June 16, 2025 • 31 mins
When your professional HVAC technician warns you about a failing component, listen! This powerful lesson kicks off our deep dive into summer air conditioning maintenance as Eric shares how ignoring a $50 capacitor replacement led to an $800 repair bill when his blower motor eventually failed.
The value of maintenance contracts becomes crystal clear as we break down exactly what technicians check during routine service visits: refrigerant levels, operating pressures, capacitors, compressors, electrical loads, coil cleaning, and condensation line clearing. These regular check-ups can extend your HVAC system's lifespan by 5-10 years or more—potentially saving thousands on premature replacement costs.
While professional service is crucial, we also share several DIY checks homeowners can perform. Learn how to measure the temperature differential between your return and supply vents (ideally 15-20 degrees), monitor humidity levels for optimal comfort (50-60%), and locate your condensation drain line to ensure proper drainage. We also reveal a shocking story about how a simple maintenance oversight led to significant ceiling damage that went undetected for weeks.
Understanding your system's proper sizing (roughly 600 square feet per ton) and whether you have single or multi-stage equipment helps explain why your home might feel uncomfortably humid despite reaching the set temperature. For the adventurous, we provide guidance on inspecting ductwork connections and insulation to prevent energy waste and condensation issues.
The Carolina Contractor Show brings you practical knowledge that builds confidence in maintaining your home's most expensive systems. Share your HVAC questions or show topic ideas with us through our website at thecarolinacontractor.com, where you'll also find all our past episodes in podcast form.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, general ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
All right, donnie, I've knownyou long enough.
I'm going to let you in on asecret of how I recovered from
being sick.
So if I was sick from whetherit was a standard cold or the
(00:26):
flu or whatever especially ifI'd been calling Ralph on the
big white phone after that daywhere you just wouldn't eat and
you would just lay in bed andmaybe sip some Gatorade about 24
hours after that point likeclockwork, I would get up, take
a shower, blurry eyed, worn out,get in my car, drive to Taco
(00:49):
Bell and get a burrito supremeand a nacho bel grande, come
back home, eat it and within 30minutes to an hour I'd feel like
a brand new person.
And it doesn't work aseffectively now that I'm older,
but it sure did back then.
And you said your son was sickthe other day and you offered
(01:09):
him floorboard Mexican food.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, there's a long story behind that.
It was just I had an extra softtaco supreme and we were
actually recording the show lastweek and I was late getting to
dinner and he was under theweather.
And I was late getting todinner and he was under the
weather.
I said, hey, bud, you know I'vegot some leftover Taco Bell, or
I didn't eat that soft TacoSupreme.
If you want to grab that whilewe record the show, I'll I'll be
right out to to cook you a goodsquare meal.
(01:34):
But you thought that wasfunnier than I did.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I was kind of embarrassed, it was just the way
you said it to him was hey,I've got you know some Taco Bell
on the floorboard of the truckif you're hungry.
It was in a bag, I know, but Istill related to it because I
used to eat Taco Bell after Igot really sick, and so when you
said it I kind of reminisced.
(01:57):
I was thinking about my youthtoo, like your son, about the
same age, early 20s, and I wouldeat horrible food after I was
sick and that seemed to be myrecovery method for a couple
decades.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
He's a savage and he works for my dad every day
pouring concrete, so some daysthey don't even get a lunch.
Him eating a leftover soft tacosupreme is very not outside of
his norm.
He's a growing boy, so I thinkthey'll just take anything.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Well, this is the Carolina Contractor Show and of
course we every week like totalk about concoctions that have
cooked on a floorboard of aF-150, just because it's what we
do.
No, it's really not what wetalk about, but sometimes those
subjects pop up On the CarolinaContractor Show.
We talk about your house, theinside and the outside, and DIY
projects.
So what we say uh, it's asports center for DIY wires is
(02:51):
Carolina contractor show.
You can go to the website at uh, the Carolina contractorcom.
We've got all our showsuploaded there in podcast form.
Links to the YouTube show.
You can check that out.
Social media Again.
If you have a question, whichwould you rather cook in the
floorboard of your truck aburrito or an enchilada you can
ask Donnie.
He's not only a generalcontractor but he knows
(03:13):
something about Mexican foodsitting in a truck all day, so
he can help you with thosequestions.
He also is the owner of SureTop Roofing and Blanchard
Building Company and I just dosales.
I sell tacos.
No, I really don't sell tacos,but that'd be kind of a cool
thing to sell at my store, whichis a home builder supply in
Wilson.
Sorry, I've gotten completelydistracted.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I'm thinking about Taco Bell.
Now you sell to people who eata lot of tacos.
Okay, that's very accurate.
Thank you very much, donnie.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
You've wrapped that up perfectly Okay.
That's very accurate.
Thank you very much, donnie.
You've wrapped that upperfectly Okay.
Last week on the show we weretalking about things you can do
to prep for summer and we kindof hit a quick hit list of about
I don't know 10 or 12 things.
Subject I'm like man, we onlygot like five minutes left of
(04:05):
the show, we'd never be able togo in.
All the things about an HVACunit and we all have our war
stories about air conditioningunits and they always die in the
summer.
I personally, at the Smithhousehold at the recording of
this show, I'm waiting for ablower motor because ours went
out and this ties into things.
We've talked about maintenanceprograms and why you should get
them.
Before we get into the nittygritty of maintenance programs
(04:28):
that HVAC unit companies offer,let me say this when you hire a
professional to take care ofyour car or your HVAC unit, as
we're talking about now, listento what they say, because he
came in in February to do just acheckup and he said hey, man,
(04:48):
I'm measuring the resistance andvoltage and all that technical
jargon on your capacitors andthey're a little low.
We might want to do a changeout of that blower motor.
I think it's going to startgoing bad.
It'd be about 800 bucksinstalled.
Start going bad It'd be about800 bucks installed.
I'm trying to pinch somepennies at the time and I said,
(05:09):
well, maybe we can just talkabout that in the future.
So then the hot weather hitsand the AC unit is on outside,
the fan is blowing, but there'sno air moving in the vents in
the house.
And so he comes in and says yep, the capacitors were trying to
tell you something and yourmotor went into overdrive and
it's dead.
I'll order you a new one.
(05:31):
You can enjoy this hot weatherfor a few days while you wait
for that part to come in.
I didn't listen to theprofession.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Shame on you E You're the guy that should know better
.
I know Well, Right.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Happens to the best of us.
So we want everybody to avoidthose same things, and one of
the big things you can do in thesummer is prep work.
A lot of homeowners think Ican't do anything, but HVAC
service is the easiest thing todo.
An annual contract, that's whatI have.
My guy I don't know if you haveone of these or have had them
in the past, donnie my guy comesin and he checks capacitors and
(06:05):
airflow and he even cleans themachines and he even pulls the
weeds around the machines.
Makes me feel kind of guilty,but he checks everything, goes
up in the attic and he makessure the fans working correctly
and blows out the condensationlines, which is really important
too.
Do you, donnie, have a servicecontract with an HVAC company?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So mine's kind of unfair.
My next door neighbor is theheating and air guru and his son
has also started.
His son worked for another guy,which I think was very wise
that he had his son work forsomeone besides himself.
But his son did such a good jobfor the other guy that when he
decided to get out of thebusiness he passed his business
along to Cody.
So Cody's a whiz, his dad'sprobably the smartest person
(06:50):
that I know, and they live nextdoor to me so I never have any
HVAC woes just because I've gotthese guys right here next door
to me and they look out for melike family.
