replying to mangino, BobsYourUncle wrote:
He said that Carrier knows that there are issues with the coils rusting out
prematurely. Carrier use to have all aluminum coils and aluminum never rusts.
Carrier and other manufacturers realized if they switched to copper coils their
customers would have to replace their coils approximately every 6 to 8 years (10
years if you were lucky)
Well, it's too late for mangino at this point, but his a/c guy was at least
woefully uninformed on the topic, and nearly everything he said about copper
applies to aluminum as well; in some cases more so. For one, aluminum most
definitely oxidizes as does copper. Your aluminum coils have to be mated at
some point to the copper supply lines, and this is where most of the failures
occur due to the galvanic action of the two disparate metals. Also, the only
good all-aluminum coils were made by GE until they got out of the HVAC
business. The rest are much thinner and consequently cheaper than the copper.
But wait, if you get a leak in that aluminum line (a good possibility, since
aluminum is thinner, weaker, harder to clean, and easier to damage, not to
mention having worse heat transfer characteristics) good luck finding anyone
who can repair it. "Be better to just replace it" is what an honest totally
trustworthy A/C guy would tell you in that situation. Sounds like planned
obsolescence to me...

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