' I guess.

What are you getting for the $19000?

Obviously it would be condenser and evaporator system. Duct work etc. on a 4000 sf house would it be more than one condenser and evaporator? Gonna need something in the 7 ton range which would be 2/3.5 ton units if evenly split. Single story?

$19000 doesn’t seem unreasonable if EVERYTHING needs to be replaced. In fact I think it’s a pretty good price.

7 years ago replaced all duct work, new horizontal evaporate/ air handler( our old system was in a closet), new 5 ton condenser. Moved electrical box for unit to another outside wall. $6400. Of course this was a friend doing the work and I helped some.

American Standard.


Clyde

$19k is a right price.

Get a good quiet window unit for their bedroom, while they wait.

For that size home, I’m surprised they’re not talking about replacing it with 2 (or more) separate units.

Not advocating MrCool, but they are DIY and a couple of these will get you in the same cooling range as what is there currently. They are very efficient and reasonably simple to install. 2 of these will give you about the equiv. of 6 tons of cooling and some redundancy... The efficiency is very good on these units. If MrCool isn't ideal, there are a handful of fully DIY mini-split unit options. Most will require a vacuum pump, but the MrCool units and a couple of others don't require the lines to be pumped.

36000 BTU MrCool

Do they live in the whole house?
Just do the largest mini,and have them camp in the west wing.

If your humidity is high, they aren't worth anything. It's evaporation that makes them work and if it's damp, nothing evaporates. It just gets muggier. The lower the humidity, the better. With window units, keep the windows on the opposite side open so the air blows through. I haven't used a portable in 50 years but I don't recall them working very well. A swamper needs to pull air in from outside and blow it out the other side. Just setting in the room won't do much.

I'm sure I'll catch hell..... sell the 4k square foot house. Lotta house for a couple in their eighties.

Thanks fellers. House won't be sold until Dad passes - won't be too long now.

The windows in the house are not conducive to window units. Split systems might work for a room or two, but for the cost of 2 of them, we're half-way to a new system.

The quote is for 2 American Standard 4 ton twinned gas furnaces w/ 160,000 BTUs (existing system has a boiler), 2 American Standard evaporator coils and one 7.5 ton Amer. Std. condenser. Includes building a platform for the the furnaces, 2 filter bases, a run of 100' 1.5" and 1/2" copper line sets, flu pipe, & 30 lbs of 410A. Has a 10 year parts warranty on furnaces and evaporator coils, 5 year compressor warranty and a 2 yr. labor warranty.

^^^^^^^^^^,its too hot to fo.^^^^^^^^^^^good luck^^^^^^^^^^ haul ass^^^^^^^^^^^^
It's really smokin out there today,till Oct!!!!

Don't rub it in, ya' bastage

Bingo. Swamp coolers only work in places that don't really need AC.

You're getting a good deal at $19k. Cheaper than around here for a 2 or 2.5 ton unit for just 1500 Sq ft

Swamp coolers are used in El Paso extensively, and believe me when I say that they are needed there. But there's very low humidity in EP.

Yeah I was being flip, but they don't work anywhere in the southeast.

But.......in UT....NM...AZ.....NV

When them monsoons roll in Aug/Sept & the humidity bumps up high to 45%

Swampers are not working

AC is the machine

Just looked.....humidity is now 10% here

Our mornings are mid 80% humidity and mid 40% in afternoons.

Better than our southerly friends bay far.

Prices have gone up.

Will cost about 24K now.

It is hot bud.

I determined during the big freeze every house needs to have a small escape room where you can stay warm or cool and sleep.

I’ve been living small for most of my life

Which part of Texas ? NSEW?

I think he’s in the DFW area. Which really sucks in the summertime with their humidity.

Saw on the nightly news where a USPS Mailman died from heatstroke in Dallas yesterday while on his Mail route.

Can it be all 4?

Yes it can

I’d go with window units. In bedroom and other areas where they can concentrate cooler air by closing doors. Use the foam board insulation and duct tape to fill gaps in window. Just until new system is installed. A few 16000 btu units

No surprise

Big D

Huge windows that do not open in my folks bedroom. A few other rooms have crank open windows, which conceivably could be modified with plywood and styrofoam to fit a window unit, but highly impractical.

I think we'll just have to tough it out until we can repair the old system or rip it out and install an entirely new system - neither of which will be happening real soon. As I mentioned, best case scenario is a week to 10 days...

Maybe, Fans, lots of fans?

I would think an inexpensive hotel would be a lot less than any temp window units until the big stuff is fixed. Also less damage to the existing home.

Good thought.

So instead of an oven, the house becomes a convection oven.

Moving air cools, I'm in front of a fan now.

Not sure where you are at in Texas but get ahold of Edwin264.... he is a hvac contractor..... would at a minimum confirm if you're getting a decent price.

Maybe one of the portable ac units with exhaust hose. Needs a smaller opening than window unit

Yes, been discussing a hotel stay.

Today wasn't so bad b/c we had cloud cover and a big thunderstorm. Humid, but not brutally hot like yesterday. Supposed to rain tomorrow as well, so a bit of a reprieve. Next week will be over 100° all week, so that will be fun.

Damn, was hoping it was AoC out of the House of Representatives.

Starting the work of replacing the entire HVAC system tomorrow.

A week later and the new AC system was finally turned on today. House is starting to cool down - it's 84° in the house now, down from 93° earlier today. It was 104° today, which was slightly better than yesterday. We're averaging ~ 30 min/° drop in temp.

HVAC fellers will be back to hook up the return plenum, get the heating hooked up and various other clean-up and small issues tomorrow.

Question: HVAC guy constructed the supply plenum and will construct the return air plenum out of fiberglass duct board taped together with foil HVAC tape. Should he have used galvanized sheet metal or is his fiberglass board method acceptable? I would prefer galvanized sheet metal, but my concern with that is the sheet metal available today is such a light gauge and the galvanizing such schitty quality that it probably won't last long at all.

It's truly amazing comparing tis new Carrier equipment with the Carrier equipment we had from 1952. There really is no comparison - it's like the difference between tin foil and 1/8" sheet steel. The quality of this modern stuff is pathetic and it's clear that we'll be lucky to get 10 - 15 years out of it, while our old carrier stuff lasted 70 years and could have lasted longer if we had the time to have a new flat coil built and find a condenser barrel for a decent price. But that would have taken weeks if not months.

You will be extremely lucky if you get 10-15 years out of a new system.

That's what I was thinking. I was attempting to be optimistic.