So very fortunate in thataspect.
But I do believe in the servicecontract thing.
I think at least at a veryminimum you should have your
unit serviced annually.
If not, you know bi-annually,and and, um, you know, hot to
(07:14):
cold or cold to hot.
I think that warrants, you know, uh, it depends on the service
charge.
But if they don't charge verymuch, you know they could extend
the life of your unit.
Um, what, five, six, seven,eight, maybe even 10 years?
My dad got 20 years out of hisheating and air unit and, uh,
and it was all electric.
So I it was.
His house was built in 1990.
So he he really got his money'sworth.
(07:35):
But he maintained it along theway and you know that keeps you
from dropping another 15 grand,uh, when it's not necessary.
But I do want to say I called mynext door neighbor and I'm
going to read this from a listbecause I can't keep all this in
my head.
But the typical HVAC serviceentails they check the
refrigerant, they check theoperating pressure, they check
(07:55):
all the capacitors andcompressors the compressor is
the big ticket item.
They check all the amps to theloads of the compressors, fans
and et cetera.
They clean all the amps to theloads of the compressors, fans
and et cetera.
They clean all the coils on theoutdoor and indoor units and
they blow out the condensationlines.
And we'll get into the damagethat can be caused from a
blocked condensation line later.
But it's very thorough and itsounds like your guy's doing a
(08:17):
great job if he's pulling theweeds around the condenser units
outside and he cares, and sohats off to him.
He's doing a good job.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah, and I've got a horror story, when we get to it,
about condensation lines whenthey get plugged.
Mine didn't get plugged, it gotserviced incorrectly by a
different person.
I won't mention them but I'lltell that story.
Is there things that we can do,donnie?
First of all, don't mess withcleaning the coils if you're not
(08:42):
sure what you're doing.
A lot of people take theirpressure washer and they'll sit
there and clean all the dirt onthe outside coils and they don't
realize they're screwing uptheir was it fins.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yep, the fins, for sure, and that's something that
even hail, things like that, candamage the fins.
So it's funny that hail doesn'tjust cause damage to your roof,
it can cause damage to yourHVAC unit that's outside.
So, um, uh, a few things.
So, from a DIY standpoint, youknow DIY and HVAC don't really
go together, but there are acouple of things that that, uh,
(09:16):
we're acronym heavy today.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Uh, the you can check the temperature.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
You can check the temperature of the air coming
out of your uh supply registers,whether they're on the floor or
on the ceiling, and you canalso check the temperature of
the air going into the return.
So those neat littlethermometer guns that they use
during COVID, when they shotthose at your forehead and you
had to act like it wasn'tuncomfortable because you didn't
want to move your head around alittle bit.
(09:43):
But you can get one if youstill have one of those.
From that point in time I keepone just because we're always
needing those in theconstruction field.
But it's a cheap thing.
You can probably get it for $7,$10 on Amazon.
And the air temperature goingin and coming out should vary by
about 15 degrees.
So if you are calling for70-degree air at the thermostat,
(10:05):
then the air going into thereturn should measure about 70
degrees.
The air coming out should beanywhere from 15 to 20 degrees
cooler.
So your register should beanywhere from 55, 50 degrees,
something like that, dependingon if your unit just kicked on
or just how fast it's coolingthat air down.
So always want to be coldercoming out of the supply than
(10:26):
going in to the return, and Iwould say that the only other
thing I could think about thatyou could check from a homeowner
standpoint would be for ahumidity issue.
So the sweet spot for humidityis 50 to 60% inside of your
house and a lot of these fancythermostats now have a built in
humidistat and, and if not, youknow, something to monitor your
(10:49):
humidity isn't expensive to do,but a lot of us have.
We're intuitive enough to feelthat humidity swing.
So if you feel sticky in thehouse, you know then it's not
doing its thing, notdehumidifying the air, then that
could be not dehumidifying theair, then that could be caused
for a bigger problem.
And I'd say that in the morning, when it's a lot cooler, your
(11:13):
system hadn't been working asaggressive through the night.
So it's not going to obviouslydehumidify the air and you might
hover somewhere around 60.
That's okay.
And after lunch the heat startsgoing up pretty quick.
It should be around 50 becausea unit is cycling on and cycling
off a lot faster.
Where you might find a problemis that if you have an oversized
(11:35):
unit and the square footageisn't working right, then the
unit is cycling on and off toofast to dehumidify the air.
So you're thinking, gee whiz,it's 70 degrees in here, but
it's still humid and that'susually the problem.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I will say it's nice when the tech comes in and says
hey, I just want to let you know, Mr Smith, you have an
oversized unit.
Sorry, I'm sorry, it's reallybad.
That was kind of sketchy too.
That kind of went to the zestylane.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
You might have just topped last week's joke about
inside hoses and yeah, but,lafonda, get the ditches, only
you.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So let's go ahead to the condensation thing, because
this is important and anybodycan do it.
My house, for example, has twounits, one's lower and upper
level.
The lower unit, floor unit thecondensation line runs under the
house basically and goes withthe elevation of the house
downward and goes through themasonry and so that one's easy
(12:33):
to see.
You can't miss usually yourupstairs.
If you have one condensationdrain line, it's usually a PVC
pipe coming straight down.
Usually well, not usuallysometimes it's covered with
siding or they try to make itlook a little less visible, but
it drains usually near the unit.
When that unit's runningespecially hot, heavy in summer,
(12:55):
you should see drippingcontinually coming out of that
drain.
If you don't, there could be anissue.
So my quick horror story is ahorror story, I said was we had
a guy checking our system and hesaid I'm going to make sure
your condensation line isdraining properly and he used a
little shop vac.
It was really cool.
(13:15):
He was by himself, so for theaverage person who might not
know, he went upstairs to theattic and he needed to create
suction to vacuum out that.
So he put a piece of duct tapeover the open hole, went down,
vacuumed it out, got distracted,didn't take the tape off.
Vacuumed it out, got distracted, didn't take the tape off.
(13:36):
About two weeks later my wifesays there's a big stain in the
ceiling in the bathroom.
And I'm like what in the world?
And I'm trying to figure outwhat it is.
So I went up in the attic andthe condensation pan is filled
and the strain wouldn't drainout, so it had gone over, didn't
have an alarm Not that it's myfault, but I do now and was
(13:59):
dripping over the condensationpan, going through the blown
insulation and sitting on theceiling.
And you know it's beenhappening for a couple of weeks
because that leak won't show upin the ceiling right away.
And when I called the guy couldhe look at it?
He wasn't returning calls.
I call another company, theycome in and the guy goes why is
(14:20):
there tape on this condensationline inside here?
And I said I didn't put itthere.
He goes ah, whoever cleaned itlast time forgot to take it off.
See it all the time.
Huge, huge problem.
Go outside your house, makesure you got water dripping out
of your condensation line.
So what?
He?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
did there is that that pipe that he covered up.
It's actually a vent, just likeyou would have a plumbing vent
going up from a toilet or a sink, and so that allows the water
to flow both ways.
You know it's basically itserves the exact same purpose as
a plumbing vent as a plumbingvent.
(14:56):
So he had to clog that up orblock it with the tape so that
when he pulled from the bottomto get the funk out of there,
that uh, that it actually pulledwhere it was supposed to and
not just from a blank vent.
So he did the right thing but,like you said, he just mentioned
, or he he just forgot to takethe tape off.
Um, that condensation line is ais a big issue in the summertime
and that's one of those thingswhere know where your
condensation drain is.
(15:17):
Homeowners and fellas just goout there, find where it is.
