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AC Rant


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51 minutes ago, June Bug said:

2) Chromebook died when the earbud plug touched the USB port

That shouldn't happen.  This sounds like a bad design.

My house was old when I bought it in 2002 and the AC was already 20 years old.  Once I had a condenser (aka a capacitor) go out and I went out to the local supply house and bought one.  Once a squirrel thought the defrost sensor wires were in its way.  We were both surprised when I took the cover off and we were eye to eye.  I'm sure it was nice and cool in there for a while.  I just soldered the wires back together and it got going again.  A couple of times the AC repair guy soldered the pin holes in the capillary tubes on the condenser and got me going again.  The 3rd time he said it's probably time for a new unit if it happened again.  A 2nd time the condenser went out but nobody would sell me one.  Then I decided it was time for a new unit.  I'm very happy with my Lennox.  I learned a lot about sizing and different technology.  It is saving me quite a bit of money per month compared to the old one.

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34 minutes ago, AntonioGG said:

That shouldn't happen.  This sounds like a bad design.

My house was old when I bought it in 2002 and the AC was already 20 years old.  Once I had a condenser (aka a capacitor) go out and I went out to the local supply house and bought one.  Once a squirrel thought the defrost sensor wires were in its way.  We were both surprised when I took the cover off and we were eye to eye.  I'm sure it was nice and cool in there for a while.  I just soldered the wires back together and it got going again.  A couple of times the AC repair guy soldered the pin holes in the capillary tubes on the condenser and got me going again.  The 3rd time he said it's probably time for a new unit if it happened again.  A 2nd time the condenser went out but nobody would sell me one.  Then I decided it was time for a new unit.  I'm very happy with my Lennox.  I learned a lot about sizing and different technology.  It is saving me quite a bit of money per month compared to the old one.

I'm in this boat....and about to go up into the attic to replace circuit board on fan unit in order to get me going (in hopes of making it thru summer one more time).  We bought the house 2.5 yrs ago and unit is 21 yrs old.  I'D REALLY PREFER TO BUY IN FALL!...when pricing is better and possible financing is more favorable.

If you don't mind 'd love to know what you discovered, who you used and the best-practice stuff you're usually at digging up.  Feel free to email it over if you prefer that format.  I'm a "value guy with necessary features" when it comes to this sorta of thing.  There's no way I see myself paying the premium for variable speed stuff and all the complexity of zoned systems.  FYI

[toasts to the damaged AC crowd]

Cheers,
CJB

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My AC bit the dust a couple of years ago after a good 20 year run. The one I replaced it with is so much more efficient that my solar panels cover my electric bill in all but 2 or 3 months a year.

I don’t think that’s a purchase that you want to do cheap on. However, if you can nurse it along and replace when you WANT to replace it, that’s awesome. I just know that it’s never a priority until it’s the biggest priority.


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Well my circuit board install in my attic seems like its a success.  The system is appropriately cycling on and off (which is wasn't before) and the temperature is dropping down nicely.  Lets hope we can limp this thing through the summer...

 

You can see the burnt solder mark from the relay on the board.

Rendered-Image.jpg

 

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12 hours ago, June Bug said:

Last week:

1) The check engine light was triggered by rodents chewing up three wiring harnesses. 

2) Chromebook died when the earbud plug touched the USB port,  which is about a 16th of an inch from the audio jack. With a new Chromebook, you log in and it has all your stuff, just like the old Chromebook, which is simultaneously totally comforting (awww, my stuff!) and deeply creepy (they have MY STUFF!)

On a positive note, we got our wills done, that landscaping project is almost finished and we don't have The 'Rona. 

Y'all stay well and cool (to the extent possible).  

 

 

My 4 year old MacBook pro died last week. Dead as a door nail, nothing could bring it back. Ordered a new one that is arriving today. Spent the last week on a windows notebook, and boy did I feel the pain (~vintage 2008...)

