So, I started to back up my files yesterday after I got home from work - NOT.  Instead the AC repairman was waiting there for me when I pulled up into my driveway.  I had called them a week or so ago to schedule an appointment to come and do maintenance on the central AC unit in my house.  I want to know in advance of any problems that might be arising, not find out the hard way.

So, he goes and starts inspecting everything and tells me the coil is full of dirt.  Yes, I know that, that's why I called your company to send you out here to clean it.  I can clean the outside coil - just spray water into it and dislodge the dirt, I don't know how they do the inside one.

Well, he cleans out both of them - and now I know it's just a matter of getting a pump spray bottle and spraying water into them and using  special brush to clean off the fins plus a mixture of some special acid to clean deep inside them - all of which, of course, should be readily available at my company's heating and cooling division - and then proceeded to have him install the new thermostat I had bought.

He informed me that his company said it would cost $105 for the labor to install it.  Well, I was a bit reluctant on that one but I had him do it anyway, it's programmable and I fully intend on learning how to program it and have the AC set in this house automatically to 78 degrees during the daytime whether anyone likes it or not.  If they want it cooler, they can shell out the money to pay for the incremental amount of electricity it costs to keep it exceedingly cool in a large house in the middle of the summer.  That company wanted a whopping $250 to install a new one using one of their units!

The dude found all kinds of problems of which he corrected excepting the biggest problem: the fan motor on the condensor outside is going out.  He knew this because his meter showed it was drawing 10.8 amps instead of the 10.4 it is supposed to be drawing.  He then informed me it would cost $800 to replace it.  8 HUNDRED DOLLARS TO REPLACE A FREAKING FAN MOTOR?  I didn't say that but it certainly went coursing through my mind.  I informed him that he would not be doing that service on my on that nicely warm day and he replied okay, but I have no crystal ball, it could go out in a week, a month, a year, who knows.

Well hopefully I have enough time to get the info off the side of the thing and go buy my own fan motor and install it - myself.  I just got done replacing a fan motor on the roof air on my RV last year.  That was a complicated mess that I was proud of myself for having been able to accomplish.  This unit has four bolts holding it to the fan shroud and undoubtedly a plug in wiring harness.  There is no way I am paying $800 to replace that thing unless it goes out and I have no choice because it will need to be done right away.  This will be consuming my thoughts and my activities for the next few days as I attempt to buy the right one and then figure out how to install the thing.

He also recommended installing a hard-start diode or whatever it's called.  It super charges the system to start it up almost instantaneously versus the slow start up it takes when the system is starting and, subsequently, uses more energy and also puts more strain on the system.  I considered it until he told me over $300 to install it.  Screw that.  I'll figure something else out, such as finding a person that does side work.

Whatever the case, yesterday's endeavors put me back $400.  That's right, a "tune-up" for $400.  That included replacing the thermostat, though, and cleaning the inside coil pack, which was not included in the ad price that I had read (which I did not know at the time, I thought it WAS the coil they were cleaning).  I opted to have it cleaned because it was so filled with dirt, it's a wonder the air was cooling at all.  I now know how to do it, very simple actually, but I needed to see a "pro" doing it first to make sure I wasn't going to be inadvertently killing the system.

And that was that.  He was here almost 3 hours, so at least I feel like I got some "quality time" out of the deal, lol.

I didn't even get started on the computer file backup much less getting formatting the computer and installing Windows, which I can't find anyway. I hid the discs somewhere.  I hid them so well, I have no idea what I did with them!  LOL!!!

Oh well.  I'll find them eventually.  Just have to think about what I would do with them and then start looking in those places.

Off to work.

ben