I have an Alabama home that is around 1,100sqft, and I have a 2.5 ton system with 7 registers. I was quoted $4,975 for ductwork replacement and was wondering if that was a fair price. They said it would be a metal trunk line (surrounded by insulation) with flex supply runs

I just want to thank everyone in this group so much! Because of your responses I hope I made the right move in firing the company I had hired to replace our AC/furnace. I literally thought this wooden stand was just a platform for the furnace and water heater. And I truly think if I hadn't taken the initiative to question the integrity of the wood this company would have just slapped a new furnace on it and called it a day. My husband and I worked for 2 days to try to improve what I learned from here was the return plenum. It was in bad shape, indications of moisture (taken care of) and deterioration and sawdust everywhere. Upon going to an AC supply store for some duct board to replace what was lining the interior, the sales person provided me with a lot of insight about plenums in general advising that his company would install a metal plenum within the wooden platform to create a much safer and air tight solution. And they would do it for less expensive given my profession as a real estate agent. That's where my concern was. I paid $5500 for this 5 ton 15.3 Seer2 install. Granted it was an AC Pro which I know is bottom of the line but appeared comparable to the Goodman the other company was going to install and the rep seemed like a fan of them for parts and warranty purposes (they also provide a 5 year warranty on labor). We had also already demoed and removed the old system entirely so clean slate for them. But my question is...was that too cheap? Does this all look right? They are coming back tomorrow to look at installing a C wire to my Nest thermostat and doing the final inspection with the county. They are also going to measure to put sheet metal down over the top (which will be an additional expense). The sales rep had said they were going to install all rigid duct venting based on everyone's comments on my previous post but that the weight would mean it would probably need to be strapped to the ceiling but apparently his crew didn't get that memo as it appears to be flex but it is double wall. And I'm not a fan of the pump thingie but know it is needed unless husband and I can open up the wall and run some piping lower. But is the setup okay? Any questions or concerns I should have for them tomorrow? Thanks!

Title, mainly just curious if it's plug and play or if something more complicated that I'm not aware of is required.

The advice here has been amazing and I'm looking for feedback for this latest quote. Replacing a current aging 3 ton AC and 80% efficiency furnace. This comes from a big local company that has been in business for many years. They have a job shortage next week so they appear to be aggressive with their incentives if I "act now". It's the lowest quote out of 5 companies so far. Have 2 more coming tomorrow then we make a decision. $13,500 is the price after all incentives, rebates, tax credit.

This includes expanding a couple return registers on our main floor, adding a return in the basement, as well as replacing the return duct near the furnace with a bigger option. They are also replacing our current steam AprilAire humidifier with a new unit. This is a 410a refrigerant system I believe.

Side question: Is it sound logic to go with a more basic 80/1-stage furnace since we will be using the cold climate heat pump for most of the year? Going with a higher efficiency furnace seems pointless if we only need it on the coldest days.

Hey all — following up on a situation I posted about earlier. I hired a contractor to install a ductless mini-split system in my NYC apartment. The signed estimate included specific equipment — larger-capacity indoor units and a 30K Hyper Heat outdoor condenser.

After installation, I noticed performance issues and checked the units — turns out they installed smaller units than quoted, across the board. No one notified me of any changes in advance. The units aren’t wildly underpowered, but we got a 12K instead of an 18K in the living room, a 6K instead of a 9K in the front bedroom, and a 24K outdoor unit instead of the quoted 30K — so everything came in smaller than expected.

When I raised it, the contractor apologized and offered to replace all the equipment at their cost, including the outdoor unit and patching/painting. However, they now say I’d have to be present during the entire reinstall (3–4 business days), and I’d need to hire my own electrician for related work.

I’ve asked for a clear technical explanation about why the smaller units were installed — they’ve vaguely mentioned “rebate and performance reasons,” but it hasn’t been well explained. I’m open to keeping the current setup if it’s truly the best fit — but I’d expect a discount to reflect the equipment downgrade and all the back and forth.

What would you do? • Accept the current setup but ask for a discount? • Push for the reinstall, even with the disruption/electrician cost? • Demand a clearer explanation or 3rd-party load calc first?

Appreciate any thoughts — trying to do the reasonable thing here, just don’t want to get shortchanged!

15 Year old system. Occasionally the system freezes up. The picture with the frozen pipe was taken a few months back when it last completely froze. Regularly shows some ice on the pipe though. The upstairs struggles to cool down.

Tech says this is not repairable and that I need a new system. He says that if he cleans the blower, the motor will likely die because of the sudden increase in rotation speed on an old motor. He says he can't clean the evaporator coil. Apparently, the insulation is also getting sucked into the blower (seems like that should be fixable)

Report below says 11, but house was built 15 years ago so I think it is wrong.

His report:

MAINTENANCE REPORT

•Routine Maintenance on HVAC System•

Make: Carrier
Type: Heat Pump
Age: 11
Condition: Fail

Verified HVAC System is Operating Within Manufacture Specifications at this time.