Okay, I've got a puddle belowthat.
It's working like it's supposedto.
All good.
I'm a fan of putting a littlebit of pea gravel around the
base, because it does make amuddy mess wherever it comes out
, and a lot of times theseheating and air guys will run
the condensation drain out, nottaking into consideration what
it's going to be drainingtowards.
So you need to look at theslope of the land and make sure
(15:40):
that that thing's not uh causewhen it's working properly, it's
generating a lot of water, andespecially in the summertime.
But uh, two things could be aproblem.
It's either blockage, like youmentioned that you had, or it's
a uh uh problem with therefrigerant.
So if it's not producing waterout of there, something's really
going on.
Need to call somebody rightaway.
That's something that can'twait.
Another thing I've had thishappen I don't know five, six
(16:08):
times in 10 years, but since ithappened the first time, I know
exactly what to do.
That pan that you mentionedfilled up under the unit.
That pan is supposed to have afloat switch in it, so your
condensation line is blocked.
This is a scenario yourcondensation line is blocked, it
can't drain to the outside, soit's going to drain out the
bottom of the air handler unitin the attic or the crawl space
and it's going to fill up thatpan.
(16:30):
And what would you say?
The sides of that pan are aboutthree inches tall, something
like that Between two and three,yeah, two and three.
And so there's something calleda float switch that they put in
there.
That float switch is when itfloats it's telling the unit
that it's full of water andthere's a problem when the float
switch goes up it actually cutsthe power to the unit and the
(16:52):
thermostat.
So if you have a blankthermostat you're thinking, oh
my God, what's going on.
The blank thermostat is tellingyou that the float switch has
activated and cut the power offto your unit.
So that's something to thinkabout there.
And it's one of those thingswhere you mentioned that he took
a vacuum outside and did it.
You can't always do it with avacuum, but in a residential
(17:13):
application sometimes that handy, dandy little shop vac will do
the trick and you can save themoney for the heating and air
guy.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Hey, talking about thermostats, I don't know if
you've ever had one go out.
I had one die.
Well, it didn't fully die, soit was confusing for a little
bit.
It would click the unit on, theunit would run for five seconds
and click right back off, andit had that issue.
So I talked to somebody andthey said, yeah, your thermostat
is going bad and it's not hardto do.
(17:40):
I decided to call my buddyBrandon Again, he's my tech
because again, if youconcentrate, it's fine.
It's just hooking up multiplewires.
They usually have a little flagsystem.
Whereas you're taking off thefirst unit, you're hooking up A,
b and C and D.
It's not hard.
But I decided one wire doneincorrectly could fry my system.
(18:02):
So he did it and he just boughta basic thermostat unit, but a
lot of them.
If you don't have aprogrammable unit and I'm
surprised the number of peoplethat still don't have one If you
don't want to do it yourself,call somebody and get one,
because it can save you so muchmoney.
Let you set it, forget it.
And when you have a routine,especially when you have kids in
(18:25):
school in the summer, it's alittle more difficult, but you
don't forget about it running.
And now I mean, do you have onethat you can even adjust
remotely if you wanted to?
Donnie, are you that high upthe chain?
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I figured oh, I'm so nerdy, you know, I got them all
over.
I have one at the beach thatwhen we're headed down to the
beach I can kick the temperatureup or down to be like we want
it when we show up there.
So technology has come a longway, but that's pretty standard.
I would say that they alloperate remotely, but you do
have to have Wi-Fi to make thathappen.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, okay, remember I told my story at the beginning
of the show, donnie, about myblower fan going out and my tech
kind of said, hey, thecapacitor, I'm waiting for that
part to come in $850 fix.
Remember what caused theproblem?
Yeah, the weak capacitor.
And how much on average is justthe part a capacitor versus a
(19:17):
motor?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Well, you probably have to go to a heating and air
supply and some of those willsell to the public.
Some of them won't, but itwouldn't hurt to call around
before you drive all over townand just say, hey, I'm looking
for a capacitor this size forthis unit.
But yeah, that's a greatscenario where if you do not
maintain your HVAC properly orknow what to look for, that it's
(19:38):
going to cost you a lot ofmoney.
And I want to say thatcapacitor is $40, $50 apart.
Didn't you say it ended upbeing an $800 mistake.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, and I would have probably had to do it
anyway, but he could have gottenmore life by replacing the
capacitor.
But, yeah, $800 stupid tax fornot listening to the guy that I
pay because he's a pro to takecare of Brandon.
I'm sorry I didn't listen toyou.
He's a pro.
He pointed it out and I triedto baby the system, trying to
(20:10):
get another year before I had toswitch that capacitor out, and
he warned me.
And here we are no AC.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Brandon, I think he just shed a happy tear for an.
I told you so.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
No, he's going to put my picture up on his van and
say this guy's an idiot.
He didn't do what I said.
Do what I say.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Even bigger than that .
I mentioned earlier in the showthat the compressor is the big
ticket item.
So if you allow your unit tooverheat because you don't have
enough refrigerant, which is oneof the things that they put in
there during the service call alack of refrigerant will cause
premature compressor failure.
Your compressor is the bigticket item where you're going
to be over here thinking do Ipay to do the compressor?
Or I'm 12 years into my HVACunit, just should I go ahead and
(20:53):
do the whole darn thing?
But that's a much biggerproblem.
So right back to what we saidthat service contract is gold
and I recommend it heavily.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Average cost in North Carolina to replace the
compressor is $2,800 to $3,500.
So let a pro look at your HVACunit.
Now there's another category Iguess we could call it a
category Donnie of things ahomeowner can do themselves to
help that HVAC unit and expandthe life of it.
(21:24):
We've always, always talkedabout changing the filters.
My tech says buy a low MERV,like a three, and change them
every month.
You have to be careful of usinga MERV filter that's too high,
that strangles your system'sairflow, strangles your system's
airflow.
Some people manufacturers sayhey, put in our, we recommend a
(21:46):
MIRV 8, and you change it everythree months.
Your mileage may vary butthat's a pretty easy thing to do
.
The same tech also I told youyou were impressed cleans the
landscaping and the weeds andstuff that grows up around the
units every spring.
We can do that ourselves.
I spring, we can do thatourselves.
I mean you probably do thatyourself, total DIY, yeah, yeah.
(22:07):
Hit it with a spring trimmer.
And the last thing, don'tpressure wash your outside unit.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
We mentioned earlier, it could damage the fins and
that contributes to the flow ofeverything.
So you definitely don't want tohave any kind of compromise
with the fins on your HVAC.
I would say, going a littledeeper on DIY and now that you
have all the resources of AI andthe Internet, take a picture of
the tag on your outsidecondenser unit, and the rule of
(22:35):
thumb is that it's supposed tobe 600 square feet per ton.
So you obviously know thesquare footage of your house.
I hope you do, and the tonnagethat you have outside should be
in close correlation with thatmath.
So you can do.
If you've got a 1800 squarefoot house, you should have a
(22:56):
three ton unit.
So you can take a picture ofthat model number, put it on the
internet and say hey, how muchtonnage is this?
And every every heating and airmanufacturer has a different way
to calculate tonnage.
So, uh, it's going to be adifferent model number for each
manufacturer, but that's totallysomething that you can uh
figure out.
And, like I mentioned, if yourunit's undersized it's probably
(23:18):
running all the time.
It never turns off.
So if you have a poorlyinsulated older home, your unit
probably just runs all the time,and that's another whole can of
worms that we won't open upwith the poor insulation.
