On May 29, 2:58*am, Evan wrote:
On May 28, 9:17*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
I have a Conquest 90 Max gas furnace with central air.
I also have a bunch of questions:
1 - The internal coils have not been clean since it was installed 5
years ago, so I decided to take a look and see if they needed
cleaning. Problem is, I'm not sure how to access them.
I removed the screws from the panel where the condensate and
refrigerant pipes are, but as you can see from this picture, I can't
remove the panel because of the vent pipe.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/furnacef.jpg/
If I could tilt the top or bottom of the panel outwards, I could
remove it, but the vent pipe prevents any significant tilting.
There is no other panel that I can remove. The other 3 sides that
surround the coils are a single piece which has the duct work on top
of it. The duct work would have to go up in order for the 3-sided
surround to come off.
How do I get to the coils?
2 - Through the limited opening, I can see into the coil area with a
flashlight. I see 2 tee-pee sets of coils and as far as I can tell
they are perfectly clean, at least on the surfaces that I can see with
the panel open as shown. Should I just close it up and forget about it
or are there areas I should check - assuming I can gain better access?
3 - When I removed the panel I saw 2 stickers, both of which raised
questions in my mind:
3.1 - One sticker has a picture of a "condensate drain trap" made from
a piece of flexible tubing attached to the drain output pipe. As you
can see from the picture, I don't have a trap. At the bottom of the
PVC pipe seen behind the gas line is the condensate pump.
The pump sends the condensate up a flexible tube and across the
ceiling to the utility sink.
I don't need a trap with that set up, do I?
3.2 - The other sticker says: "Coil is shipped with a low pressure (5
-10 psi) charge of dry nitrogen. Evacuate system before charging with
refrigerant."
Would the unit work (i.e. cool) if the system was not evacuated/
charged when it was installed?
I'm not saying that it wasn't evacuated/charged because I don't
remember if the installer did it or not, so I'm just curious.
Thanks!
1. *5 years ? They need to be cleaned, even if you changed your
filter religiously stuff will still build up on the coils... *Even if
you
think they look clean...
2. *You can't see in there very well and probably wouldn't see the
tiny stuff which builds up in the coils anyway... *Once people can
be able to "see" dust on the coils the have been wasting energy
in their cooling system for quite a long time... *Dust insulates the
coils making the system work harder to provide the same amount
of cooling capacity and provides a nice convenient medium where
any excess moisture in your home from humidity can condense
and freeze, icing up the coils... (which is *not* a good thing)
3. *Irrelevant questions, your condensate drain clearly does not
directly connect to a sewer line or it would have a trap in its
drain line -- nor does it drain directly outside...
As far as the coil being shipped charged with Nitrogen that is
how the coils are protected from damage during shipping and
installation... *All of that gas would have been recovered and
evacuated from the system before it was charged prior to the
pressure testing which is done before any refrigerant is added,
without refrigerant your AC wouldn't cool your house at all...
To answer your question about how to get at the coil, here is
your answer:
You need to obtain a proper pair of steel metal shears to cut
the cover panel down in a straight line from where the refrigerant
lines exit the duct box to where the condensate line is located...
You would then need a piece of heavy gauge flat stock and some
gasket material... *One side of the flat stock gets attached to
the larger piece of the cover panel permanently... *With the
additional
joint you create you can remove the cover from both sides of flue vent
pipe without disturbing it's integrity which would cause a hazard, and
if you properly gasket and seal the new joint line you create in the
cover plate with real foil duct tape you will not impact or change the
level of static pressure in your duct work...
Want to keep your AC working at peak performance for years ?
Clean your inside coils with proper coil cleaner every year before
cooling season starts -- don't forget to do the same with the coils
in the outside heat pump unit, all sorts of things can obstruct the
cooling fins in the coil outside from dirt to things left by bugs,
plants
or animals... *If the cooling fins in the outside unit are dirty or
have
lots of stuff clogging them, then the fan can't induce a proper draft
to transfer the heat into the outside air and the system won't run
very efficiently wasting energy...
That looks like a very nice and neat install on your furnace and
AC coils, the only thing your installer overlooked was how on
earth the next guy was ever going to be able to open the cover
up to service or clean the coils without having to cut out and
remove the vent pipe and repair the same every time someone
needed to open that cover plate...
~~ Evan
Thanks for the info.
Seeing that the exhaust port on the furnace and the cutouts on the
panel came that way from the manufacturer, how could the AC unit been
installed differently such that "the next guy" (me!) was going to be
able to remove the panel?
The only way I could it happening would be to have reversed the AC
unit (if that is even possible) so that the panel was opposite the
vent. That of course would have meant a vent pipe coming out of one
side and the drain and refrigerant pipes pipes coming out of the
other. That would have ended up being a very ugly installation.