# Prepping / Emergency Preparedness > General Emergency Preparedness >  A/C stopped working.....

## hunter63

Always something....

Bad news...DW was saying she was warm....so looked at the T-Stat....yup up to 75 (73 normal)....with the unit running....no cooling.

Good news ...it's fall and outside temp is 72 right now.
So not an emergency....

Being retired from the HVAC Service trade.....have the knowledge and tools to get it back up and running....if I had some R-22

Unit is a 1996 American Standard .....Has had a slow leak last few years....
I had  looked for it using my primitive means....look for oil stains and bubbles ....do not have a "sniffer" or dye injector"/UV light....

Topping off the unit takes about 3-4 pounds and lasted from spring of 2016 to  last few days....(2 years of operation)
I had used up the last of my bottle of R-22 I have had from my working days.......so went looking for another bottle.

I am/was? certified to buy and use......
BUT
New 30 pound tanks is in the $400 buck range.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/2226292...=ps&dispItem=1

Holy Molly Batman....LOL
May have a deal with my old teacher to get some from the tech school....?
Could cann a couple of people I had word for....but most likely they wouldn't just "sell me a bottle"

So I would call for a service call...and just have them top it off.....
BUT being fall....most likely have some leak down over the winter....

So pondering.....Pondering....and waiting from a call from the teacher.

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## kyratshooter

Local weather says we are headed into some of the warmest weather of the summer around here!  Temps into the 90s.

I replaced my unit last year so this is its second summer.  Should be good for longer than I am.  At least that is the plan.

Reminds me of when my Mom and Dad retired and bought their "last new car".  They wound up having 3 more last cars before Dad died.

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## randyt

If you were closer I have a jug that a lady gave me that you could take. We have for the most part converted over to r 410 and MO99. I still have a jug of r 12 but haven't used or really needed that in years

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## Shady Slim

Yeah? No AC huh?  Shoulda been here last weekend when Irma rolled through. 

Your AC giving ya fits? How about no AC AND no electric for a couple days when it is 90 degrees and 95% humidity. Get back to me will ya . . .

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## hunter63

> Yeah? No AC huh?  Shoulda been here last weekend when Irma rolled through. 
> 
> Your AC giving ya fits? How about no AC AND no electric for a couple days when it is 90 degrees and 95% humidity. Get back to me will ya . . .


Sorry but that was uncalled for....

I do feel for you.....but this is about me. and my situation... not your decision to live where you live......
I wish I was rich but I'm not....bad feeling and whining won't help anyone.

Y'all have a nice day.

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## hunter63

> If you were closer I have a jug that a lady gave me that you could take. We have for the most part converted over to r 410 and MO99. I still have a jug of r 12 but haven't used or really needed that in years


I'm working on a deal with the instructor where I took training.....but at $400 a jug.....a road trip may be in order..
And there IS the porch thing.....LOL

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## rebel

Same thing happened to us when we lived in MN. I put in a window unit for the remainder of summer/fall to stay cool in the bedroom. When spring/summer came we had too get a new central unit. The service guy said that you can't get replacement parts for the r12. Seemed like a conspiracy. Lol. Good luck.

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## Rick

You know they send some guy out and suck all that R12 out of the old stuff. So I know some place there is a ginormous tank of G12. Ginormous! Guy don't need but a couple of pounds.

And Slim, your electricity was out a couple of days? A friend of ours daughter had a baby two weeks ago and dropped dead of a blood clot to the lung. It's all relative my friend.

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## randyt

I have often wondered what folks did for AC back before John Gorrie invented AC and Willis Carrier brought it to the masses. My brother is building a offgrid home in Kentucky and it gets hot there. He going to put in tall ceilings but other than that maybe a swamp cooler.

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## Fixit

AC we don't need no stinking AC . 
Middle Tennessee, off grid and using a wood cookstove  year around . Sure it gets a bit warm in the summer with the pressure canner going 8 to 10 hours a day but hey its summer . 😓

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## hunter63

We don't have A/C at "The Place" our cabin...but up on the side of a hill so keep pretty cool   unless it real hot....and you go up stairs...

This is not a major deal...this time of year....just one more thing to deal with.....

