Way OT: Air conditioner reliability?

Let me go back to a problem another guy had in his shop with wiring corroding.

MANY air conditioner evaporators fail because of corrosion between the swaged copper "U" connectors and the standing pipes in the radiator. They don't fail because of dissimilar metals corrosion -- they fail because of hydrogen sulfide gas in the air.

If you have sulfur water, or any other type of H2S source in your home (some domestic cooking/heating gasses have some H2S in them), then you can be assured that your evaporator coil won't last the full warantee life.

If you do have sulfur water, get an aerator system, and de-sulfur it far enough away from the house so that fumes don't get in.

LLoyd

--FWIW there was a recent issue of Consumers Report that had ratings of air conditioning units; not as large as the whole-house-cooling variety, but...

I originally had a 1 ton Carrier heat/cool window style unit in my shop that lasted 10 years with several repairs. When It finally died, I replaced it with a Friedrich. It is 5 years old and has never missed a beat. The design and apparent quality of construction is way above what the Carrier was. Friedrich has always had a good reputation in the deep South where I live.

Randy

I have 24k btu fedders, bought new ~1995 Used in 2 shops 95-99 sat since, cut a hole in the wall last month and heaved it up thar, works fine

I haven't heard of that, but formicary corrosion is a famous plague of air conditioning evaporators:

Well, this info is so old as to be meaningless, but I have 2 Bryant systems, built with conventional outside compressor/condensor units, and fan/evaporator units inside that look like they were made for industrial service. Bizzarely, there are no air filters on them, and they use the space above the suspended (false) ceiling as the return plenum. I've seen these evaporator units called "unit coolers" in some buildings. Anyway, a small, multi-speed, double-ended motor with two squirrel cage blowers and a short, wide core. I've never seen this type evaporator used in residential service before.

But, this system was installed in the fall of 1975, when our house was built. I had a corroded terminal burn off one of the compressors, and was miraculously able to solder a new 1/4" quick connect terminal to the remaining stud. One of the covers over the service valve corroded away, and I was able to find one in the scrap bin at a refrigeration service outlet where I bought Freon. I've had to all a little R-22 to it every couple of years, but that is the only repair work. I do flush out the condensor core every year with a garden hose, the amount of crud packed in the fins is incredible.

So, these units have been running for 30 years with the most minimal maintenance!

Umm, there's a hell of a lot of metal working in making these units, but I didn't do very much of it.

Oh, yeah, shortly after we bought the place 16 years ago, one of the condensate drain lines corroded through and started dripping on the bathroom ceiling. That should count for some actual metal that I worked, myself!

Jon

Then there are those of us who live in the oil fields...and cant escape H2S in small to large quantities year round.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

No filters? Do you have to wash out the evaporator coils periodically? I don't see how that air handler could run that many years with no filter and not plug the fins in the evaporator.

Garrett Fulton