Home A/C Question

[SSuperDave]

This is the second summer in this rental house. Last year,the a/c workd great, no matter the outside temps, it would hold at whatever temp it wa set for, even with the blinds open. This year, in the heat of the day, when set at 74, the temps creep up to 77-78, even with the blinds closed. I called the leasing co, and they sent someone out who said the coils were dirty/restricted. I didn't argue, even though I'd hosed them off and nothing came out. Another guy came back a week later and did some kind of chemical cleaning, and the a/c still won't hold temps. Neither of the techs ever hooked up gauges or anything. Even though the principle is the same as auto a/c, I don't know anything abut home units, but if it were a car, I'd say it had a low charge. I'm gonna have to call them back out, its not that the temps are horrible, but its running nonstop and my a/c bill is up $100 over the last month.
Any ideas on what I should tell them, am I off base about a low charge?
Thank

 

[Shovelrick]

This is the second summer in this rental house. Last year,the a/c workd great, no matter the outside temps, it would hold at whatever temp it wa set for, even with the blinds open. This year, in the heat of the day, when set at 74, the temps creep up to 77-78, even with the blinds closed. I called the leasing co, and they sent someone out who said the coils were dirty/restricted. I didn't argue, even though I'd hosed them off and nothing came out. Another guy came back a week later and did some kind of chemical cleaning, and the a/c still won't hold temps. Neither of the techs ever hooked up gauges or anything. Even though the principle is the same as auto a/c, I don't know anything abut home units, but if it were a car, I'd say it had a low charge. I'm gonna have to call them back out, its not that the temps are horrible, but its running nonstop and my a/c bill is up $100 over the last month.
Any ideas on what I should tell them, am I off base about a low charge?
Thank

#1 thing is to put gauges on and digital gauges with temp clamps are the 100% best way to diagnose a problem, gauges (any analog) would show high head pres with a dirty outdoor coil and low suction with a dirty indoor evap coil but digital with temp clamps will help find problems, Not using Any gauges is just Stupid, like you said not knowing the refrigerant charge is just guessing it’s ok, I’m betting they never used an infarad temp gun at the vents to see if any changes in temp, my guess is they were just Handy men

 

[SSuperDave]

Thanks for that info. We'll see what they say when they come out next week.

 

[Shovelrick]

Thanks for that info. We'll see what they say when they come out next week.

I’d like to know Suction and Liquid line temps, Sub Cooling and Superheat temps and what type of metering device, TXV or TEV or just a Piston type, about 10 yrs ago I was showing a guy that worked for me full time and still does now & then how just using analog gauges don’t tell everything, we installed a new system for a fire fighter friend of mine and on start up I told Brandon to check and adjust charge if needed, he had his own analog gauges and went by pres, After running for about 20-30 min I said check it again and he said All Good we’re done, then I had him pull his gauges off and I put my digital on with T clamps, it was a Thermal Expansion Valve system and needed more refrigerant so I had already put a digital Tstat like a Turkey stat in the supply plenum above the unit ( don’t remember temp now) but after adding refrig. and getting the Subcooling temp where it needed to be it dropped the plenum temp more than 5* and that’s how you get true designed Eff out of central ac systems, sorry so long but I tried to condense it best I could