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## randyt

> .....a road trip may be in order..
> And there IS the porch thing.....LOL


long way for freon but if you make it to the tip of the mitt, the porch is waiting LOL

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## hunter63

Looks like a bout 7 hours....410 miles....around the Wisconsin side to the bridge.
Ferry (374) .....and Chicago (481 miles and 3 tranquilizers).... little longer.

LOL...I'll get back to ya......

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## crashdive123

> Yeah? No AC huh?  Shoulda been here last weekend when Irma rolled through. 
> 
> Your AC giving ya fits? How about no AC AND no electric for a couple days when it is 90 degrees and 95% humidity. Get back to me will ya . . .


There are thousands of people that lost everything.  Being inconvenienced for a couple of days is not reason to ...... well hopefully you were just kind of joking.

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## Rick

> AC we don't need no stinking AC . 
> Middle Tennessee, off grid and using a wood cookstove year around . Sure it gets a bit warm in the summer with the pressure canner going 8 to 10 hours a day but hey its summer




Oh, my word. That nearly brought on a case of the vapours! Got to have my AC!

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## Shady Slim

> There are thousands of people that lost everything.  Being inconvenienced for a couple of days is not reason to ...... well hopefully you were just kind of joking.


Yes, I was joking however, some didn't see it that way I guess. Hard to display sarcasm sometimes online.

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## Shady Slim

> Sorry but that was uncalled for....
> 
> I do feel for you.....but this is about me. and my situation... not your decision to live where you live......
> I wish I was rich but I'm not....bad feeling and whining won't help anyone.
> 
> Y'all have a nice day.


Sorry . . .see post #16 please.

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## hunter63

> long way for freon but if you make it to the tip of the mitt, the porch is waiting LOL


Randy.....I guess a road trip isn't needed just yet...
Thanks again for the offer...was kinda looking to spending some porch time with ya....Oh and the freon.....LOL 

Decided to actually go check it out before the search for R-22 began in earnest......
Reviewing the situation....:
One day running and the next running but no cooling...pretty sudden?
Fan on condenser running....didn't check it but could see to the bedroom window.

Furnace blower running...filter OK...should be changed again....... (change a lot because of dog hair)
Coil not frozen or even cool....Low freon can freeze up the coil....all the way to the condenser outside ????
I just shut it down and just ran the fan....as I was sorta working on something else.

Knowing I was out of freon, and that I do have to top off, every once in awhile...my first guess was the freon.

But before calling "a guy" former employer ....I figured I better check the unit first, so I didn't look stupid, and suffer from the "Is it plugged in?' syndrome ......went out and tried to fire up....to see if compressor was running...(to cool)

Got a click....but neither the fan or compressor started ...huh?

Pulled the covers off....tried checking voltage...24 volt control and 220/240 run voltage.
Meter wasn't showing anything ...or was jumping around....Humm...battery......put in a new battery.

Had control...... from t-stat and it would pull in the contactor...OK

Checked voltage coming in ....had 220 on the in-side of the contactor.....but nothing even when the contacts are closed.
Saw a bug (earwig) butt sticking out of the contactor......contacts burned.
AH Ha!......

Changed out the contactor ....Had one leftover from my working days.

Unit fired up....and started cooling.....
Didn't check the freon pressures as I don't have any, anyway.....so as long as it's working (maybe not all that well) it just needs to make it till spring...

So it's fixed for now....and now I remember why I retired....my knees are sore...can't see stuff unless I looking directly straight at it....fingers don't seem to know what to do, any more.....But the head is still working a bit.

Time for my nap....saved $500 bucks,.... so, maybe start looking for Handi Rifles?

It's all good......

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## madmax

LOL.
I fixed it. 
Saved 500 dollars.
So I can buy a gun now.
I used that ploy to limited success a few times.

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## hunter63

> LOL.
> I fixed it. 
> Saved 500 dollars.
> So I can buy a gun now.
> I used that ploy to limited success a few times.



Hey, that the deal right?........
Like getting an unplanned  paycheck........

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## randyt

Just the other day I come across a earwig in a contactor LOL

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## hunter63

They are contact killers...as well as ants and mice eating wiring.

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This isn't mine but give you an idea what happens....

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So back to 73 degrees and lower humidity......
I like it.

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## Rick

If I had a nickel for every phone I've changed out because of cockroaches.......

