Kinked AC lines?

[HybridSquirrel]

I've been having AC problems for about a month now, one day it just stopped working all together. Contractor came out originally and told us the EVAP coil was rusted out and leaking so had to get replaced. Replaced EVAP coil and noticed that it was still blowing warm air and the AC lines were freezing up. Called them back out and they now say that the AC lines have a kink in them and they have to rip up my floors to replace them.

How does an AC line randomly get a kink in it? I also noticed that the AC lines are not freezing up anymore, but it's still just blowing warm air. Am I getting screwed?

 

[PottedMeat]

How does an AC line randomly get a kink in it?

what did they say? it does sound like BS unless they jerked the lines around too much when they replaced the evap coil.

so when you turn it on does the evap coil get cold?
did they check for leaks after the install?

freezing up lines could be an incorrect amount of refrigerant. or they fixed the wrong thing in the first place.

 

[sdifox]

Err did you check/change your air filter?

 

[bbhaag]

What lines are they saying are kinked? The only lines on my unit are copper tubes coming off the condenser to circulate/cool the freon through the HVAC system. Are you saying that they are saying that your copper tubes are kinked? I've never seen copper tubes just kink by themselves before.
It sounds like your contractor is struggling to pin point the real issue.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

Err did you check/change your air filter?

Yes, replaced it at the beginning of the month when I noticed the AC was blowing warm.

They are just saying "the lines are kinked inside the walls". It was freezing up initially after the replacement, but now it is not freezing up or at least I haven't noticed but it's only blowing warm-ish air.

edit: I do get some drainage from the system when it runs. I havent been running it though becaue it doesnt work

Edit2: I'll try to pop the cover off for the AC coil tomorrow when it's running. Last time I did it was frozen and blew water all in the face.

 

[boomerang]

Am I getting screwed?

You may have already been but IMO will be for sure if you have them out again. Find another company.

 

[Pick2]

First thing to do is:

... Find another company.

At least a second opinion.

 

[Greenman]

The line set between the air handler and condenser don't just randomly kink. I would get a second opinion before moving forward.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

The evap coil doesn't get cold when I touched it yesterday but the lines frozen up again. I tried calling a few other places but haven't been able to get anyone to come out yet.

 

[NutBucket]

To me that sounds like low refrigerant...but not low enough to activate the low-pressure switch (unless it's disabled).

 

[HybridSquirrel]

How could should the evap coil get? I ran a temp probe in there and it was cold-ish but not as cold as i'd expect it to be. About 70 degrees. I imagine that's mostly due to the air flow

 

[Micrornd]

A properly functioning A/C system should be able to maintain your home at a minimum of 30F degrees below the outdoor temperature.
That generally means the measured at the evap core, the airflow temp is in the 40F-low 50F range.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

Had a technician come back and take a look at it. He said it could either be the capacitor or low on refrigerant.. He filled up 5 pounds of refrigerant into the system and it's been blowing cold, but not how it used to. He said just monitor and if it doesn't get better than it may need a compressor but he doesn't suspect a kinked line. He said that refrigerant can leak occasionally and that's normal, which I realize.

So lets see how it goes.

 

[NutBucket]

According to the timeline in the story you had the evap coil replaced about a week ago...which would mean the system was charged at that point. Unless the first guy didn't charge it correctly? Either that or losing 5lbs of refrigerant in a week is a large leak. A bad capacitor would fail to start the compressor/fan. It's a $30 part and easy enough to try. There's not really an in-between state.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

According to the timeline in the story you had the evap coil replaced about a week ago...which would mean the system was charged at that point. Unless the first guy didn't charge it correctly? Either that or losing 5lbs of refrigerant in a week is a large leak. A bad capacitor would fail to start the compressor/fan. It's a $30 part and easy enough to try. There's not really an in-between state.

About 2 weeks ago they replaced it - yeah. They also came back out to look at it once and said they recharged it. I mentioned this to the new tech and he said they probably just didn't charge it to the correct specs the first time. It's still blowing good 4 hours later and no lines have frozen up yet.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

Seems to be working good right now so we'll just monitor. I'm thinking the guys before just didn't charge it enough.

The unit is pretty old but we're going to replace it this winter

 

[cledus62]

Had a technician come back and take a look at it. He said it could either be the capacitor or low on refrigerant.. He filled up 5 pounds of refrigerant into the system and it's been blowing cold, but not how it used to. He said just monitor and if it doesn't get better than it may need a compressor but he doesn't suspect a kinked line. He said that refrigerant can leak occasionally and that's normal, which I realize.

So lets see how it goes.

Your system is sealed and should not leak refrigerant. Freon does not wear out. Once a system is charged properly it will operate until something fails, mechanical or otherwise. Hopefully they replaced your liquid line drier as part of the completed repair. Sounds like your first mechanic may have been a rookie. Even at that he should not have missed your charge by 5 lbs.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

It's still pulling strong now. Our house has a goofy setup so We usually set it to 77 upstairs where the thermostat is and it makes it like 65 in the garden level where we sleep/live essentially so the system doesn't run a lot. Thanks everyone for the help