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Old 12-21-2017, 05:45 PM   #1
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Basement air

Hello all,

I thinks it's time to have my basement air serviced. It is working fine, both cooling and heating but I don't know it's service history so, for piece of mind, I'd like to have a technician look at it.

Does anyone have someone in the central Florida, Deland area who they'd recommend?

Thanks
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Old 12-22-2017, 05:24 AM   #2
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There's really nothing to service. If its working I would leave it alone. Our older Vectra we had, did have a air filter that you changed that was under the floor of the kitchen sink. It was a regular house furnace filter that was just replaced. Replace that and it should be good to go.
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Old 12-22-2017, 08:41 AM   #3
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I agree with that.

We did have ours serviced a couple years ago because the No. 2 compressor was not working according to the control panel. The unit had to be dropped out of the rig and serviced just like a home heat pump/AC would be. Replaced a switch of some kind and found a crack in a high pressure pipe. ABC Bus did the job for us in a couple days.

Unless you have problems like that I would leave it alone.

Our filter is under the bed on the curb side of the unit. I forget the size just now, but it is a regular home furnace type filter. I carry a spare.
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Old 12-22-2017, 09:25 PM   #4
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Thank you for your replies and I agree with your "if it isn't broke don't fix it" way of thinking.

There is one, probably minor concern I didn't mention, there is water dripping from the bottom of the unit instead of the drip tube.

I'm not sure if I can access that or not.
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Old 12-22-2017, 09:44 PM   #5
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Can you pump a little air up the drip tube and see if it opens up the flow?
If it is running alright, and mine ran 9 years before it was flooded during Harvey and when I had it serviced they said all it needed was a cleaning of the coils.
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Old 12-22-2017, 10:13 PM   #6
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Great idea Wayne, Thank you for it.

That's going to be tomorrow's post coffee task.
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Old 12-23-2017, 07:28 AM   #7
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You are welcome.

Don't forget to set the air regulator to a very low value.
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Old 01-14-2018, 12:03 PM   #8
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If you have the time to do preventive maintenance, I would suggest dropping the unit down....slide it out and with compressed air blow out all the loose debris stuck inside. The fan motor has a oil port to lubricate the shaft (mine was never oiled because it required taking the unit out....it froze and burned out the motor) I broke off the little flip cover and forced a piece of small diameter clear plastic tubing over the port and ran it up and out to where I drilled a small hole and force the tube out. Now you can get oil to the shaft bearing regularly......that shaft bearing sits on a frame brace.






After it it's all cleaned, you would swear that the a/c runs better.....I know it's a pain to do, with having to take all those screws off the duct work, but like I said, If you have time, it took me a full day.
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Old 01-14-2018, 04:00 PM   #9
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if it's working I would just change the filter. Mine quit putting out cold and could not get anyone to work on it .... RV guys said call home A/C guy, home A/C guy would not touch it because it was an "RV air conditioner". I did all I could do as an amateur handyman and then decided to just put a roof air on. Gonna remove the basement air and put in a small a/c d/c freezer in it's place. Not a big fan of the basement air but as long as it is still working ....
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Old 01-14-2018, 04:33 PM   #10
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The basement a/c unit is basically a residential unit.....most home a/c guys don't want to spend the time having to take the unit out of it's location. If you remove the unit from it's location and they don't have to do that part, they can service it. Removing it from it's location can be done by yourself....makeshift platform, couple of bottle jacks, milk crates, 2x4 feet piece of 3/4 plywood and an hour, it's out.
It just takes a little time and don't lose any screws.......a lot of screws.....once you accomplice this you will be full satisfied of the results.
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Old 01-14-2018, 07:33 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by corjaguar View Post
The basement a/c unit is basically a residential unit.....most home a/c guys don't want to spend the time having to take the unit out of it's location. If you remove the unit from it's location and they don't have to do that part, they can service it. Removing it from it's location can be done by yourself....makeshift platform, couple of bottle jacks, milk crates, 2x4 feet piece of 3/4 plywood and an hour, it's out.
It just takes a little time and don't lose any screws.......a lot of screws.....once you accomplice this you will be full satisfied of the results.
yep, read all the excellent posts and instructions on doing that and even had a son in law that could help. Called 5 different home a/c guys and offered to have it "on the bench" for them. All but one refused and the one that agreed called me back within an hour and changed his mind. Just my bad luck not being near all the ones that do come out. Instead I bought a roof unit with heat pump, used the two circuits to the basement a/c and ran them up through the duct into the interior ceiling then tunneled the wires across to the vents. One is dead ended at the bedroom vent to make it easy to throw another unit on the roof. Worked perfect and now I have an extra outside storage. Just my way of solving a huge headache on my rig.
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Old 01-15-2018, 06:20 PM   #12
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Thank you for the info CorJaguar.

I think I'll dip into the a/c unit when the outside temperature warms up a little.

I'll probably get scared when to pile of screw gets high and not make it to the end though.

I did blow some low pressure air into the drain but that didn't dislodge anything.
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Old 01-22-2018, 11:15 AM   #13
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Stu and Sue,

I've posted this info before but it is time honored so I will do it again. Thermo King is the co. that services semi and their ac systems. They are not cheap but they know what they are doing. Ran into a problem last summer and found one in Wichita KS. Broken wire. Some of our local mobile mechanics such as Horvath in Flagler Beach is a good mechanic and knows the basement air. Hope this helps

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Old 01-23-2018, 06:51 AM   #14
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Thank you Phil,

Flagler beach is about 45 minutes from here.

I'll give him a call.
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Old 01-29-2018, 12:41 PM   #15
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I didn't have any luck with his published phone number, maybe he has retired or would you happen to have saved some contact info?
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Old 02-06-2018, 12:08 PM   #16
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Stu,

Not sure where you're located, but Shelburne RV in Cleveland TN works on the basement units. You can call Steve at 423-290-8367.

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Old 02-12-2018, 06:17 PM   #17
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Originally Posted by Stu and Sue View Post
Great idea Wayne, Thank you for it.

That's going to be tomorrow's post coffee task.
I did as you suggested Wayne but I didn't get the feeling it accomplished anything BUT, many weeks later the outside temperature warmed up enough to run the A/C and YES! there was water coming out of the drain tube.

Success!
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Old 02-19-2018, 07:24 PM   #18
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If you want to pull the unit out yourself, here's a step-by-step procedure I wrote in 2008 and updated in 2013. Thru the years I've heard back from many, many forum members on their successful repairs. There are sealed ball bearing replacement for the brass ones that should be oiled yearly.

I had mobile Thermo-King guy come by my home to fix a freon leak. I had the unit out and lid off when he arrived. In 45 min he was done and the whole job labor + freon cost me $115.

Download Procedure here.

Best of luck,
Bill
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Old 02-19-2018, 08:54 PM   #19
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Thank you Bill

I think the basement air is a great system but one that requires a pro-active approach.

Your download will help a lot, I think I'm going to have fun with it.
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Old 03-21-2018, 11:24 AM   #20
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Hi, y'all. When we get our unit out and do indeed discover a bad capaciter and replace it, has anyone also installed a 5-2-1 Hardstart? These are fairly common for residential units to ease the stress on the compressor at start time.

Thanks in advance.
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