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## hunter63

> If I had a nickel for every phone I've changed out because of cockroaches.......


Yeah...lets not go there......LOL
Don't shine the trouble light up....the ceiling is moving....

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## randyt

I have cleaned them with a fingernail file and got by

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## hunter63

> I have cleaned them with a fingernail file and got by


May have to do that next time...had a spare contactor in my stash....

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## pete lynch

> Hey, that the deal right?........
> Like getting an unplanned  paycheck........


Those months that have an extra Friday _are_ nice, eh?

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## crashdive123

> LOL.
> I fixed it. 
> Saved 500 dollars.
> So I can buy a gun now.
> I used that ploy to limited success a few times.





> Hey, that the deal right?........
> Like getting an unplanned  paycheck........


Ooooo - I need to go break something and then fix it.  There's this pistol I've been looking at.

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## Rick

That's where my Beretta came from. Nothing broke this month so I figured I was waaaay ahead.

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## JohnLeePettimore

> I have often wondered what folks did for AC back before John Gorrie invented AC and Willis Carrier brought it to the masses. My brother is building a offgrid home in Kentucky and it gets hot there. He going to put in tall ceilings but other than that maybe a swamp cooler.


Most lived where it didn't get too hot.  The population of the warmer states (The South and southwest) has boomed since A/C.  Look out northern latitude states if the power grid goes down.

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## kyratshooter

Yep John Lee, the south has boomed since AC and TVA to power it came along.  

Back in the day there were no huge factories in the south.  They were all built up north where the temps allowed work year around.  Now some of the largest factories in the world are in the southern US.

My family lived in the mid-south, just outside Nashville, TN and starting about July 4 the daytime temps would be above 90 each and every day with August and early Sept temps often reaching 100+.  Global warming my sweet @$$, it was hotter than he!! back then!

We did not have an AC in our home until I was 17.  

What did we do?

There was lots of sweat.  I remember that part.  

Lots of window fans blasting 95 degree air around.  The windows were always open and the blinds up day and night, except during storms.  Privacy was sacrificed for some measure of air circulation.

Lots of ice water from the huge jug kept in the fridge.  

Lots of trips to the movie matinee for $0.25 cents per kid and an entire afternoon in the theater AC.  You would walk out of that theater into a wall of heat that made the air too thick to breathe.

At night you slept in your boxers with the window fan blasting over you.  

Sometimes you slept outside in the tent.  It was cooler out there.  As we got older, 10-12, we sort of moved outside for the summer.  

I still remember my Mom canning foods for days on end with the stove going full blast and the outside temp above 90.  It was probably 110-115 in that kitchen.  She canned/froze about 1500 quarts of veggies every summer.

The main meal was at noon.  You cooked in the morning before it got too hot and had your main meal at lunch.  Supper was usually a light meal of cold foods.  

The southern cooks also specialized in serving many foods cold that were served hot in other areas, with special spices to bring out the chilled flavors.  Deep fried chicken with potato salad, both served ice cold, washed down with Iced tea so sweet with real cane sugar that it was almost syrup.  There were also lots of salads based on green Jello and pineapple,,, always green.

Sometimes all you could do was find a shade tree, sit under it and sweat.  That's what grandma and grandpa did most of the hot afternoons.  Sit in the lawn chairs in the shade and read the newspaper, sip Iced tea, and make sure us kids were behaving ourselves. 

But consider what all that sitting and sweating has given us.  Southern homes with verandas and 14' ceilings to create circulation, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tennessee Williams plays, most of the best authors of the 20th Century, Blues music and Rock and Roll, the best sippin' whisky in the world based on radical temperature changes while aging, southern cooking.

I also think that if one did some research they would find that more old folks died in summer than in winter down south.  Without modern meds the heat was often too much for their hearts.  I knew several people that died working the fields in mid summer.

Now I'm rambling.

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## Rick

We had a 36 inch fan in the attic that pulled air through the house. You would lay in bed with the window open and that fan pulling air over you. That was until we got the window AC unit. Then I slept in the floor in front of it when it was really hot. Our house didn't have insulation in the outside wall until 69 or so. Someplace along there.

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## hunter63

Growing up...never had A/C.....
MF did the open basement windows on the north side of the house....big box fans on steps...back porch to kitchen....then a propped open attic door....big temp controlled fan in the attic..
South facing windows shades drawn...windows...open.

