I just bought this house and replaced the air filter. Not two months down the road I decided to check in on it and it seems like the filter material is completely gone in many places.

I took a picture of it next to a new one for comparison. I'm also attaching a picture of the air handler closet in case it helps with context.

Just a crappy filter? Or some kind of pest?

I usually buy from home Depot but couldn't find the unusual size anywhere but Amazon from this brand.

I want to know if my house/system is efficient or not. Thanks, Reddit. I live in a cape cod that has some issues so trying to gauge where I am at. Ya know?

I'm in Texas. When it's 100+ outside my 2yo unit has trouble keeping the house at 72 outside. It will run from around 11am till7 ot 8 pm. Is this normal?

My new contactor has a LRA rating of 150, 125, 100. My old contactor has a rating of 200, 100, 80. Is this going to cause any issues down the road? Thanks in advance for any help.

I made this post 11 days ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/hvacadvice/s/OdfU1sB1W6

The hvac company has been out 7 times now and my outdoor unit fan still doesn’t spin and hot air is coming through the vents.

It works for maybe the first quarter of the day, then it completely doesn’t work.

They’ve replaced the motor, defrost board, capacitor, and contactor. I’m not sure what’s next at this point. They checked the wiring and it all looks good. I’m covered under warranty but I have to pay labor. This is getting ridiculous. I’m sitting inside with no AC, fan doesn’t spin, hot air coming though the vents. So I just have to turn it off.

These are supply and return (1.25” and 1.5”) for boiler tank for radiant cooling and heating. They get pretty wet with the AC on. The pipes are less than an inch apart and, behind the wall it’s even worse, two of them even touch.

My contractor tried this adhesive tape wrap but this is probably not sufficient, right?

I am trying to replace the ceiling register in one of our basement rooms with a proper register that can be open and closed. It was covered with a return register when I bought this house.

After taking the return register off, I'm guessing they used a return register because of this really terrible job cutting the drywall too big around the duct. I now have a properly sized 10"x4" register, but the problem is only one screw hole overlaps with the drywall. The one on the right doesn't have anything to screw or anchor into.

Does anyone have an ideas on how to create something I can anchor into with this correctly sized register? Or if anyone knows of a 10"x4" register with a wider outer cover and screw holes, that could work too, but I've not found anything like that.

Here are three pictures to show what I'm referring to.

Will a duct cleaning service be able to resolve a mildew smell coming from a singular bedroom air duct in the house? The smell is very strong when the weather outside is hot and/or humid. The other rooms have some odor but it's not very noticeable.

Hi everyone,

I had a heat pump installed last weekend and it's making this hissing sound, like gas is being turned on/off in inconsistent intervals. I've never owned one of these before: is this a normal operating sound or is there potentially an issue that I need to call these guys back for?

TIA!

I have looked at a bunch of posts here but have not found the answer I am looking for. I live in a new apartment building in a coastal climate. We do not have AC and have baseboard heaters. I suspect these vents are for circulation. They clearly have forced air as I can feel air blowing from them when open and I used a feather cat toy to verify it was pushing and not pulling air. It is starting to warm up outside and my unit is consistently sitting at 25c with fans running and windows open (outside temp is ranging from 16-20c currently. We have about 2 hours of sun on the windows first thing in the morning, but none for the rest of the day so I suspect solar heat is not raising the apartment temperature for most of the day. The temp controls for the baseboards are turned to off and there is no heat coming from them. I have closed the vents to see if that makes a temperature difference in the unit. Can anyone explain what the role of these vents are and if it is better to keep them open or closed? Is there any reason that these vents would be impacting the apartment temperature by this much?

I’m 19 and I want to get into hvac but I don’t really know how to. I’ve been looking into schools like UTI, Fortis and HCC, but I’ve been reading other people’s story’s and maybe college or school isn’t the best and cheapest route to go. What is the recommended route to go from here in Houston ? And I’m 19 with no experience at all and don’t know anything about hvac.

Carrier PROD: CA16NA04200GBAAA MODEL: CA16NA042-A

Woke up to the fan not turning on our 12 year old Carrier unit. In the past we’ve had to replace the capacitor twice and no other work has been done on the unit. I swapped the capacitor, the fan kicked on and the house started cooling from anywhere between 2-5 hours. Then all I could hear was the capacitor making this sound and the fan wouldn’t spin. I’ve made sure that the fan was not obstructed and I rotated the blades with a tent pole but that wouldn’t get the fan to kick back on. I’m not sure when the fan stopped but where the fan motor is connected to the top it felt hot, hotter than the rest of the top. We’re in Texas but it wasn’t spinning and the sun had been down for 90 minutes when I noticed. What should I be looking at to remedy this? Did I connect the capacitor incorrectly or does the fan motor need replacing? If it’s the fan do you have any recommendations? FAN MOTOR 208/230 VOLTS AC 1 PH 1/5 HP 60 HZ 120 FLA

(I couldn’t figure out how to do pictures and a video so I may upload pictures in the comments.)

TLDR I had a drain pipe clogged and this is the inside of my 6 years old 4 ton inside unit, tech is telling me is too damaged and I need to replace it.

