Air conditioning gaz leak, how to find ? aircon not so cool anymore, dirt ?

[grkt]

hello,

 

could it be possible that suddenly an aircon is not so cool because of dirt ? I do not really believe, but maybe i don't know ?

 

if it's a gaz leak, is there a DIY way to find it ? I don't want to just call a guy who doesn't know more than me and just tries to refill without checking anything.

 

It's a Daikin inverter.

 

Thanks.

[Jdietz]

Could be dirty

Could be leaky

Could be inefficient because it's bloody hot outside right now

[Airalee]

I’m having the same problem.  Today, had the air conditioner cleaned (completely disassembled) and it’s not blowing cold.  The landlord *supposedly* had it cleaned in December but the guys who cleaned it today said that there was no way it was cleaned that recently.  I’m in a 35sqm condo and the electric bill came in this afternoon at just over ฿4000 (I pay government rates).  Not sure if I want to call the landlord again if it is only a couple thousand baht to fix/charge/whatever.

[ukrules]

It's very hot outside and maybe the unit can't keep up, I've found that can happen when the A/C unit is not quite big enough in terms of BTUs / compressor size for the space in the room. You only notice it on the hottest days which is around about now.

 

I noticed it was a little over 31 degreees C in my bedroom late last night before I turned the AC on - that's far too hot.

 

[weegee]

I see you have found the other thread on this.....

Edited May 9, 2018 by weegee

[tropo]

1 hour ago, Airalee said:

I’m having the same problem.  Today, had the air conditioner cleaned (completely disassembled) and it’s not blowing cold.  The landlord *supposedly* had it cleaned in December but the guys who cleaned it today said that there was no way it was cleaned that recently.  I’m in a 35sqm condo and the electric bill came in this afternoon at just over ฿4000 (I pay government rates).  Not sure if I want to call the landlord again if it is only a couple thousand baht to fix/charge/whatever.

You definitely have a problem with your unit. Surely the aircon service people should have had it working right after they cleaned it, or replaced parts not working. They should have also checked the gas pressure. Your compressor could be working overtime or faulty. Is your outdoor unit sucking hot air or too close to the wall and suffocating? Touch the outdoor unit. Even if the compressor is working hard, the unit should only be warm. I had units positioned incorrectly and they were getting hot due to hot air blowback from a wall. I had to have them repositioned. One unit was too close to a wall. They don't seem to have a clue here how to correctly position these units.

[pest]

Last month we had a drop in cool temp from one ac 

After the clean it came good but it then started to get warm about 26c even though the click click was set at 23c

It was eventually discovered the cooling fan had blown causing the system to shut down on over temp 

[aussieinphuket]

for return air filter can get clogs so needs to be taken out and washed and dried or maybe the 

system needs re-gassing. ours did this just recently and all need was re-gassing.. which think

cost about thb500

[shaurene]

It certainly can. My wife was going to call the local guy because her daughters air con was not cooling very good. I pulled open the front of the wall unit and the filters were blocked with a buildup of dust ect. I lifted them out and cleaned them. The air con performed 100% better..

if it is short of gas you will normally get a leak out of the wall unit. You can also open the front take the filters out and see if there is any ice on the pipes, if so that is a sure sign of gas shortage.

 

[RichardColeman]

6 hours ago, Airalee said:

I’m in a 35sqm condo and the electric bill came in this afternoon at just over ฿4000

You must be in the house 24/7 then.  We have the air con on about  15 hours a day - 1 room - for young daughter who likes to sleep in the cold -  our bills are about 2,000 baht a month.

[shaurene]

43 minutes ago, pest said:

Last month we had a drop in cool temp from one ac 

After the clean it came good but it then started to get warm about 26c even though the click click was set at 23c

It was eventually discovered the cooling fan had blown causing the system to shut down on over temp 

 

4 hours ago, tropo said:

You definitely have a problem with your unit. Surely the aircon service people should have had it working right after they cleaned it, or replaced parts not working. They should have also checked the gas pressure. Your compressor could be working overtime or faulty. Is your outdoor unit sucking hot air or too close to the wall and suffocating? Touch the outdoor unit. Even if the compressor is working hard, the unit should only be warm. I had units positioned incorrectly and they were getting hot due to hot air blowback from a wall. I had to have them repositioned. One unit was too close to a wall. They don't seem to have a clue here how to correctly position these units.