But as far as if it's oversized, we mentioned earlier it's
heating and cooling the air tooquick to dehumidify the air
properly.
So if you have a humidity issuebut the temperature is OK,
(23:40):
units probably oversized.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I had another question about AC unit and it
slipped my brain right nowbecause I'm getting up to that
age group and you had talkedabout this and I was trying to.
It was tied in with thethermostats.
Oh, stages.
Can you explain stages of HVACunits real quick?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Donnie, yeah, multi-stage units are basically
sort of like a vehicle that goesfrom eight-cylinder to
six-cylinders when it gets onthe highway.
So multi-stage units don'toperate at full capacity in the
fall and the spring is a goodexplanation for that so they
back it down to about 70%, andso it really makes a big
(24:23):
contribution to your utilities.
And there, uh, it really makesa big contribution to your
utilities and you know there'sno need for full heat or full AC
if you're outside of thosesummer and winter months, and so
it recognizes that and itdoesn't work near as hard to get
you to the desired temperatureof that thermostat.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So can you put in the wrong thermostat then?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Uh, yes, absolutely Back when uh, I have a
multi-stage unit.
I built my house in 2010, 2011.
And back then, the Nestthermostats.
They were the pioneers, butthey were close to the first
smart thermostats and theydidn't support anything except
for a two-stage unit.
So when you got into thethree-stage units, they just
(25:02):
couldn't handle it and basicallyyou paid the money for a
three-stage unit, but the smartthermostat wouldn't operate
those.
So that's a great point and theright question to ask.
If you invest in a smartthermostat, you want to know if
you have a multi-stage unit.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Okay, because I know that some people have put in
thermostats themselves and it'scaused their system not to run
correctly or efficientlythemselves and it's caused their
system not to run correctly orefficiently.
So you which goes back to whatyou said take your cell phone,
go out to your unit and theindoor and take pictures with,
you know, the Google camera andit'll tell you what you have and
then you can ask it torecommend a thermostat that will
(25:38):
work with it correctly or,again, call a pro.
It's what they do.
My guy put in the newthermostat and total thermostat
and installation for 80 bucksbecause I was part of a contract
and he did it, you know,literally took him 15 minutes.
It would have taken me a couplehours because half of it would
be stress and anxiety ofworrying about killing my own AC
(26:00):
unit because I switched up awire.
So we're just really big fansof doing the people with the
experience of hiring acontractor.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Hey, the last thing I want to add, since we're on the
DIY part of HVAC, is that ifyou have a unit in the attic or
a unit under the house andyou're not afraid of those
spaces, crawl under there orcrawl up there and take a look
at all the connections so thatair handler has supply plenums
coming off in every direction.
And a lot of times when thesethings are installed, I mean
(26:29):
you've got a guy that may beputting it in there in the dead
heat of summer and he's ready togo home and you know you're at
the mercy of the clamps, theconnections and whatever kind of
tape that they used.
So feel around your unit If youfeel some cold air coming out
in the summertime.
Uh, feel around your unit.
If you feel some cold aircoming out in the summertime, oh
, eric, stop, I sorry.
Just because you have anoversized unit, you don't have
to worry about anything.
You know, don't make a jokeabout it every time.
(26:51):
Anyway, feel around the airhandler, is that better?
And um and um and check to seeif you have any.
Any.
Any cold air leaks and um,that's a very vulnerable point.
I see it all the time I go inan attic, maybe to check for a
roof leak or something, and Imay see that they have a supply
duct that's just hanging therebecause the tape failed and so
(27:12):
tape failed.
You've got positive pressure onthat supply plenum and it
basically blew the corner ofthat supply off of there.
And the same applies to thecrawl space, and a crawl space
is a lot less comfortable thanthe attic uh, maybe a little
cooler in the summer, but butthat's a place to check.
The other vulnerable point iswhen those supply lines leave
the air handler they go out tothe supply registers that
(27:34):
actually go into your house.
Those supply registers have aboot that's either hooked to
your ceiling or to your floor.
That boot is basically a, um, ametal housing and the flex duct
is hooked to that metal housing.
The flex duct has theinsulation built in, but if that
insulation isn't making contactwith the floor or the ceiling,
you've got a metal boot areathat's exposed to the attic
(27:57):
temperature or the crawl spacetemperature and it's usually
going to cause it to sweat.
So it usually happens in aceiling application where you
look up at your register andyou've got mold all the way
around it.
Well, nine times out of 10, theculprit is that that boot's
exposed because the insulationwasn't put all the way to the
ceiling properly and it'ssweating in the summertime and
causing, you know, water buildup, mildew, mold come from that.
(28:19):
It's not a big deal, but it'sjust something that needs to be
fixed before it gets any worse.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, it's not a big deal, but it's just something
that needs to be fixed before itgets any worse.
Yeah, and again, you might haveto, after 20 years or more,
have the ductwork replaced.
You can at least have itupdated.
Sometimes it is just a piece ofthat tape that they need to put
in place, or the insulation.
If it does get a leak and theleak from the tape is it opened
up top, it might cause theinsulation inside it to get
(28:43):
soaked and then it'll have to bereplaced.
It is not a hard thing for anHVA pro to replace the duct work
In most cases.
Sometimes how it stretches deepin the attic can be a little
bit of a pain, but you know tohave the whole say you're
upstairs done.
Be honest, it's going to beprobably a couple thousand
dollars.
But yeah, you'll notice it.
When you haven't had rain for aweek and you're like why don't
(29:03):
I have stains on my ceilingwhere there's no nothing above
it, that means your vent andit'll, like you said, it follows
the vents perfectly.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I would call that DIY as well.
If you've got to just retape asupply line, that's that's a
piece of cake.
You can go to the big box store, get the tape that's specific
to HVAC applications and youknow that's something that you
can fix yourself.
Another side note there is ifyou're checking out your
FlexDuck, the current code is R8.
That's the R value of what theFlexDuck that goes in new houses
today is.
(29:32):
If you've got an R6, you'reprobably okay for the lifespan
of the unit, but you may want toconsider upgrading to the R8
when you change that thing out.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Well, there we go.
We did a whole show on HVAC.
I told you it was going to be agood show a lot of information
for people and why it'simportant to take care of your
HVAC unit.
Go upstairs, don't be afraid ofyour attic, there's no monster
in there.
Take a look at your drip pan.
Make sure you've got an alarmon it that it's working.
You can look at your vent work.
(30:00):
See if it looks like there'sany sagging.
Just call a pro.
Have them come in.
They'll do a tune-up on themachine.
They'll look through that stuffand they can catch some issues
that when they.
By the time you see them again.
When you see a drywall stain,it usually means it's been there
for days or weeks before youeven knew about it.
So the damage is probably goingto be more expansive than you
(30:21):
realize.
So go ahead and get a pro.
Take care of your HVAC unit soyou can spend your time outside
grilling and then, when you gettoo hot, come in and be cool by
the AC.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Nice, Do you like talking about this stuff?
And we do it all day, but Ienjoy this man.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
I do too.
I think people like theknowledge of it and they want to
take care of what they have andwhat they've invested in.
And it's not hard to do.
And when you learn more thanenough to be dangerous, when you
learn some practical tips onhow to take care of your stuff,
you kind of a little house prideand I don't think that's a
wrong thing because it's a biginvestment.
Yep.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Agreed man.
No, I enjoy it.
I appreciate all your time andresearch and all the things and
we make a good team.
We're going to do a little highfive right here A little.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
And that was weird too.
Sorry, it was back to the unit.
