" wrote:

Update:

I have crawled around in my crawl space inspecting all of the AC
duct work and I can't see a single problem. Some of my flooring
insulation has fallen down (an easy enough repair and unrelated),
but everything looks good so far.

I plan on calling a _local_ AC repair company eventually, I am jsut
gathering recommendations now. Also, I just want to be prepared. If
I can find a problem before I have them come, then that works better
for me.

One other note. I had a national company check my system when this
first happened (end of last summmer) and they said everything looked
good. Mistake 1: I believed them. Mistake 2: I didn't call them on
it when I discovered it.

Any suggestions on what to check next?

J
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Did you have the fan running when you inspected? A duct leak could be
hidden under duct insulation and not be apparent without the system in
operation.

You indicate low air flow from the vents which tends to indicate either
a leak, a restriction or a blower problem. You've not found a leak so
you should check the condition of the blower in the air handler and look
for any possible restrictions in the system. In the case of a
restriction it would likely be near the air handler since it if was on a
particular duct you would likely have high air flow to other ducts.

Since you indicated there was water in the secondary drip pan, that
would tend to indicate the main condensate drain might be clogged though
that is likely not the source of the problem unless perhaps the blower
motor is straining trying to spin the blower in water.

The water in the pan also implies that the refrigeration is working and
that an air supply is getting to the A coil in the air handler. If the
refrigeration was not working the water would not be getting condensed
and if there was an air restriction on the intake side there wouldn't be
a supply of moist air to keep condensing water out of.

Best thing to do is to open the air handler (should just be a couple
screws) and inspect. A squirrel cage blower trying to run partly
submerged in condensate from a plugged drain certainly won't be able to
move much air. A piece of internal duct insulation in the air handler
could have come loose and clogged the output. Certainly should be
relatively easy to inspect.

If the air handler has a belt for the blower it's possible it could have
broken and the air handler is essentially moving no air. You might have
felt a slight flow just from convection.

Pete C.