Verified Air Drive Wheel and Evaporator Coil is Free of Excessive Build up.

Tasks Performed
• Flush/Treat Drain Line
• Inspect Filter & Cleanliness of System
• Inspect Duct System & Insulation
• Inspect Indoor Air Handler
• Inspect/Wash Outdoor Condenser

Findings:
-Upon arrival found evaporator coil at least 50% restricted. Additionally, blower wheel is also very dirty and impacting airflow. Lastly, insulation on blower wheel panel was covering up most airflow in air handler. All these factors were simulating a low refrigerant level and eventually causing system to freeze. Due to age and condition of system, recommend system upgrade options. Went over options with customer and will follow up.
-Customer notated that upstairs bedroom is warmer. Found vent 80% closed. Opened up vent to allow more airflow. Vent is positioned at entry way of room which is close to the return of system. Air may be prematurely getting sucked back into return and now cooling room effectively. Sized ductwork and ductwork seems ok, but recommended we reposition the vent in room to allow cool air to cover room better and have a return in place of current supply vent.

Had a residential furnace recently replaced and it’s been running fine all winter. I did not have the AC replaced with the furnace. Turned the AC on for the first time this year and there was a very loud rumbling noise. Went back to heat mode and no problem. Any thoughts what the problem could be?

I'm retired and just bought my last house in Albuquerque, NM. It has an American Standard, September 2005, natural gas, for heat and air on the roof of the house. The heat works. Not sure about the AC until it gets hot this summer.

House is 2,300 sf. Built in 1984. The house has paid for solar $11/mo and natural gas $90+/mo (dryer, fireplace, cook top, oven and HVAC). ($$ per owner in the house info binder.)

I got the attached estimate last week. It doesn't include the cost of a crane and $1,000 something for the duct work connector (forgot the exact name).

Should I go ahead and replace a 20 yr old unit? What other brands should I get quotes on? Should I make sure I get a heat pump? I had to look up what an Inverter was and it sounds like a good idea so is this the future?

I have 2 reasons to replace it now. One, I won't have to wait until it breaks to do it and two, surely 20 years makes a difference in efficiency. I wouldn't mind lower energy bills and I'll look at the cost as just spending more on the house price.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Do I need to seal the air return in my house better? Today I was remodeling my bathroom and noticed through a hole in the wall that I could see the air filter that I changed a few hours earlier. I didn’t notice there are huge gaps from the grate on the wall in the living room into the return air box. Can I fix this?

This is a very small house built originally 1901, there’s an extension on the first floor. Second floor has its own split unit.

I believe it’s problematic because as I was sanding in the bathroom (directly to the right of this air return), the a/c kicked on and I could feel air coming through the cracks in the corners of my bathroom walls and the hole in my wall I’m fixing. What do I do?

Puddles to be exact

I've been living in my house for 4 years now, and I only just realized the filter is on the output end of the furnace.

The previous owner installed an Aprilaire 2400 whole house filter.

I was under the impression the air went:

cold air returns -> filter -> furance -> rest of the house, however, I discovered that it actually goes cold air return -> furnace -> filter -> rest of the house.

There's no filters on the intakes of the cold air returns (and they're not designed to have filters), and there's no filter (or a place for a filter) on the the air input side of the furnace.

Would it be a better idea to add a filter, or move the Aprilaire filter system?

Would it be worth trying to clean the inside the furnace? is that even a thing?

I have a set of daikin outdoor units at a site I manage and am really hitting a wall in getting these troubleshoot by are hvac techs. Originally we had 3 units installed with one thermostat, with the plans calling for the 3 to be ran as one. Since then 1 unit has been removed and we now have two thermostats running to each single ceiling unit. Both ceiling units have a thermostat controller brc1e73 wired to it with an airzoneunit landing on the same location in the indoor units. The airzone is then connected to a niagara jace to give read only information. Both these units have a wire ran from both top and bottom of the outdoor units to each other on the f1/f2 inputs.as well as a wire ran to their indoor ceiling unit. The thermostat displays the model of the indoor unit FCQ42PAVJU but for outdoor it says A8E/005. Also when you look at the readouts for Th1 etc it has every unit identified by unit No 0. Units were running good and then the airzone was installed to relay info to the jace then we started having issues. We have gotten various codes such as L5, U4-01, E7, and U2. Also each wall thermostat dispatch master controlled but will not letting you alter this following the manual. Now we have an outdoor unit that is not running and new compressor and PCB board is on the way. However the remaining unit is hardly running and nowhere close to making temperature. By hardly running i mean it wouldn't even budge a leaf dropped in front of the outdoor fan. My question is since those units are wired together outdoors and reading as point zero in the thermostat could this be causing are last unit to not run correctly as it is looking for the other offline units? Is our other unit just damaged? I'm told by the techs that it is an inverter fan so it will jump up in speed as it needs it, however over a week of it barely limping along seems like it would increase in speed. Any help to find the right direction is appreciated. Thanks

Good Evening All,

Looking for advice on how this quote looks. Looking to replace furnace, add in electric for outside condenser (including condenser and pad), as well as replace current 275 gal oil tank.