Yeah, so, uh, you out there in aradio land and listening to the
podcast, you have an idea for ashow or something you want us
to, uh, do a deep dive in.
Let us know.
Remember, ai will give you someinformation that is patently
false about how to regulate anHVAC unit or we talked about
last week the temperature inyour attic.
(31:24):
They'll just straight up go.
Oh yeah, this is a great ideaand you'll cause problems.
So, if you got something you'recurious about, we'll do the
deep dive for you.
Donnie and Eric, ai it's betterthan chat BT and again, website
.
Thecarolinacontractorcom iswhere you can contact us.
Check out the YouTube page.
(31:45):
We got Facebook, we gotInstagram and all that good
stuff, and until next week, wehope to see and hear from you
again.
Have a great day everybody.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, general ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
All right, donnie, I've knownyou long enough.
I'm going to let you in on asecret of how I recovered from
being sick.
So if I was sick from whetherit was a standard cold or the
(00:26):
flu or whatever especially ifI'd been calling Ralph on the
big white phone after that daywhere you just wouldn't eat and
you would just lay in bed andmaybe sip some Gatorade about 24
hours after that point likeclockwork, I would get up, take
a shower, blurry eyed, worn out,get in my car, drive to Taco
(00:49):
Bell and get a burrito supremeand a nacho bel grande, come
back home, eat it and within 30minutes to an hour I'd feel like
a brand new person.
And it doesn't work aseffectively now that I'm older,
but it sure did back then.
And you said your son was sickthe other day and you offered
(01:09):
him floorboard Mexican food.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, there's a long story behind that.
It was just I had an extra softtaco supreme and we were
actually recording the show lastweek and I was late getting to
dinner and he was under theweather.
And I was late getting todinner and he was under the
weather.
I said, hey, bud, you know I'vegot some leftover Taco Bell, or
I didn't eat that soft TacoSupreme.
If you want to grab that whilewe record the show, I'll I'll be
right out to to cook you a goodsquare meal.
(01:34):
But you thought that wasfunnier than I did.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I was kind of embarrassed, it was just the way
you said it to him was hey,I've got you know some Taco Bell
on the floorboard of the truckif you're hungry.
It was in a bag, I know, but Istill related to it because I
used to eat Taco Bell after Igot really sick, and so when you
said it I kind of reminisced.
(01:57):
I was thinking about my youthtoo, like your son, about the
same age, early 20s, and I wouldeat horrible food after I was
sick and that seemed to be myrecovery method for a couple
decades.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
He's a savage and he works for my dad every day
pouring concrete, so some daysthey don't even get a lunch.
Him eating a leftover soft tacosupreme is very not outside of
his norm.
He's a growing boy, so I thinkthey'll just take anything.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Well, this is the Carolina Contractor Show and of
course we every week like totalk about concoctions that have
cooked on a floorboard of aF-150, just because it's what we
do.
No, it's really not what wetalk about, but sometimes those
subjects pop up On the CarolinaContractor Show.
We talk about your house, theinside and the outside, and DIY
projects.
So what we say uh, it's asports center for DIY wires is
(02:51):
Carolina contractor show.
You can go to the website at uh, the Carolina contractorcom.
We've got all our showsuploaded there in podcast form.
Links to the YouTube show.
You can check that out.
Social media Again.
If you have a question, whichwould you rather cook in the
floorboard of your truck aburrito or an enchilada you can
ask Donnie.
He's not only a generalcontractor but he knows
(03:13):
something about Mexican foodsitting in a truck all day, so
he can help you with thosequestions.
He also is the owner of SureTop Roofing and Blanchard
Building Company and I just dosales.
I sell tacos.
No, I really don't sell tacos,but that'd be kind of a cool
thing to sell at my store, whichis a home builder supply in
Wilson.
Sorry, I've gotten completelydistracted.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I'm thinking about Taco Bell.
Now you sell to people who eata lot of tacos.
Okay, that's very accurate.
Thank you very much, donnie.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
You've wrapped that up perfectly Okay.
That's very accurate.
Thank you very much, donnie.
You've wrapped that upperfectly Okay.
Last week on the show we weretalking about things you can do
to prep for summer and we kindof hit a quick hit list of about
I don't know 10 or 12 things.
Subject I'm like man, we onlygot like five minutes left of
(04:05):
the show, we'd never be able togo in.
All the things about an HVACunit and we all have our war
stories about air conditioningunits and they always die in the
summer.
I personally, at the Smithhousehold at the recording of
this show, I'm waiting for ablower motor because ours went
out and this ties into things.
We've talked about maintenanceprograms and why you should get
them.
Before we get into the nittygritty of maintenance programs
(04:28):
that HVAC unit companies offer,let me say this when you hire a
professional to take care ofyour car or your HVAC unit, as
we're talking about now, listento what they say, because he
came in in February to do just acheckup and he said hey, man,
(04:48):
I'm measuring the resistance andvoltage and all that technical
jargon on your capacitors andthey're a little low.
We might want to do a changeout of that blower motor.
I think it's going to startgoing bad.
It'd be about 800 bucksinstalled.
Start going bad It'd be about800 bucks installed.
I'm trying to pinch somepennies at the time and I said,
(05:09):
well, maybe we can just talkabout that in the future.
So then the hot weather hitsand the AC unit is on outside,
the fan is blowing, but there'sno air moving in the vents in
the house.
And so he comes in and says yep, the capacitors were trying to
tell you something and yourmotor went into overdrive and
it's dead.
I'll order you a new one.
(05:31):
You can enjoy this hot weatherfor a few days while you wait
for that part to come in.
I didn't listen to theprofession.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Shame on you E You're the guy that should know better
.
I know Well, Right.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Happens to the best of us.
So we want everybody to avoidthose same things, and one of
the big things you can do in thesummer is prep work.
A lot of homeowners think Ican't do anything, but HVAC
service is the easiest thing todo.
An annual contract, that's whatI have.
My guy I don't know if you haveone of these or have had them
in the past, donnie my guy comesin and he checks capacitors and
(06:05):
airflow and he even cleans themachines and he even pulls the
weeds around the machines.
Makes me feel kind of guilty,but he checks everything, goes
up in the attic and he makessure the fans working correctly
and blows out the condensationlines, which is really important
too.
Do you, donnie, have a servicecontract with an HVAC company?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So mine's kind of unfair.
My next door neighbor is theheating and air guru and his son
has also started.
His son worked for another guy,which I think was very wise
that he had his son work forsomeone besides himself.
But his son did such a good jobfor the other guy that when he
decided to get out of thebusiness he passed his business
along to Cody.
So Cody's a whiz, his dad'sprobably the smartest person
(06:50):
that I know, and they live nextdoor to me so I never have any
HVAC woes just because I've gotthese guys right here next door
to me and they look out for melike family.
So very fortunate in thataspect.
But I do believe in the servicecontract thing.
I think at least at a veryminimum you should have your
unit serviced annually.
If not, you know bi-annually,and and, um, you know, hot to
(07:14):
cold or cold to hot.
I think that warrants, you know, uh, it depends on the service
charge.
But if they don't charge verymuch, you know they could extend
the life of your unit.
Um, what, five, six, seven,eight, maybe even 10 years?
My dad got 20 years out of hisheating and air unit and, uh,
and it was all electric.
So I it was.
His house was built in 1990.
So he he really got his money'sworth.
(07:35):
But he maintained it along theway and you know that keeps you
from dropping another 15 grand,uh, when it's not necessary.
But I do want to say I called mynext door neighbor and I'm
going to read this from a listbecause I can't keep all this in
my head.
