Hello to all from a newbie to the forum. I will try to make this as short as I can,

Purchased a new mobile mansion about a year and a half ago, was amazed at the lower bills until late summer when the AC was running too much compared to earlier and the bill sky-rocketed, it was under "full" warranty so I called the co. that installed the unit and the same guy came out that installed it (his sweat worked looked really bad, I can and have done much better)

He said one of the connections was leaking and he put more 410A in and said he would be back in a week to "fix" it.

The AC ran great, as good if not better than before. during that week I picked up a sight glass and paid him a few bucks to install it when he "fixed" the leak, I don't think the unit ran as good as before after that but it was late summer and before long it was cooler and there were no issues.

This brings up to this summer, as soon as it really started to heat up a couple months ago the unit seemed to run too much and the bills are about the same as this time last last year before the repairs. Called him again and he spent 10 min. doing a sub cooling test and declared all was fine took my money and left (now it is not under full warranty)

If I watch the sight glass about every 3-5min I see a 10-15sec run of gas through the sight glass, is it possible he let air into the system when he repaired the leak and did not fully vacuum it out or am I possibly low on 410A?

Obviously I am no expert but it seems pumping gas to the orifice is not a good sign.....

 

Welcome to the forums.

A sight glass is not an effective way of indicating a charge. Proper charging techniques are the only way to charge a system properly.

An occasional bubble(s) is perfectly normal. Usually.... the hotter the day the less you'd see any bubbles at all.

That's not to say that there is not another less-than-stellar fitting that maybe leaking.

 

Thanks, it was in the high 90s the day I saw the bubbles, I have everything now to check sub-cooling and super-heat but cannot find any information on the specs for my Goodman GSX-140361KA system, sent Goodman a message and got "sorry you are a consumer and obviously too stupid to actually need this information" answer, it's going to be in the low 100s this weekend so run time will be pretty much continuous, will be a good chance to get some numbers.

 

Unfortunately we cannot help you here either with charging information.

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/ai...ng-your-c.html

 

If the unit is undercharged, there will be pockets of gas in the liquid line.

But it's likely refrigerant gas, not air.

Call them back since the performance is poor again. probably still leaking.

 

As I said I did, he spent 10 min and charged me for a service call and said all was well, it was however abnormally cool that day.

Another thing I am concerned about is about a week ago we had a power bump, not uncommon out here on the "end of the line" but it took over an hour before the compressor would re-start, it was in the high 90s. this system is only 1 1/2 years old.

This tells me the compressor was running on the edge of thermal shutdown to begin with, this cannot be a good sign, I have since purchased a thermostat with a 5 min power interrupt delay, just thought it would be a good idea not that it will fix a hot running compressor.

Not to say we have power quality issues the voltage at the contactor is around 240V under load

 

"As I said I did, he spent 10 min and charged me for a service call and said all was well, it was however abnormally cool that day."

This means nothing, 10 minutes isn't enough to any proper testing.

Were any readings noted on the invoice? Did you see the tech measure pipe temps?

What was measured?

BTW when you have a momentary power disruption, it's normal for it to have trouble re-starting.

But it shouldn't take an hour for the compressor to come back on.

If there's not enough refrigerant, the compressor will run hotter than normal because the cool gas returning is what cools the windings.

You should make sure your outdoor coil is clean, condenser fan working normally at full speed.

____________
Ignore stupid screen name from many years ago, trying to get it changed.

 

No invoice, said they would mail it, never got it even after calling and asking for it.
It looked from what I could see he checked the high side temp and pressure, he said it was making 14.5 SER which makes no sense how he could determine that from only those two readings.

Believe me I do not want to offend anyone but for the most part the service industry in the country has gone to hell in a hand basket.

Seems not to make any difference, the last time I called them there was a 4 day backlog and most other companies will not make calls out of their immediate area.

Years ago I was a line tech for a large GM dealer, figured out I could not make a living without screwing everyone that came through the door. So I became a in-house tech for a large corporation and 35 years later I never regretted it once.

 

really need to see what the low side is doing, a decent tech can pick up a lot from knowing that.

Things like low airflow (low suction pressure and low temperature), underfeeding txv (low suction pressure and high temperature), etc.

One problem can mask another, like if there's low airflow and low refrigerant with a txv, possible for the high side to appear normal because the txv can theoretically clamp down to compensate.

By checking only one parameter, he's assuming that everything else is working fine and the only potential cause is incorrect charge.

You're right; north america is in decline and everything is becoming a giant racket. Sell new parts or new equipment made over seas; no troubleshooting or theoretical knowledge needed.

If you don't do your own research, you will be shafted; I don't trust any professionals, not even doctors.

 

Well I no longer have any gas indicated in the sight glass, detailed bomb making instructions can be posted online but we cannot talk about why there are no more bubbles, I also simply hosed out the condenser coils and things are getting better as far as run times go, so before I set about recording all the pressures temps etc. I decided to check the A coil, my air handler is a Nordyne, did not know how unpopular these are until doing some research.

First I can only "get" to half the A coil as the cover is plastered in place, not sure if this is common or even acceptable practice, (no doubt this can be removed to get access to the coils) the coils did not show any obvious signs of being in need of cleaning but nether did the condenser.
What I was concerned about was the amount of rust where the tubes go through the galvanized frame.

I am going to check on getting some A coil cleaner along with some condenser cleaner this week, obviously the A coil cannot be cleaned from the clean side towards the dirty side which would be much more desirable.

It appears I have a "flowrator" valve not an TXV valve, I looked up the info on the Aspen site and actually found a superheat/subcooling chart, cool.

 

These numbers do not look right,,,

 

We can not help you with specific sealed system info.
Read this.

There are a number of pro forums online that may be able to help.