Home Improvement

C

Captain Suave

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lurkingdirk said:
I've got a weird one. One of my irrigation systems has one zone that isn't performing. It's for my yard, and the other 9 zones function fine, but the one has a block or something, so the sprinkler heads don't pop fully up, and have about 25% of the amount of water that should be coming out. I know sprinkler systems aren't hard, but does anyone have an idiot proof way of diagnosing this to find out where the blockage is without digging everything up? I don't want to just blast air through the line in case I just move the block, but I don't know a better way to fix it.
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You've checked the zone valve for debris, malfunctioning solenoid, or voltage/wiring problem?
 
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Lanx

Lanx

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lurkingdirk said:
Nope, nothing of the sort. There's also no water showing up anywhere. That was my first thought, too. Just can't find it.
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cap off the sprinkler heads and turn it on

you'll find the leak eventually

i had one, and eventually after 20mins my sidewalk started gurgling
 
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Rais

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So moved into my home in Illinois back in February. Lost out on 12 bids and on the 13th we finally got into at least a 10-year house. The school district is one of the best in the country and the city is pretty nice. I got a home warranty- yes I know they can be dickheads draw things out etc, but the ac and furnace are 28 years old (I work in the insurance world and know how much a pain in the ass it is). As far as I can tell the ac has only been hosed off and it has freon that they don't even make any longer and can only be recovered and sold after getting it from older AC units.

So sooner than later or so we think the ac will die. It has all original parts and will need to be replaced and say 95% chance the home warranty will do it. Even if it's a Seer 13 it's going to be so much more efficient than what we have now. New furnace and ac run around 11k for Seer 16/125k 2-stage furnace. I handle all the kid bills and that stuff and the wife does the power/gas food. Come to find out monthly we are around 450 for power and 50 for gas during the summer/ 400 for power and 140 for gas during the winter ( only know for sure feb-April).


I would say we could get a good setup for the 11k with 0 interest for 2 years, but it's hard to counter what the wife says and just wait. This fucking system has been fucking over the previous original owner for 29 years with "it'll die soon".

We have a 4-year-old and a kid on the way at the start of the year. We are financially ok, but I finally have a hard time debating on what to do. We will have a lull for 1 1/2-2 months of no ac and heat due to weather.

Advice?
 
C

Captain Suave

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$400/mo electricity in the winter? Are you running a crypto farm or something?


Rais said:
So sooner than later or so we think the ac will die. It has all original parts and will need to be replaced and say 95% chance the home warranty will do it.

Advice?
Click to expand...

I would in no way advise you to encourage your AC to irreparably break.
 
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Thaloc

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Rais said:
So moved into my home in Illinois back in February. Lost out on 12 bids and on the 13th we finally got into at least a 10-year house. The school district is one of the best in the country and the city is pretty nice. I got a home warranty- yes I know they can be dickheads draw things out etc, but the ac and furnace are 28 years old (I work in the insurance world and know how much a pain in the ass it is). As far as I can tell the ac has only been hosed off and it has freon that they don't even make any longer and can only be recovered and sold after getting it from older AC units.

So sooner than later or so we think the ac will die. It has all original parts and will need to be replaced and say 95% chance the home warranty will do it. Even if it's a Seer 13 it's going to be so much more efficient than what we have now. New furnace and ac run around 11k for Seer 16/125k 2-stage furnace. I handle all the kid bills and that stuff and the wife does the power/gas food. Come to find out monthly we are around 450 for power and 50 for gas during the summer/ 400 for power and 140 for gas during the winter ( only know for sure feb-April).


I would say we could get a good setup for the 11k with 0 interest for 2 years, but it's hard to counter what the wife says and just wait. This fucking system has been fucking over the previous original owner for 29 years with "it'll die soon".

We have a 4-year-old and a kid on the way at the start of the year. We are financially ok, but I finally have a hard time debating on what to do. We will have a lull for 1 1/2-2 months of no ac and heat due to weather.

Advice?
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Home warranty cos are a scam. I would advise you to find a local company to replace the equipment, ask your friends or neighbors who they would recommend.
Any system you can buy today will save you $ in operating costs.
That electric bill is huge, either you have a very high electric rate or something is amiss.
 