But the typical HVAC serviceentails they check the
refrigerant, they check theoperating pressure, they check
(07:55):
all the capacitors andcompressors the compressor is
the big ticket item.
They check all the amps to theloads of the compressors, fans
and et cetera.
They clean all the amps to theloads of the compressors, fans
and et cetera.
They clean all the coils on theoutdoor and indoor units and
they blow out the condensationlines.
And we'll get into the damagethat can be caused from a
blocked condensation line later.
But it's very thorough and itsounds like your guy's doing a
(08:17):
great job if he's pulling theweeds around the condenser units
outside and he cares, and sohats off to him.
He's doing a good job.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah, and I've got a horror story, when we get to it,
about condensation lines whenthey get plugged.
Mine didn't get plugged, it gotserviced incorrectly by a
different person.
I won't mention them but I'lltell that story.
Is there things that we can do,donnie?
First of all, don't mess withcleaning the coils if you're not
(08:42):
sure what you're doing.
A lot of people take theirpressure washer and they'll sit
there and clean all the dirt onthe outside coils and they don't
realize they're screwing uptheir was it fins.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yep, the fins, for sure, and that's something that
even hail, things like that, candamage the fins.
So it's funny that hail doesn'tjust cause damage to your roof,
it can cause damage to yourHVAC unit that's outside.
So, um, uh, a few things.
So, from a DIY standpoint, youknow DIY and HVAC don't really
go together, but there are acouple of things that that, uh,
(09:16):
we're acronym heavy today.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Uh, the you can check the temperature.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
You can check the temperature of the air coming
out of your uh supply registers,whether they're on the floor or
on the ceiling, and you canalso check the temperature of
the air going into the return.
So those neat littlethermometer guns that they use
during COVID, when they shotthose at your forehead and you
had to act like it wasn'tuncomfortable because you didn't
want to move your head around alittle bit.
(09:43):
But you can get one if youstill have one of those.
From that point in time I keepone just because we're always
needing those in theconstruction field.
But it's a cheap thing.
You can probably get it for $7,$10 on Amazon.
And the air temperature goingin and coming out should vary by
about 15 degrees.
So if you are calling for70-degree air at the thermostat,
(10:05):
then the air going into thereturn should measure about 70
degrees.
The air coming out should beanywhere from 15 to 20 degrees
cooler.
So your register should beanywhere from 55, 50 degrees,
something like that, dependingon if your unit just kicked on
or just how fast it's coolingthat air down.
So always want to be coldercoming out of the supply than
(10:26):
going in to the return, and Iwould say that the only other
thing I could think about thatyou could check from a homeowner
standpoint would be for ahumidity issue.
So the sweet spot for humidityis 50 to 60% inside of your
house and a lot of these fancythermostats now have a built in
humidistat and, and if not, youknow, something to monitor your
(10:49):
humidity isn't expensive to do,but a lot of us have.
We're intuitive enough to feelthat humidity swing.
So if you feel sticky in thehouse, you know then it's not
doing its thing, notdehumidifying the air, then that
could be not dehumidifying theair, then that could be caused
for a bigger problem.
And I'd say that in the morning, when it's a lot cooler, your
(11:13):
system hadn't been working asaggressive through the night.
So it's not going to obviouslydehumidify the air and you might
hover somewhere around 60.
That's okay.
And after lunch the heat startsgoing up pretty quick.
It should be around 50 becausea unit is cycling on and cycling
off a lot faster.
Where you might find a problemis that if you have an oversized
(11:35):
unit and the square footageisn't working right, then the
unit is cycling on and off toofast to dehumidify the air.
So you're thinking, gee whiz,it's 70 degrees in here, but
it's still humid and that'susually the problem.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I will say it's nice when the tech comes in and says
hey, I just want to let you know, Mr Smith, you have an
oversized unit.
Sorry, I'm sorry, it's reallybad.
That was kind of sketchy too.
That kind of went to the zestylane.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
You might have just topped last week's joke about
inside hoses and yeah, but,lafonda, get the ditches, only
you.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So let's go ahead to the condensation thing, because
this is important and anybodycan do it.
My house, for example, has twounits, one's lower and upper
level.
The lower unit, floor unit thecondensation line runs under the
house basically and goes withthe elevation of the house
downward and goes through themasonry and so that one's easy
(12:33):
to see.
You can't miss usually yourupstairs.
If you have one condensationdrain line, it's usually a PVC
pipe coming straight down.
Usually well, not usuallysometimes it's covered with
siding or they try to make itlook a little less visible, but
it drains usually near the unit.
When that unit's runningespecially hot, heavy in summer,
(12:55):
you should see drippingcontinually coming out of that
drain.
If you don't, there could be anissue.
So my quick horror story is ahorror story, I said was we had
a guy checking our system and hesaid I'm going to make sure
your condensation line isdraining properly and he used a
little shop vac.
It was really cool.
(13:15):
He was by himself, so for theaverage person who might not
know, he went upstairs to theattic and he needed to create
suction to vacuum out that.
So he put a piece of duct tapeover the open hole, went down,
vacuumed it out, got distracted,didn't take the tape off.
Vacuumed it out, got distracted, didn't take the tape off.
(13:36):
About two weeks later my wifesays there's a big stain in the
ceiling in the bathroom.
And I'm like what in the world?
And I'm trying to figure outwhat it is.
So I went up in the attic andthe condensation pan is filled
and the strain wouldn't drainout, so it had gone over, didn't
have an alarm Not that it's myfault, but I do now and was
(13:59):
dripping over the condensationpan, going through the blown
insulation and sitting on theceiling.
And you know it's beenhappening for a couple of weeks
because that leak won't show upin the ceiling right away.
And when I called the guy couldhe look at it?
He wasn't returning calls.
I call another company, theycome in and the guy goes why is
(14:20):
there tape on this condensationline inside here?
And I said I didn't put itthere.
He goes ah, whoever cleaned itlast time forgot to take it off.
See it all the time.
Huge, huge problem.
Go outside your house, makesure you got water dripping out
of your condensation line.
So what?
He?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
did there is that that pipe that he covered up.
It's actually a vent, just likeyou would have a plumbing vent
going up from a toilet or a sink, and so that allows the water
to flow both ways.
You know it's basically itserves the exact same purpose as
a plumbing vent as a plumbingvent.
(14:56):
So he had to clog that up orblock it with the tape so that
when he pulled from the bottomto get the funk out of there,
that uh, that it actually pulledwhere it was supposed to and
not just from a blank vent.
So he did the right thing but,like you said, he just mentioned
, or he he just forgot to takethe tape off.
Um, that condensation line is ais a big issue in the summertime
and that's one of those thingswhere know where your
condensation drain is.
(15:17):
Homeowners and fellas just goout there, find where it is.
Okay, I've got a puddle belowthat.
It's working like it's supposedto.
All good.
I'm a fan of putting a littlebit of pea gravel around the
base, because it does make amuddy mess wherever it comes out
, and a lot of times theseheating and air guys will run
the condensation drain out, nottaking into consideration what
it's going to be drainingtowards.
So you need to look at theslope of the land and make sure
(15:40):
that that thing's not uh causewhen it's working properly, it's
generating a lot of water, andespecially in the summertime.
But uh, two things could be aproblem.
It's either blockage, like youmentioned that you had, or it's
a uh uh problem with therefrigerant.
So if it's not producing waterout of there, something's really
going on.
Need to call somebody rightaway.
That's something that can'twait.
