On 5/29/2011 7:07 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On May 29, 1:05 am, The Daring
wrote:
On 5/28/2011 8:17 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!
Are you sure you can't get the PVC vent loose and swing it aside?
Me and my bud I do AC work with never install a 3/4 PVC drain without
a union so we can service the drain if it clogs up. You can cut the
3/4 drain line and install a coupling without glue so you can get it
loose. I always use unions anyway. With the 3/4 drain out of the way,
you could easily remove the cover. Big box stores have the unions.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Union-1WKD7
TDD
How would cutting the PVC drain pipe help?
If I cut (or even removed) the drain, I still couldn't pull the bottom
of the panel away from the furnace.
I'd have to rotate the panel along the same plane it's on now, but
there's 4 1/2" of panel between the cut out for the drain and the edge
of the panel. In other words, way too much material to be able to
rotate the panel enough to remove it.
You unscrew the drain pipe which will allow you to rotate the cover
out and remove it. If the A coil is really dirty, I pump the system
down, disconnect the line-set and everything in the way, slide the A
coil out of the housing and take it outside to give it a good cleaning.
I wish I had some pictures of the systems me and my friend GB install
so I could give you an idea of how we install a system so it can be
easily serviced. It amazes me how many AC installers won't spend a few
extra dollars and take a little more time to insure a system can be
accessed for service later on. ^_^
TDD