When the new one gets here I'll plug it back in and do a restore from my server. I'll have all of my data back without the creepiness of someone else having it. That was about the fourth thing in a row to die on me, this virus is taking a toll on IT products.

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11 hours ago, AntonioGG said:

That shouldn't happen.  This sounds like a bad design.

My house was old when I bought it in 2002 and the AC was already 20 years old.  Once I had a condenser (aka a capacitor) go out and I went out to the local supply house and bought one.  Once a squirrel thought the defrost sensor wires were in its way.  We were both surprised when I took the cover off and we were eye to eye.  I'm sure it was nice and cool in there for a while.  I just soldered the wires back together and it got going again.  A couple of times the AC repair guy soldered the pin holes in the capillary tubes on the condenser and got me going again.  The 3rd time he said it's probably time for a new unit if it happened again.  A 2nd time the condenser went out but nobody would sell me one.  Then I decided it was time for a new unit.  I'm very happy with my Lennox.  I learned a lot about sizing and different technology.  It is saving me quite a bit of money per month compared to the old one.

It must be nice to have an electrical engineer in the house for these things. I can do electrical all day long as long as we are talking house wiring but when it comes to components and circuit boards I tap out and let the experts in. Appliance repair is hit or miss with me but when I do manage to fix something there is a major victory lap. Would never touch an AC unit.

Oh, and this is a good time to plug Nest. We have 2 units and 2 thermostats, it's great to have them managing the temps and they are really easy to use. Being able to tell Alexa to change the temperature without having to get up is a huge plus.

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13 hours ago, CBaron said:

the best-practice stuff

1998,  appliance salesmen at Hancock Center Sears:  "With the more basic dishwasher, there are fewer things to go wrong."  Evergreen. 

13 hours ago, AntonioGG said:

That shouldn't happen.  This sounds like a bad design.

Yes, bad design is an understatement.  I'm putting a piece of tape over the USB port on the new (identical) laptop. 

2 hours ago, AustinBike said:

Spent the last week on a windows notebook, and boy did I feel the pain (~vintage 2008...)

RIP Macbook, AB.  Is 4 years a typical life span?

Somewhat related, in an opposite way: a twitter thread yesterday revealed  how many people loved WordPerfect, miss it, and have never EVER gotten over the loss of Reveal Codes (ditto).

Edited by June Bug
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2 hours ago, June Bug said:

RIP Macbook, AB.  Is 4 years a typical life span?

Somewhat related, in an opposite way: a twitter thread yesterday revealed  how many people loved WordPerfect, miss it, and have never EVER gotten over the loss of Reveal Codes (ditto).

4 years is unusually short. It is at a repair place now. If it is a (relatively) inexpensive fix we will use that as a backup notebook as I assume there should be another 4+ years of service out of it.

But I had a customer offer me a project right as I was in the middle of diagnosing. That money made buying a new one a no-brainer. It didn't cover the whole cost, but the combination of that project + the tax deduction for the notebook meant the new MacBook was only ~$500 all in, so worth pulling the trigger.

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6 hours ago, AustinBike said:

It must be nice to have an electrical engineer in the house for these things. I can do electrical all day long as long as we are talking house wiring but when it comes to components and circuit boards I tap out and let the experts in. Appliance repair is hit or miss with me but when I do manage to fix something there is a major victory lap. Would never touch an AC unit.

 

As to non electrical engineers, my background is on RF, Microwave, power/analog and high-speed digital design, so I never learned about most AC circuits which is basically what most appliances are (and the parts that usually go wrong in appliances.)  But being handy (“If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”--RedGreen) and having a good mind for debug of any kind is really what has made the difference, not necessarily my degree.  Also YouTube can be an invaluable resource.  It's crazy how much detailed content there is out there, some smartly put out by the companies selling parts online.

