So a few years back my wife and I moved into this great apartment complex. I saw orher posts from tenants in rhis forum. So i was hoping to find some advice. Id happily pay anyone that would be willing to consult via text given my complex wont allow anyone but their ac techs touch the equipment. My uncle used to be an ac guy and when I was a teenager I used to help him. So I have tons of respect for what you guys do.
About a year ago the ac stopped cooling like it should. So they messed with it a little and got us through august 2019. Eventually april 2020 rolls around and it starts to get hot. So i submit a hest ticket. The new boss of rhe maintenance crew comes in and flips a switch to turn the fan speed up. Of course i had already worked out what a comfortable fan speed was with the previous boss. But this guy likes to throw his weight around and show everybody how “smart” he is. The humidity immeditaely goes up to upper 50s from around upper 40s to lower 50s. I asked him if he coukd switch the fan speed back and check the condenser since i told him the air just didnt seem cold enough. He said no its supposed to be on highh. I said high speed blows all sorts of dust around and pulls more dust into the bouse etc. Unfortunately at the time i didnt know about the delta t or i would have taken some readings. So eventually the realize the condenser fan motor was bad. So they put in a motor that was didferent and tried to rig it on my condensing unit. Of course the humidity stayed high. So after a month and a half of calls about the ac not being cold enough, they eventually got a fan motor for my unit. The reason this is an issue is because my unit is different than most of the other units in my apt. So they didnt want to have to buy the part they needed. But eventually they did and put the Old correct top on the unit. It still didnt cool right. The ac guy comes back and finally after almost four months turns the fan speed back down. Immediately the humidity went down back to the lower 50s or mid 50s. . Oh yeah all during this time the ac guy said that there was a different kind of refrigerant in the unit than what it was originally designed for.
The big problem now was that in order to get to around 69 degrees it woukd take the ac literally all day and all night to get down to 69 degrees. The humidity would come down too to about 49 or 49% simply because the ac was on all night. Aso i woukd literally have to turn the tstat down to low 60s to get the air to be even close to cold. In fact when i turn it down to the lower 60s i get a delta t of around 11 degrees. If i leave it on 70 the delta t is in the single digits and my sinuses and blood pressure go crazy. I know i have no allergies because i have been tested. But the low delta t seems to aggravate my blood pressure and makes me dizzy. There have been times where the ac tech was down at the condenser unit (we live on the 2nd floor) and i woukd feel great. But then he would be done and it would go back tk feeling bad. Btw during this time the system woukd go from working good to working bad. Then i woukd out in a ticket..same cycle. Usually it was over a two week period.
Eventually they changed the condenser unit outside on a friday. That night and the whole weekend the air was immaculate. In fact i kelt smelling this smell that was identical to when i clean the shower curtain with bleach. Also rhe ac cycled on and off and stated on maybe a couple of hours during rhe hittest time of rhe day. This was during a weekend where it was 105 degrees here in texas. So i thought great everything is fine. Then on monday the condensing line froze.
So they started coming and trying to fix it. The tech said it wa slow in refrigerant. But i checked and the condensing unit came charged with enough refrigerant for a 25 foot run for the condensing line. I even sprayed really really bubbly water in the copper joint where they soldered the line to the new unit since the tech said it was low on refrigernt. No bubbles. The “head of maintenance” came in and looked at it and put his head to the unit and said it was getting enough air. He didnt test anytjing. I mentioned the low delta t and he interrupted me. When i asked him to let me finish my question he said i was being “hostile.”
As it stands now, they have said they are only responsible for twenty degrees less than the outside temperature. So if it is 100 degrres outside, i shouldnt expect to be able to get my ac down to 70. But eberybody i know whho has ac can ge lt down to 70 easiky even on 100 degree days. My in laws system which is in an old house that leaks cycles normally and easily maintains a temp of 70 with a delta t of around 17 degrres. Their return temp is 70 and supply temp is 53. When it finally does get down to 70 (which takes allll day) the supply is 63 and the return is 70. They are trying to say my expectations are unrealistic. But it worked much better for two years. Whenever i bring ho the low delta t they change the subject. Also the condensing line at the air handler is about 63 degrees.
They are also saying my unit freezes uo because the fan speed is low. But it has never frozen when it is on cooling. The unit freezes when it reaches a set point and turns off. The other day it froze immediately when i switched from the heat to the ac. But they swear it freezes because of low fan speed. It has never froze up because of the low fan speed.
Can other issues cause the coul to freeze besides low refrigerant? Are there orher quesstions i should be asking? They seem mad that i am asking questions. But im a bit upset at this point since it has taken more than a year and we are no better off than we were a year ago. I also pay way too much rent to not have ny ac working. I literally paid $330 last month for electricity and used 700 more kilowatt hours last month than the previous month last year. They have tried to blame It on everything from my little doggy door or the flue in the chimney open. But we closed the flue back in may and the doggy door has been there much linger than we have been having problems. My brother in laws house which was built in the 70s almost teoce the size and has aluminum windows and a much bugger doggy door has better humidity and a much better delta t. The highest his bill gets is $220. Our apartment is on the second floor.
Oh yes and this is weird the tstat is always lower sometimes 8 or 9 degrees lower than the temp in the room on thermometers i have....except when the set point on the tstat gets set to 75 and the temp comes up. They have changed the tstat once since may and twoce since i have lived here. I thought we woukd get some relief when it got cold. But the day before yesterday it got down to 55 and the heater had the humidity pretty high.