Another thing I've had thishappen I don't know five, six
(16:08):
times in 10 years, but since ithappened the first time, I know
exactly what to do.
That pan that you mentionedfilled up under the unit.
That pan is supposed to have afloat switch in it, so your
condensation line is blocked.
This is a scenario yourcondensation line is blocked, it
can't drain to the outside, soit's going to drain out the
bottom of the air handler unitin the attic or the crawl space
and it's going to fill up thatpan.
(16:30):
And what would you say?
The sides of that pan are aboutthree inches tall, something
like that Between two and three,yeah, two and three.
And so there's something calleda float switch that they put in
there.
That float switch is when itfloats it's telling the unit
that it's full of water andthere's a problem when the float
switch goes up it actually cutsthe power to the unit and the
(16:52):
thermostat.
So if you have a blankthermostat you're thinking, oh
my God, what's going on.
The blank thermostat is tellingyou that the float switch has
activated and cut the power offto your unit.
So that's something to thinkabout there.
And it's one of those thingswhere you mentioned that he took
a vacuum outside and did it.
You can't always do it with avacuum, but in a residential
(17:13):
application sometimes that handy, dandy little shop vac will do
the trick and you can save themoney for the heating and air
guy.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Hey, talking about thermostats, I don't know if
you've ever had one go out.
I had one die.
Well, it didn't fully die, soit was confusing for a little
bit.
It would click the unit on, theunit would run for five seconds
and click right back off, andit had that issue.
So I talked to somebody andthey said, yeah, your thermostat
is going bad and it's not hardto do.
(17:40):
I decided to call my buddyBrandon Again, he's my tech
because again, if youconcentrate, it's fine.
It's just hooking up multiplewires.
They usually have a little flagsystem.
Whereas you're taking off thefirst unit, you're hooking up A,
b and C and D.
It's not hard.
But I decided one wire doneincorrectly could fry my system.
(18:02):
So he did it and he just boughta basic thermostat unit, but a
lot of them.
If you don't have aprogrammable unit and I'm
surprised the number of peoplethat still don't have one If you
don't want to do it yourself,call somebody and get one,
because it can save you so muchmoney.
Let you set it, forget it.
And when you have a routine,especially when you have kids in
(18:25):
school in the summer, it's alittle more difficult, but you
don't forget about it running.
And now I mean, do you have onethat you can even adjust
remotely if you wanted to?
Donnie, are you that high upthe chain?
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I figured oh, I'm so nerdy, you know, I got them all
over.
I have one at the beach thatwhen we're headed down to the
beach I can kick the temperatureup or down to be like we want
it when we show up there.
So technology has come a longway, but that's pretty standard.
I would say that they alloperate remotely, but you do
have to have Wi-Fi to make thathappen.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, okay, remember I told my story at the beginning
of the show, donnie, about myblower fan going out and my tech
kind of said, hey, thecapacitor, I'm waiting for that
part to come in $850 fix.
Remember what caused theproblem?
Yeah, the weak capacitor.
And how much on average is justthe part a capacitor versus a
(19:17):
motor?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Well, you probably have to go to a heating and air
supply and some of those willsell to the public.
Some of them won't, but itwouldn't hurt to call around
before you drive all over townand just say, hey, I'm looking
for a capacitor this size forthis unit.
But yeah, that's a greatscenario where if you do not
maintain your HVAC properly orknow what to look for, that it's
(19:38):
going to cost you a lot ofmoney.
And I want to say thatcapacitor is $40, $50 apart.
Didn't you say it ended upbeing an $800 mistake.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, and I would have probably had to do it
anyway, but he could have gottenmore life by replacing the
capacitor.
But, yeah, $800 stupid tax fornot listening to the guy that I
pay because he's a pro to takecare of Brandon.
I'm sorry I didn't listen toyou.
He's a pro.
He pointed it out and I triedto baby the system, trying to
(20:10):
get another year before I had toswitch that capacitor out, and
he warned me.
And here we are no AC.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Brandon, I think he just shed a happy tear for an.
I told you so.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
No, he's going to put my picture up on his van and
say this guy's an idiot.
He didn't do what I said.
Do what I say.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Even bigger than that .
I mentioned earlier in the showthat the compressor is the big
ticket item.
So if you allow your unit tooverheat because you don't have
enough refrigerant, which is oneof the things that they put in
there during the service call alack of refrigerant will cause
premature compressor failure.
Your compressor is the bigticket item where you're going
to be over here thinking do Ipay to do the compressor?
Or I'm 12 years into my HVACunit, just should I go ahead and
(20:53):
do the whole darn thing?
But that's a much biggerproblem.
So right back to what we saidthat service contract is gold
and I recommend it heavily.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Average cost in North Carolina to replace the
compressor is $2,800 to $3,500.
So let a pro look at your HVACunit.
Now there's another category Iguess we could call it a
category Donnie of things ahomeowner can do themselves to
help that HVAC unit and expandthe life of it.
(21:24):
We've always, always talkedabout changing the filters.
My tech says buy a low MERV,like a three, and change them
every month.
You have to be careful of usinga MERV filter that's too high,
that strangles your system'sairflow, strangles your system's
airflow.
Some people manufacturers sayhey, put in our, we recommend a
(21:46):
MIRV 8, and you change it everythree months.
Your mileage may vary butthat's a pretty easy thing to do
.
The same tech also I told youyou were impressed cleans the
landscaping and the weeds andstuff that grows up around the
units every spring.
We can do that ourselves.
I spring, we can do thatourselves.
I mean you probably do thatyourself, total DIY, yeah, yeah.
(22:07):
Hit it with a spring trimmer.
And the last thing, don'tpressure wash your outside unit.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
We mentioned earlier, it could damage the fins and
that contributes to the flow ofeverything.
So you definitely don't want tohave any kind of compromise
with the fins on your HVAC.
I would say, going a littledeeper on DIY and now that you
have all the resources of AI andthe Internet, take a picture of
the tag on your outsidecondenser unit, and the rule of
(22:35):
thumb is that it's supposed tobe 600 square feet per ton.
So you obviously know thesquare footage of your house.
I hope you do, and the tonnagethat you have outside should be
in close correlation with thatmath.
So you can do.
If you've got a 1800 squarefoot house, you should have a
(22:56):
three ton unit.
So you can take a picture ofthat model number, put it on the
internet and say hey, how muchtonnage is this?
And every every heating and airmanufacturer has a different way
to calculate tonnage.
So, uh, it's going to be adifferent model number for each
manufacturer, but that's totallysomething that you can uh
figure out.
And, like I mentioned, if yourunit's undersized it's probably
(23:18):
running all the time.
It never turns off.
So if you have a poorlyinsulated older home, your unit
probably just runs all the time,and that's another whole can of
worms that we won't open upwith the poor insulation.
But as far as if it's oversized, we mentioned earlier it's
heating and cooling the air tooquick to dehumidify the air
properly.
So if you have a humidity issuebut the temperature is OK,
(23:40):
units probably oversized.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I had another question about AC unit and it
slipped my brain right nowbecause I'm getting up to that
age group and you had talkedabout this and I was trying to.
It was tied in with thethermostats.
Oh, stages.
Can you explain stages of HVACunits real quick?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Donnie, yeah, multi-stage units are basically
sort of like a vehicle that goesfrom eight-cylinder to
six-cylinders when it gets onthe highway.
So multi-stage units don'toperate at full capacity in the
fall and the spring is a goodexplanation for that so they
back it down to about 70%, andso it really makes a big
(24:23):
contribution to your utilities.
