Is that Bleach?

What? Is that a bottle of bleach in your mechanical closet?
I was watching the Weather Channel, some dude was giving tips for maintaining your air conditioner. “Just pour this bleach down your condensate drain to keep it clear”, he says. That’s fine in some parts of the country, but in Florida, where 99% of homes are built on a concrete slab it’s not. Well why not? I’m glad you asked! In most concrete slab construction your line set (copper tubing connecting the indoor and outdoor units) is run through a 4″ PVC chase under the slab along with your condensate drain. If anything happens to the condensate drain (becomes brittle and crack) your bleach will puddle in the PVC chase. Your line set will be sitting in that puddle. Bleach is highly corrosive, it will eat a hole in your copper, refrigerant will leak, the compressor will suck in the bleach and whatever else is in the chase and you are done. Time for a new piece of equipment. Think about it. Are you sure you want to pour that bleach in your drain line?

My wife comes out just yesterday, “The A/Cs leaking water!” My daughter, 15 years old says, “I’ll get it.” So what was it? You know the drain line? The one that some of you’ve been pouring bleach down. Mine was clogged. How did she fix it? Walmart sells these little 1 horse power 1 gallon shop vacs. Go outside with that little shop vac, find where the drain line empties, slide the hose over the end of the condensate drain and suck it out. Do it a couple of times in the cooling season to keep your condensate drain clear.

Maintenance

What do I need to do to maintain my equipment?
You know, that is probably the most asked question. The number one answer is always, “Keep your filter clean”. I would say that 50% of all calls, maybe more, are due to not replacing a .99 cent filter. “But I have a three-month filter!” No you don’t… there’s no such thing!
A dirty filter restricts the airflow. Low airflow can lead to equipment and health problems. Health problems? Yes, I said health problems, it shows up in the form of mold and mildew. Mold and mildew thrive in cool damp areas. The slower the air across the indoor coil the colder the air in the equipment and duct system. The equipment and duct being lower than the dew point will sweat. There you have it, cool and damp, mold and mildew heaven.
Okay, so what about the equipment. Why would I have equipment problems? The heart of our air conditioner is a vapor pump we call it the compressor. Moving through the refrigeration circuit, refrigerant turns from vapor to liquid and liquid to vapor. Low airflow across the indoor coil in the cooling season will cause the liquid refrigerant to make it’s way back to the compressor a term we call “slugging”. What does this mean? Check your filter! You’ll save your compressor! At my house I have to change my filter every two weeks in the height of the cooling season.

Welcome to Boggs Cooling & Heating

Welcome to Boggs Cooling & Heating Blog.
In this blog you’ll find All Things Air Conditioning.

What is Air Conditioning?
When people hear the word air conditioning they think cooling, but that’s not the case. Air conditioning is just that, the conditioning of the air. When our air is too hot we remove the heat. When our air is too cold we add heat. Too wet? We remove the moisture and too dry, we add moisture. Whether we use a simple oil coated throw-away filter to catch dust particles or a charcoal filter to absorb odors, don’t forget that filtration is a part of air conditioning. All these conditions are important to our comfort and health for obvious reasons. In this blog we’ll address these conditions and how to deal with them.