Then I met air conditioners.
The part where water condenses is called the evaporator and other end (the hot coil) is called the condenser. Go figure.

Are you serious or joking? If serious, The names come from what is happening to the freon inside the tubes, not the water on the outside. The compressor pressurizes and condenses the freon from a gas to a liquid. The evaporator is where the evaporative cooling of the freon occurs and the coils cool as the freon evaporates from liquid to gas.

I love when the old-time engineers in the petroleum / chemical industry call a distillation process, "rectification". Whether chemical or electrical, the word comes from, rectify - to sort out.

 

Are you serious or joking?

I got my Florida State HVAC license in 1985 with a score of 96.75%

 

I got my Florida State HVAC license in 1985 with a score of 96.75%

The way you phrased the statement in the earlier post seemed like you were still mystified.

By the way, how do I get an HVAC guy to show up at my house like you instead of the guys who usually show up - I think their scores were closer to your score read backwards - 57.69%.

 

It's tough!
Most of them basically ransom your air conditioner back to you. If you don't want to spend a few thousand dollars for a whole air conditioner, let me show you some prices.

House call: $79
Replace squirrel cage fan blade, without new motor: $310.05
Replace compressor, generic, up to 2.5 tons: $1779.57
Replace drain pan: $604.89
Replace fan relay (5 terminals): $200.07
Run capacitor, up to 15 uf: $143.91

How do I know? I typed the price lists for 3 Pinellas county HVAC companies.

Pray your problems are electrical. Refrigerant service gets really expensive.

 

This is one of the reasons that I figured out how to fix mine myself, besides being a cheapskate. Three fan motors, one capacitor and celebrating its 30th year.

 

This is one of the reasons that I figured out how to fix mine myself, besides being a cheapskate. Three fan motors, one capacitor and celebrating its 30th year.

My house is now 10-years-old. I just learned what a "contactor" was last year. I can't wait to learn something new this season.

 

It's tough!
Most of them basically ransom your air conditioner back to you. If you don't want to spend a few thousand dollars for a whole air conditioner, let me show you some prices.

House call: $79
Replace squirrel cage fan blade, without new motor: $310.05
Replace compressor, generic, up to 2.5 tons: $1779.57
Replace drain pan: $604.89
Replace fan relay (5 terminals): $200.07
Run capacitor, up to 15 uf: $143.91

How do I know? I typed the price lists for 3 Pinellas county HVAC companies.

Pray your problems are electrical. Refrigerant service gets really expensive.

Those prices may be high in some areas.
They don't seem grossly out of line.

Given overhead and possibly a trip or two for parts..

They seem about double what I would charge. (if I was in that business)
And I have no overhead!


What I worry about is paying for compressor replacement and getting a run capacitor changed.



I may be out of touch, as I can't remember the last time I paid for anything.

 

The bearings will dry out and typically don’t have external oiling holes. The motors aren’t designed to be easily taken apart. You just run them until they die and then replace them.

 

The bearings will dry out and typically don’t have external oiling holes.The motors aren’t designed to be easily taken apart.You just run them until they die and then replace them.

That's what I've found.

Couple times in 11 years I've looked to oil my heatpump fan. Can't find a place to oil.

If it came out easy I'd try to force the issue. I know I'm on borrowed time.

 

If it's a ball bearing, forget oiling it. The balls wear out before the grease.
You can replace some ball bearings by driving them off the shaft and driving new ones on, after you sand the rust off. Be sure to drive the inner race!
If it's bushings, you can take the end plates off and add oil, but...
I checked mine and found that every 5 years is plenty of oiling.

 

$223.91 for a house call and a capacitor? I can do well on that kind of money, considering the capacitors cost about $3 and I carry about 12 different sizes of them on my truck, and 5 contactors, and 6 fan motors, and 3 thermostats, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Some stuff gets expensive, like a trip to buy a circuit board or a 1/4 HP OEM variable speed fan motor for $500 wholesale. Please try not to buy variable speed stuff! The manufacturers will have you over a barrel!

 

A lot of old fan motors can be disassembled and the bearings can be cleaned and lubed. Then it will last many more years. If the bearings are shot you may be able to replace them.

Yeah, I have saved quite a few doing just that.