My main Dakin in the lounge 26btu was not cooling. The guy came and replaced the Capasitor in the outdoor unit, and it worked great.It cost 1,000. Our business in New Zealand is Dehumidifiers and portable air cons. I looked at a few things on the unit but you cannot tell if the capacitor is faulty unless you connect another one to test if the unit cools again. So I brought a couple of capacitors back with me from our stock.

[shaurene]

5 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

You must be in the house 24/7 then.  We have the air con on about  15 hours a day - 1 room - for young daughter who likes to sleep in the cold -  our bills are about 2,000 baht a month.

It also depends on the size of the unit Richard.if it is faulty it can draw more power.

[Dazinoz]

4 hours ago, tropo said:

They don't seem to have a clue here how to correctly position these units.

Yes, like this.

[KittenKong]

could it be possible that suddenly an aircon is not so cool because of dirt ? I do not really believe, but maybe i don't know ?

A sudden drop in efficiency due to dirt is unlikely. A progressive drop is more likely.

But if it really is suddenly not blowing cool air at all then it seems likely that there is a fault, which could be a complete lack of gas, or a faulty thermostat, or perhaps something else.

A decent technician should be able to locate the problem easily enough. If your unit has not been fully cleaned for more than 6-12 months you could start by getting them out to do that. Once it is cleaned it will be easier to see if something else is wrong, and any decent technician will come with a meter to test to the gas pressure with.

[stevkob]

There are limited things an owner can do. Keeping your return air filter clean and making sure the outdoor unit is clear of debris ie plants. You can check your barrel fan to make sure it isn't dirty as over the years they can have a build up of dirt which disrupts the normal air flow of the fan.

Does the compressor run continuously even at cooler evening and night times? Is the indoor fan running on maximum speed all the time?  These are indicators of possible gas charge issues.

As for anything else you will need the expertise of an A/C tech. If there was a gas leak it is unlikely you could find it without specialist equipment. The tech would use gauges to check gas pressures in the system then hunt for any leaks. Sometimes a gas leak is obvious but most often they are a bitch to find and repair so you want to hope it isn't that.

 

Look there are so many variables it's best to get an A/C tech to go over it.

[Dazinoz]

5 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

A sudden drop in efficiency due to dirt is unlikely. A progressive drop is more likely.

But if it really is suddenly not blowing cool air at all then it seems likely that there is a fault, which could be a complete lack of gas, or a faulty thermostat, or perhaps something else.

A decent technician should be able to locate the problem easily enough. If your unit has not been fully cleaned for more than 6-12 months you could start by getting them out to do that. Once it is cleaned it will be easier to see if something else is wrong, and any decent technician will come with a meter to test to the gas pressure with.

Exactly. I am renting a house for just over 1 year and the bedroom AC gets a lot of use. Recently it did not seem to be cooling I had thermostat set at 18 and took ages to cool and definitely not 18 degrees. I cleaned the filters and used a spray can of cleaner to try and clean fins on indoor unit. No better. So I called agent who had husband and wife team to come check. They pulled covers off out door unit and used high pressure water blaster to clean fins. It is mounted just under the eaves (single story house) and the dirt that came out and ran down the wall was amazing. Did the same with indoor unit. Yes used high pressure blaster on indoor unit. When finished ran it and checked refrigerant pressures. All ok. Runs great now and it quite in running. 700baht.

[Dazinoz]

3 minutes ago, stevkob said:

If there was a gas leak it is unlikely you could find it without specialist equipment. The tech would use gauges to check gas pressures in the system then hunt for any leaks. Sometimes a gas leak is obvious but most often they are a bitch to find and repair so you want to hope it isn't that.