I slept on a screened in front porch.....in the summer....basement in the winter (2 bedroom house ...4 kids)

Kinda did the window and fan thing... till our first A/C in about 1992 ( has it been that long?).....put in by the company I ended going to work for in 2001.

We were at Rondy at the time it was put in...DD stayed home...so had her BF set the digital T-stat....he had it on like 62....you could hang meat......
PS that the same unit I just worked on.....
Has been a very good furnace and A/c.

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## JohnLeePettimore

> ...washed down with Iced tea so sweet with real cane sugar that it was almost syrup...
> 
> ...sip iced tea...


Now we know why iced tea is Southern staple.

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## chiggersngrits

I was looking at house plans of the old Sears-Roebuck homes they used to sell. A lot of them had 'sleeping porches'.

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## hunter63

> I was looking at house plans of the old Sears-Roebuck homes they used to sell. A lot of them had 'sleeping porches'.


There are a lot of those built around 1920- 40's....still around the neighborhoods that had factories
The factory I use to work at...and sold off lots cheap to employees ....many of the houses were Sears and many others of the same designs.
Employees walked to work....

Example 

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

So how much are you going to tell your wife it cost you to get HER AC going again?

Alan

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## Rick

The cost of that new Handy Rifle. He ain't no dummy.

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## hunter63

....Still looking....not many around...or barrels that I don't have......

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## cow_rancher

You realize of course that $400 for a 30 lb can of r22 is a lot cheaper that I was quoted to suck mine out for reclamation, it was so much I bit the bullet and bought some off of Ebay, I don't have the 608 license, only the 609, guys selling don't know or don't care about the difference. 

*Rancher*

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## hunter63

> You realize of course that $400 for a 30 lb can of r22 is a lot cheaper that I was quoted to suck mine out for reclamation, it was so much I bit the bullet and bought some off of Ebay, I don't have the 608 license, only the 609, guys selling don't know or don't care about the difference. 
> 
> *Rancher*


I hear ya.....and I may go that route.
We will see....I still have a couple of leads on some trading......AND it should last till spring.

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## Kensuke

I also had such a case and it scared me a lot because it was summer and I knew that without my air conditioner I will die all day at my office. That's why I made some calls and found about Sir Spamalot HVAC Service because I needed a good company to solve quickly my problems. I was lucky that on the same day they arrived and save me by solving each problem my air conditioner had. After that, they propose to clean and check all functions at AC and did very qualitative everything. Thanks to them my AC still working without any problems.

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## Rick

Why did it scare you? (I'm using a bait caster)

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## madmax

lol.  Remember.  Play him Rick.  You may not get another for a day or so.  T

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## kyratshooter

I have a vision of Rick as a Boy Scout commando, stalking the dark recesses of the internet for spammers with his dagger in his teeth and a finger on the ban button.

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## Rick

Kool-aid in my Roy Roger's thermos and Twinkies in my WWII rucksack.

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## crashdive123

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## crashdive123

And just like that, the spammer showed up on que.

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## josephung

Ohhh man ... Kool-aid, it has been an eternity since I have last had one.

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## Rick

They have Kook-aid in Moldova?

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## ColeS00

Greetings everyone!It's no surprise that the air conditioner stops functioning over time. Could you please send some pictures so that you can visually detect the problem? I can advise you to have the air ducts inspected right away. The dirt can get clogged up in them, which is very bad for the serviceability of the unit. But most likely you will just find spam.

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## crashdive123

Well, this should be fun.

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## Rick

...and entertaining.

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## crashdive123

I see what we did there.

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## crashdive123

Well, I'm shocked I tell ya.

Ole ColeS00 went from "A fun and entertaining story." to spam.  Seems that spam is very popular in the AC business.

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## Rick

First, I was all like AC, cool. Then, I was all like spam, even better. Wait, what? That kind of spam? That is so like, uncool. Someone needs a spanking and sent to bed. 

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## crashdive123

Yep......................

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## Rick

One spankin' comin' right up....

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## madmax

I recognize that guy.  And the bike.

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## Rick

I'm not asking any questions. Once I found out you ate balut I'm afraid to ask questions.

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