About a year ago the ac stopped cooling like it should. So they messed with it a little and got us through august 2019. Eventually april 2020 rolls around and it starts to get hot. So i submit a hest ticket. The new boss of rhe maintenance crew comes in and flips a switch to turn the fan speed up. Of course i had already worked out what a comfortable fan speed was with the previous boss. But this guy likes to throw his weight around and show everybody how “smart” he is. The humidity immeditaely goes up to upper 50s from around upper 40s to lower 50s. I asked him if he coukd switch the fan speed back and check the condenser since i told him the air just didnt seem cold enough. He said no its supposed to be on highh. I said high speed blows all sorts of dust around and pulls more dust into the bouse etc. Unfortunately at the time i didnt know about the delta t or i would have taken some readings. So eventually the realize the condenser fan motor was bad. So they put in a motor that was didferent and tried to rig it on my condensing unit. Of course the humidity stayed high. So after a month and a half of calls about the ac not being cold enough, they eventually got a fan motor for my unit. The reason this is an issue is because my unit is different than most of the other units in my apt. So they didnt want to have to buy the part they needed. But eventually they did and put the Old correct top on the unit. It still didnt cool right. The ac guy comes back and finally after almost four months turns the fan speed back down. Immediately the humidity went down back to the lower 50s or mid 50s. . Oh yeah all during this time the ac guy said that there was a different kind of refrigerant in the unit than what it was originally designed for.
The big problem now was that in order to get to around 69 degrees it woukd take the ac literally all day and all night to get down to 69 degrees. The humidity would come down too to about 49 or 49% simply because the ac was on all night. Aso i woukd literally have to turn the tstat down to low 60s to get the air to be even close to cold. In fact when i turn it down to the lower 60s i get a delta t of around 11 degrees. If i leave it on 70 the delta t is in the single digits and my sinuses and blood pressure go crazy. I know i have no allergies because i have been tested. But the low delta t seems to aggravate my blood pressure and makes me dizzy. There have been times where the ac tech was down at the condenser unit (we live on the 2nd floor) and i woukd feel great. But then he would be done and it would go back tk feeling bad. Btw during this time the system woukd go from working good to working bad. Then i woukd out in a ticket..same cycle. Usually it was over a two week period.
Eventually they changed the condenser unit outside on a friday. That night and the whole weekend the air was immaculate. In fact i kelt smelling this smell that was identical to when i clean the shower curtain with bleach. Also rhe ac cycled on and off and stated on maybe a couple of hours during rhe hittest time of rhe day. This was during a weekend where it was 105 degrees here in texas. So i thought great everything is fine. Then on monday the condensing line froze.
So they started coming and trying to fix it. The tech said it wa slow in refrigerant. But i checked and the condensing unit came charged with enough refrigerant for a 25 foot run for the condensing line. I even sprayed really really bubbly water in the copper joint where they soldered the line to the new unit since the tech said it was low on refrigernt. No bubbles. The “head of maintenance” came in and looked at it and put his head to the unit and said it was getting enough air. He didnt test anytjing. I mentioned the low delta t and he interrupted me. When i asked him to let me finish my question he said i was being “hostile.”
As it stands now, they have said they are only responsible for twenty degrees less than the outside temperature. So if it is 100 degrres outside, i shouldnt expect to be able to get my ac down to 70. But eberybody i know whho has ac can ge lt down to 70 easiky even on 100 degree days. My in laws system which is in an old house that leaks cycles normally and easily maintains a temp of 70 with a delta t of around 17 degrres. Their return temp is 70 and supply temp is 53. When it finally does get down to 70 (which takes allll day) the supply is 63 and the return is 70. They are trying to say my expectations are unrealistic. But it worked much better for two years. Whenever i bring ho the low delta t they change the subject. Also the condensing line at the air handler is about 63 degrees.
They are also saying my unit freezes uo because the fan speed is low. But it has never frozen when it is on cooling. The unit freezes when it reaches a set point and turns off. The other day it froze immediately when i switched from the heat to the ac. But they swear it freezes because of low fan speed. It has never froze up because of the low fan speed.
Can other issues cause the coul to freeze besides low refrigerant? Are there orher quesstions i should be asking? They seem mad that i am asking questions. But im a bit upset at this point since it has taken more than a year and we are no better off than we were a year ago. I also pay way too much rent to not have ny ac working. I literally paid $330 last month for electricity and used 700 more kilowatt hours last month than the previous month last year. They have tried to blame It on everything from my little doggy door or the flue in the chimney open. But we closed the flue back in may and the doggy door has been there much linger than we have been having problems. My brother in laws house which was built in the 70s almost teoce the size and has aluminum windows and a much bugger doggy door has better humidity and a much better delta t. The highest his bill gets is $220. Our apartment is on the second floor.
Oh yes and this is weird the tstat is always lower sometimes 8 or 9 degrees lower than the temp in the room on thermometers i have....except when the set point on the tstat gets set to 75 and the temp comes up. They have changed the tstat once since may and twoce since i have lived here. I thought we woukd get some relief when it got cold. But the day before yesterday it got down to 55 and the heater had the humidity pretty high.