Most refrigerant leaks occur at the piping connections. Usually 2 at indoor unit and 2 at outdoor unit. Oil travels around the system with the refrigerant so a leak can often show up as oil on the joint or soaked into the insulation. I had a refrigerant leak detector I used in Australia but rarely used it on split AC systems as the oil leak usually showed me where the problem was..

[stevkob]

8 minutes ago, Dazinoz said:

Most refrigerant leaks occur at the piping connections. Usually 2 at indoor unit and 2 at outdoor unit. Oil travels around the system with the refrigerant so a leak can often show up as oil on the joint or soaked into the insulation. I had a refrigerant leak detector I used in Australia but rarely used it on split AC systems as the oil leak usually showed me where the problem was..

 

True, but to an owner this info doesn't help much. They still need a tech to repair the leak and then leak test and replenish the refrigerant.

[dave moir]

Could be the filter is blocked! I had a similar problem and cleaned the filter works great now.

[Dazinoz]

39 minutes ago, stevkob said:

 

True, but to an owner this info doesn't help much. They still need a tech to repair the leak and then leak test and replenish the refrigerant.

Yes I know. I was just saying to your comment that specialised equipment is needed where as I mostly found by oil. I didn't say he could fix it.

 

[nss70]

There are a few things you can check yourself when an air con unit drops in performance.

Clean the filters on the interior unit.

Check for accumulation of dust/dirt in the fins and also in the gutter area where the condensate is supposed to escape, also make sure the drain tube for same is clear.

On the exterior unit, is the fan coming on?

Remove anything that may be choking airflow, tree growth etc.

Under the cover are two start capacitors, one smallish  black one for the fan and a larger "can" style one for the compressor. A faulty capacitor often bulges or leaks when in a faulty state.

Any half competent service geeza will check all of these, give the system a good clean and check the gas for pressure and leaks.

[Dazinoz]

7 minutes ago, nss70 said:

Under the cover are two start capacitors, one smallish  black one for the fan and a larger "can" style one for the compressor. A faulty capacitor often bulges or leaks when in a faulty state.

His is an inverter so many capacitors under the cover.

[nss70]

Yes, all those on the main board(s) can be ignored. The start caps are bolted to the chassis somewhere as they are not board mounted. You can also follow the leads directly to/from the fan or compressor.

[stevkob]

Waste of time. Owners just have to keep the filter clean......

Everything else,,,,  call a tech.

 

[masuk]

1 hour ago, Dazinoz said:

Yes, like this.

I don't believe this!!!    Installed by a rank amateur.

[Dazinoz]

1 minute ago, masuk said:

I don't believe this!!!    Installed by a rank amateur.

When I saw the pic I thought no one could be that stupid, but....... Photo looks too permanent to be a setup but could be.

 

Also saw another where the outdoor unit was inside and indoor unit out. Maybe they wanted heating inside.

[Dazinoz]

16 minutes ago, stevkob said:

Waste of time. Owners just have to keep the filter clean......

Everything else,,,,  call a tech.

 

Problem here in Thailand is to find a good tech. Read so many forums posts about having the refrigerant topped up every time the tech came. If it needs topping up there is a leak. I had an AC in my bedroom 19 years and never needed topping up. I installed an inverter and moved the old 19 to my shed where it still ran another few years up until I left.

 

In Australia now (well when I left 5 years ago) you have to account for every gram of refrigerant. If you report you topped up refrigerant you have to show invoices where you checked for and repaired any leak. Supposedly those few grams are very important to the contributing to global warming.

 

The stupid thing was that I worked in an oil refinery and as part of one of the processes there was a huge refrigeration unit which contained 22 tonnes (yes tonnes) of R22 and they used to top up hundreds of kilos at a time.

 

[PerkinsCuthbert]

2 hours ago, Dazinoz said:

Yes, like this.

That must be nice and quiet.

[DJ54]

2 hours ago, Dazinoz said:

Yes, like this.

Really like that? The unit on the right should be outdoor

[sawadee1947]

Same with your car. Every year changing or at least cleaning the filter