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Fixed mine. Simple problem but a permanent solution will be a PITA.  Clogged drain from the poor design of the system from the drain backing up as it exits the house. The drainpipe has a 2* upward slope for 3-4 feet at the exit. The condensation from the 2nd story unit has to fill the vertical line with enough water to push the remaining water traveling up the slope out. Pretty much a dogshit design and recipe for issues.

Used the shopvac trick to pull this abortion out.

 

IMG_20200525_132746572.jpg

Edited by ATXZJ
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Flashback: Yup, with our original clog, we had to get the hand vac on the exit pipe to suction out a bunch of nasty goop, similar to that. 

Along with vinegar and hot water I think we poured a bottle of hydrogen peroxide down the tube to soften things up. 

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9 hours ago, AustinBike said:

My 4 year old MacBook pro died last week. Dead as a door nail, nothing could bring it back. Ordered a new one that is arriving today. Spent the last week on a windows notebook, and boy did I feel the pain (~vintage 2008...)

When the new one gets here I'll plug it back in and do a restore from my server. I'll have all of my data back without the creepiness of someone else having it. That was about the fourth thing in a row to die on me, this virus is taking a toll on IT products.

use my macbook pro to run zwift on my trainer. It sits on a music stand, knocked it off and the screen broke. I hate the new macbook pros with the touchbar and no ports, so i bought another 2015 with all the ports.  Mac backup is awesome, I just did a restore from backup (usb drive) and i was up and running immediately.

weirdly I let the old macbook sit in the audio cabinet with the amplifier on. it got really hot and the monitor started working again. After a few days it stopped working.

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1 hour ago, crazyt said:

 I hate the new macbook pros with the touchbar and no ports, so i bought another 2015 with all the ports. 

+1

I also think my 2015 was faster when I have to do some crunching.  This thing gets overheated so the CPU throttles back, and the fans run fast a lot, even just plugged in to an external retina display.  The butterfly keyboard is also awful.  10 months in mine are fading and I double type keys all the time.   A tiny spec of dirt causes problems.  I hope the new 16" MBP are better than these.

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2010 Macbook Pro 17"... Upgrade from my 2008 in 2015, off eBay. Got it for $450, had a speaker problem, got a $100 refund from seller. Fixed the problem for maybe $40... Still going strong, never had to take it into Apple for repair/service. Been a happy Mac user since 1985/6.

 

Screen Shot 2020-05-25 at 10.44.18 PM.png

Edited by RidingAgain
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On 5/23/2020 at 12:24 PM, AntonioGG said:

Take advantage of the programming for some energy savings.

Like the others, I just change as needed. My sleep/wake cycles flip a bit on a weekly basis. I just turn it down when going to bed, then turn it back up when I get up. That could start at 7am and go to 2pm or start at 2am and go to 8am...I think I can at least program it for sun-tues, which are work days; it's wed-sat that sleep time fluctuates the most.

 

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57 minutes ago, El Gringo said:

And all of this is related to MTB how?

The person posting rides a mountain bike? Does it matter? Guy having troubles, wants to vent, or possibly get advice. Move along to next topic if you're not interested. Certainly would take much less effort to ignore than to make a snide comment.

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It's just that I've seen other people censored for posting content that was not MTB related. I may be a bit biased, but those of us who are building new trail, trying to get information and PSAs out - and they're needed, as it's a clown show out there - and asking for help to support new trail where we've gotten permission to build - our posts get buried in discussions about AC, handlebar length, and other stuff. You cool with that? I remember some virtue-signaling on this board how people were going to alter what they ride so as not to risk injury and interfere/add to the burden of the "front line workers" addressing COVID-19. Huh. Would we as MTBr's apply the same thought process to our own community? Yes, I know I'll get heat for equating myself with a "front line worker" but we are the front line workers for the MTB community - and WE don't have time to do tik-tok videos. We come out of pocket and out of our own time to make stuff for you to ride. Ask yourself: how much time have you invested in the trails you ride?

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