And there, uh, it really makesa big contribution to your
utilities and you know there'sno need for full heat or full AC
if you're outside of thosesummer and winter months, and so
it recognizes that and itdoesn't work near as hard to get
you to the desired temperatureof that thermostat.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So can you put in the wrong thermostat then?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Uh, yes, absolutely Back when uh, I have a
multi-stage unit.
I built my house in 2010, 2011.
And back then, the Nestthermostats.
They were the pioneers, butthey were close to the first
smart thermostats and theydidn't support anything except
for a two-stage unit.
So when you got into thethree-stage units, they just
(25:02):
couldn't handle it and basicallyyou paid the money for a
three-stage unit, but the smartthermostat wouldn't operate
those.
So that's a great point and theright question to ask.
If you invest in a smartthermostat, you want to know if
you have a multi-stage unit.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Okay, because I know that some people have put in
thermostats themselves and it'scaused their system not to run
correctly or efficientlythemselves and it's caused their
system not to run correctly orefficiently.
So you which goes back to whatyou said take your cell phone,
go out to your unit and theindoor and take pictures with,
you know, the Google camera andit'll tell you what you have and
then you can ask it torecommend a thermostat that will
(25:38):
work with it correctly or,again, call a pro.
It's what they do.
My guy put in the newthermostat and total thermostat
and installation for 80 bucksbecause I was part of a contract
and he did it, you know,literally took him 15 minutes.
It would have taken me a couplehours because half of it would
be stress and anxiety ofworrying about killing my own AC
(26:00):
unit because I switched up awire.
So we're just really big fansof doing the people with the
experience of hiring acontractor.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Hey, the last thing I want to add, since we're on the
DIY part of HVAC, is that ifyou have a unit in the attic or
a unit under the house andyou're not afraid of those
spaces, crawl under there orcrawl up there and take a look
at all the connections so thatair handler has supply plenums
coming off in every direction.
And a lot of times when thesethings are installed, I mean
(26:29):
you've got a guy that may beputting it in there in the dead
heat of summer and he's ready togo home and you know you're at
the mercy of the clamps, theconnections and whatever kind of
tape that they used.
So feel around your unit If youfeel some cold air coming out
in the summertime.
Uh, feel around your unit.
If you feel some cold aircoming out in the summertime, oh
, eric, stop, I sorry.
Just because you have anoversized unit, you don't have
to worry about anything.
You know, don't make a jokeabout it every time.
(26:51):
Anyway, feel around the airhandler, is that better?
And um and um and check to seeif you have any.
Any.
Any cold air leaks and um,that's a very vulnerable point.
I see it all the time I go inan attic, maybe to check for a
roof leak or something, and Imay see that they have a supply
duct that's just hanging therebecause the tape failed and so
(27:12):
tape failed.
You've got positive pressure onthat supply plenum and it
basically blew the corner ofthat supply off of there.
And the same applies to thecrawl space, and a crawl space
is a lot less comfortable thanthe attic uh, maybe a little
cooler in the summer, but butthat's a place to check.
The other vulnerable point iswhen those supply lines leave
the air handler they go out tothe supply registers that
(27:34):
actually go into your house.
Those supply registers have aboot that's either hooked to
your ceiling or to your floor.
That boot is basically a, um, ametal housing and the flex duct
is hooked to that metal housing.
The flex duct has theinsulation built in, but if that
insulation isn't making contactwith the floor or the ceiling,
you've got a metal boot areathat's exposed to the attic
(27:57):
temperature or the crawl spacetemperature and it's usually
going to cause it to sweat.
So it usually happens in aceiling application where you
look up at your register andyou've got mold all the way
around it.
Well, nine times out of 10, theculprit is that that boot's
exposed because the insulationwasn't put all the way to the
ceiling properly and it'ssweating in the summertime and
causing, you know, water buildup, mildew, mold come from that.
(28:19):
It's not a big deal, but it'sjust something that needs to be
fixed before it gets any worse.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, it's not a big deal, but it's just something
that needs to be fixed before itgets any worse.
Yeah, and again, you might haveto, after 20 years or more,
have the ductwork replaced.
You can at least have itupdated.
Sometimes it is just a piece ofthat tape that they need to put
in place, or the insulation.
If it does get a leak and theleak from the tape is it opened
up top, it might cause theinsulation inside it to get
(28:43):
soaked and then it'll have to bereplaced.
It is not a hard thing for anHVA pro to replace the duct work
In most cases.
Sometimes how it stretches deepin the attic can be a little
bit of a pain, but you know tohave the whole say you're
upstairs done.
Be honest, it's going to beprobably a couple thousand
dollars.
But yeah, you'll notice it.
When you haven't had rain for aweek and you're like why don't
(29:03):
I have stains on my ceilingwhere there's no nothing above
it, that means your vent andit'll, like you said, it follows
the vents perfectly.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I would call that DIY as well.
If you've got to just retape asupply line, that's that's a
piece of cake.
You can go to the big box store, get the tape that's specific
to HVAC applications and youknow that's something that you
can fix yourself.
Another side note there is ifyou're checking out your
FlexDuck, the current code is R8.
That's the R value of what theFlexDuck that goes in new houses
today is.
(29:32):
If you've got an R6, you'reprobably okay for the lifespan
of the unit, but you may want toconsider upgrading to the R8
when you change that thing out.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Well, there we go.
We did a whole show on HVAC.
I told you it was going to be agood show a lot of information
for people and why it'simportant to take care of your
HVAC unit.
Go upstairs, don't be afraid ofyour attic, there's no monster
in there.
Take a look at your drip pan.
Make sure you've got an alarmon it that it's working.
You can look at your vent work.
(30:00):
See if it looks like there'sany sagging.
Just call a pro.
Have them come in.
They'll do a tune-up on themachine.
They'll look through that stuffand they can catch some issues
that when they.
By the time you see them again.
When you see a drywall stain,it usually means it's been there
for days or weeks before youeven knew about it.
So the damage is probably goingto be more expansive than you
(30:21):
realize.
So go ahead and get a pro.
Take care of your HVAC unit soyou can spend your time outside
grilling and then, when you gettoo hot, come in and be cool by
the AC.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Nice, Do you like talking about this stuff?
And we do it all day, but Ienjoy this man.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
I do too.
I think people like theknowledge of it and they want to
take care of what they have andwhat they've invested in.
And it's not hard to do.
And when you learn more thanenough to be dangerous, when you
learn some practical tips onhow to take care of your stuff,
you kind of a little house prideand I don't think that's a
wrong thing because it's a biginvestment.
Yep.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Agreed man.
No, I enjoy it.
I appreciate all your time andresearch and all the things and
we make a good team.
We're going to do a little highfive right here A little.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
And that was weird too.
Sorry, it was back to the unit.
Yeah, so, uh, you out there in aradio land and listening to the
podcast, you have an idea for ashow or something you want us
to, uh, do a deep dive in.
Let us know.
Remember, ai will give you someinformation that is patently
false about how to regulate anHVAC unit or we talked about
last week the temperature inyour attic.
(31:24):
They'll just straight up go.
Oh yeah, this is a great ideaand you'll cause problems.
So, if you got something you'recurious about, we'll do the
deep dive for you.
Donnie and Eric, ai it's betterthan chat BT and again, website
.
Thecarolinacontractorcom iswhere you can contact us.
Check out the YouTube page.
(31:45):
We got Facebook, we gotInstagram and all that good
stuff, and until next week, wehope to see and hear from you
again.
Have a great day everybody.
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontractorcom.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.