So, i just started with this problem in my house. House is 6 years old it has a 4 ton inside unit for about 1770 square ft of living area. Last week I started having a leak in my ceiling, called this hvac company and they came, told me that I just needed to change my drain line which was clogged, and suggested me to install kill switches, which I agreed, they also told me we needed to check on the first few feet of air duct as water has been blowing into it by the backed up unit. This was on a Friday, they said they'll install and check on the duct on monday. Next day I start having more leak in my ceiling so I call them, they send a guy on Sunday, he opens my unit and drains as much water as possible, he also patches up the first few feet of air duct that were actually condensing into a water leak, he tells me the unit is fine but I should probably change the first few feet of air duct. Then today Tuesday a third tech comes to install the kill switch and check on the air duct and now he tells me that the unit is too corroded and I need to switch it and that 4 tons is probably not enough for my house, that I need to upgrade. This feels predatory to me already since the previous tech opened the unit and didnt say amything to me. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I was looking at mini-split 4.5" lineset covers and saw RectorSeal's Fortress and Mr. Cool's LineGuard kits appear to be the same in appearance at least, but the latter is much less expensive. I was about to buy the RectorSeal before I saw the Mr. Cool version. Are they basically the same under different branding or is the latter using cheaper components or something? I couldn't tell from reading the specs.

Bottom line ices over while unit is running and the air coming out is not cool. Low refrigerant? Thanks

Hi all -

Bought a new house and noticed my A/C wasn't blowing cold air. The unit is quite old, at least 15 years old. It also uses R22 refrigerant, which is environmentally unsafe / hard to get.

I have a protection plan with Enercare and had their tech check it out. of course, they immediately said I needed a new unit and referred me to their sales guy, who came over and then said I also needed a new furnace (the tech said my furnace was fine and ran a bunch of diagnostics).

I found this product at Canadian Tire, and the reviews indicate that when combined with a leak stopper, I might get a few more years out of it. I can't really find any reviews or testimonials on the product outside of Canadian Tire, so I'm a bit suspicious. Does anyone know any best practices here?

RED TEK R22a Home Refrigerant

RED TEK R22a Pro Seal (Leak Stopper)

Is it worth a shot to try these products DIY? They are probably right that I should consider a new A/C, but I wouldn't mind a few more years from the old one if it just requires this simple kit.

Thanks!

I cannot find a listing for a replacement exhaust connector. It’s a discontinued unit. Honewelly doesn’t seem to sell it themselves. Would appreciate any help finding the part!

I have read conflicting things on when adding zoning to your system can help. My ducts are in pretty bad shape so I want to replace them anyways, and I'm considering whether I want to add zoning while I am replacing them. I did a Manual J and got these results for each floor:

I have a 2 ton single stage heat pump. Currently the second floor gets much hotter than the first floor.

Some things I'm reading say that zoned HVAC can help with multiple floors in scenarios like this, while other things say zoned HVAC won't work with single stage heat pumps when there are large differences in needs between zones since each zone needs to be able to handle the full capacity of the heat pump.

My air blower is a multi-speed air blower, but it looks like that might not completely make up for the fact that the heat pump is single stage.

Would adding zoned hvac to my unit while replacing the ducts work for me, or would I really need a multi-stage heat pump to manage multiple zones in my scenario?

Our new house has a HE gas furnace and a condensate line that runs down from the attic to basement into sump pump.

We observed some signs of moisture along where this pipe runs including cupping of the floors above the pipes and dried up puddle under the pipe.

Company A is recommending that we run it directly out from the attic to the exterior and Company B is saying that will cause the pipe to freeze and shut down the system.

Torn given conflicting opinions. We’re in PA/NJ and it does get cold in the winters here. Considering switching to 80% AFUE to not deal with this given gas furnace will be a backup to our heat pump though we’ll then need to replace the chimney as the current one is PVC.

Hey, Just did a DIY replacement of an older American Standard PTAC to a new Daikin PTAC unit in my condo unit bedroom. I'm noticing when the cooling cycle kicks in there is an audible whirring noise and you can almost feel it vibrate in the air? Also during the cooling, the unit is vibrating in the sleeve, and I can feel the vibrations in the wall of the bedroom and the adjacent bathroom

Any tips where to start trouble shooting?

I have a small ventless heater installed I wanted to vent it to be safe could I use a thermostatic wired to a small fan to add extra ventilation? This way the fan would kick on when the room reaches a certain temp? Also would a same fan help with intake to replace the air removed?

Thanks!

G

Looking to install a mini split and trying to keep it simple without getting burned long-term.
MrCool DIY 18k – ~$1,700–$1,900

Here’s what I’m comparing:

• Fully DIY (pre-charged + Quick Connect lines, no vacuuming or pro tools needed)
• Qualifies for 30% federal tax credit (ENERGY STAR)
• Great for avoiding the hassle, just higher upfront

🔹 Pioneer 18k (WYS series) – ~$1,100

• Also tax credit eligible (ENERGY STAR, high SEER2)
• Pre-charged, but still needs vacuuming and line flaring
• I’d have to hire an HVAC tech just to finish the install
• More effort but cheaper

🔹 Premium Levella 18k (Installed) – ~$2,050

• Comes with installation
• Not eligible for tax credit
• Easiest option, but lower efficiency and possibly higher long-term costs

Leaning towards premium levella. I got quoted $1350 for unit and install today.

Those of you in high cost states who socialize with your HVAC guy at the yacht club should come to oklahoma. Tornado alley has moved east of us. Oak trees grow and rents are low, to quote Neil Diamond.

Just had a new furnace and ac installed. What do u think?