C

Captain Suave

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Thaloc said:
That electric bill is huge, either you have a very high electric rate or something is amiss.
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I live in CA and have shit-tier electric rates, on par with New England and better only than Hawaii and Alaska. My bill only approaches $400 in July when the AC is on 24/7 and it's 95-100 every day, and I'm cooling a 2200 sq ft house with bad insulation (I'm fixing that). $400 in IL is bananas. The average electric rate there is half mine.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Captain Suave said:
I would in no way advise you to encourage your AC to irreparably break.
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Electric Motors (including dynamos) are more restricted than the targets so far discussed. They cannot be sabotaged easily or without risk of injury by unskilled persons who may otherwise have good opportunities for destruction.
    1. Set the rheostat to a high point of resistance in all types of electric motors. They will overheat and catch fire.
    2. Adjust the overload relay to a very high value beyond the capacity of the motor. Then overload the motor to a point where it will overheat and break down.
    3. Remember that dust, dirt, and moisture are enemies of electrical equipment. Spill dust and dirt onto the points where the wires in electric motors connect with terminals, and onto insulating parts. Inefficient transmission of current and, in some cases, short circuits will result. Wet generator motors to produce short circuits.
    4. “Accidentally” bruise the insulation on wire, loosen nuts on connections, make faulty splices and faulty connections in wiring, to waste electric current and reduce the power of electric motors, the power output or cause short circuiting in direct-current motors: Loosen or remove commutator holding rings.
    5. Sprinkle carbon, graphite, or metal dust on commutators. Put a little grease or oil at the contact points of commutators. Where commutator bars are close together bridge the gaps between them with metal dust, or sawtooth their edges with a chisel so that the teeth on adjoining bars meet or nearly meet and current can pass from one to the other.
    6. Put a piece of finely grained emery paper half the size of a postage stamp in a place where it will wear away rotating brushes. The emery paper and the motor will be destroyed in the resulting fire.
    7. Sprinkle carbon, graphite or metal dust on slip-rings so that the current will leak or short circuits will occur. When a motor is idle, nick the slip-rings with a chisel.
    8. Cause motor stoppage or inefficiency by applying dust mixed with grease to the face of the armature so that it will not make proper contact.
    9. To overheat electric motors, mix sand with heavy grease and smear it between the stator and rotor, or wedge thin metal pieces between them. To prevent the efficient generation of current, put floor sweepings, oil, tar, or paint between them.
    10. In motors using three-phase current, deeply nick one of the lead-in wires with a knife or file when the machine is at rest, or replace one of the three fuses with a blown-out fuse. In the first case, the motor will stop after running awhile, and in the second, it will not start.
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R

Rais

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In some context, it's about 5600 sq feet, and the ac just can't keep up at all anyway and will run nonstop. Yeah, I about lost it when I saw the 400+ for the past 6 months of bills.
Thanks for the ideas and advice. In the meantime, I now get to try and get fox marking off my back door. So nasty.
 
Lanx

Lanx

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Rais said:
In some context, it's about 5600 sq feet, and the ac just can't keep up at all anyway and will run nonstop. Yeah, I about lost it when I saw the 400+ for the past 6 months of bills.
Thanks for the ideas and advice. In the meantime, I now get to try and get fox marking off my back door. So nasty.
Click to expand...
you only have 1 ac for that big of a house?
 
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Rais

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Yeah. It’s a 4 ton. Everyone keeps saying a 4 ton is what’s needed, but 28ish year old ac just can’t keep it up
 
C

Captain Suave

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Rais said:
Yeah. It’s a 4 ton. Everyone keeps saying a 4 ton is what’s needed, but 28ish year old ac just can’t keep it up
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That seems low by quite a lot. HVAC vendors don't even list single units that can cool a 5600 square foot house. I have a 4-ton for a 2200 sq ft place (Zone 2).

1694375868326.png


 
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R

Rais

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Hmm I wonder if it’s because 1600sq foot of it is the basement? Well this is a good learning curve experience.
 
ToeMissile

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Often in larger homes there will be multiple units, especially for different floors
 
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Falstaff

Falstaff

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Rais where do you live? West or north? I could recommend some companies as long as you aren’t north shore.
 
yimmien

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I was hoping the same thing you are. Very unlikely the home warranty co will replace the whole thing though. They will replace individual parts over and over including the compressor or coils. They can replace the parts that use the old freon and switch to new freon. We have ours out at least twice a year I bet.
 
Kajiimagi

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ToeMissile said:
Often in larger homes there will be multiple units, especially for different floors
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I'm guessing its the age of the home. Split AC systems for large homes isn't something I remember seeing when I started in the electrical trade. Didn't do a lot of homes though bth.
 
Palum

Palum

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Kajiimagi said:
I'm guessing its the age of the home. Split AC systems for large homes isn't something I remember seeing when I started in the electrical trade. Didn't do a lot of homes though bth.
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I've always seen two smaller units for 2 story houses. I assume there's some sort of distribution manifold you need to break it into zones otherwise? At least with most older single speed fan units you can't really control anything except cycle time. Without separating them downstairs gets chilly if the thermostat is upstairs.
 
Kajiimagi

Kajiimagi

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Palum said:
I've always seen two smaller units for 2 story houses. I assume there's some sort of distribution manifold you need to break it into zones otherwise? At least with most older single speed fan units you can't really control anything except cycle time. Without separating them downstairs gets chilly if the thermostat is upstairs.
Click to expand...
And I've lived in multiple 2 story house/apartments/condos in the US South (Humidity is not your friend) that only had 1 AC unit. In fact, I've never had 2 units that one of them wasn't sticking out a window
 
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