Thank you in advanced!

Any idea where I'd be able to find a blower motor for my unit? Panel on the Armstrong SX Ultra 80 says 80,000 btu/hr.

Model: GHJ100D20-1B

This is our main return vent. US, home built in 2007 I think. We are currently trying to find the source of mold we’ve found on some windows (at least one in every room) and we know we have some moisture-damaged drywall in our bedroom so we believe that’s likely the source. Pros coming soon. Anyway, opened up the return vent and found this. Never occurred to me whether this insulation should be exposed or not, but also…the white-ish particles that had me take a second look… 👀

My AC stopped working and i got a new system installed. This sound comes from my air handler as it starts up. Ive never heard anything like it anywhere else ive lived. Is it normal?

I've been living in an apartment for over five years, and every season change, this seems to happen, but especially when the temperatures rise and I switch over to the AC.

For about three days now (temps in the high 80s outside), I've had thermostat set to around 70.

Unit cools entire apartment, but HEAVILY dripping, I'd say pouring from the inside unit. It's a very old unit from what I can tell and has various tubes going from unit to floor, in what I guess is a pipe to the outside. I can literally hear rushing water flowing into the tube.

Past years, this has meant the coils were icing over, like solid ice. So maintenance would come and tell me to turn off unit, set fan to ON and let the coils de-ice. That has worked in the past, but the unit wasn't cooling indoors then.

This latest instance, the unit is cooling, but constantly dripping, draining water. The coils aren't iced. If I remove the air filter (which is constantly wet), then the water pours from the coils directly onto the floor.

If I run the fan ON instead of AUTO, it seems to solve the problem, but I don't want to think of running the fan ON all summer.

Could it be the tubing is clogged somehow or that it's not aligned inside the unit?

It's very frustrating to think all the water constantly dripping onto the floor. At some point, if not solved, I'd imagine the flooring will rot or sag and that will cause another problem.

I just had the expansion tank replaced because it was full and water was spewing out of the overflow pipe onto the boiler room. A few days after the mechanic came I noticed the pressure gauge is beyond the red high pressure indicator. Should I be concerned? Will this lead to the expansion tank filling up again? Thanks for any advice.

Noticed that the upstairs of my home was warmer than expected. Thermostat was set on 74°F but the temp read 76°. Went outside to clean off the unit of pollen and noticed some frost build-up. Went inside to the unit to check things out and noticed more frost on the inside lines. I’m guessing a coolant leak, but what should that typically cost to repair? Do I need a full new unit inside/out to get through the upcoming warm weather? I change the filters Regularly- last filer change was 3/29/25. Any advice welcome as I was quoted $10,000 for a new unit replacement…

I was given 2 filters for my ac. One is 24 by 24 so I cut it down to 12 x 24 to fit. The other well it's 16 x 24 and it's 2.5 in thick lol after I cut the one down and replaced the original cheap one, is it ok to put the other inside the square return vent. Or is that gonna be too much or any ideas for the big one that would will be ok? Trying to reduce the dust in my home a bit before it gets outta control this spring so trying ways to go with an air purifier

The bathroom is 5×8 with the shower being 5×4. The bathroom fan is a Panasonic Whisper Remodel.

Photo attached are of the bathroom itself and one with a curtain representing what will at some point be glass with an open entry.

Currently, when this shower is run, the condensation builds up very fast. The fan I have had 80-110 CFM but neither of those settings seem to slow down the condensation.

I am curious what I can do. Should I fully enclosed the shower? Is there something I'm doing personally that could be causing this?

Any help is appreciated. If this isn't the best place for this post I will remove it but would appreciate guidance on what would be the most appropriate. Thank you.

Just for some context, I've been out of the HVAC field for a bit. I still do side work for friends/family, but I otherwise have a little over a year of company-official experience. I've learned a whole lot from my previous employer with very knowledgable techs, and am able to hold my own by myself. However, I've only come across inverter-driven units a handful of times (not including ductless mini-splits). I've done well, but my knowledge of variable speed equipment is still minimal.

I've found several YouTube channels like AC Service Tech, and others that touch on standard heat pumps/furnace equipment, but I can't seem to find anything in that similar category that goes over inverter units. Can anyone recommend any resources whether it be books, or Youtube Channels that go over them in detail?

We have lived in our new build for just over a year. In January, the blower fan part of our air handler started making a really loud rumbling noise. Almost sounds like a car playing music outside of your house and you can hear the thumping of the bass. It is driving me nuts. No one else in the house is bothered by it. We have taken the panel off the blower area and it all seems fine. Can the air being pulled through by the blower really flex the metal enough to send this thumping reverberation throughout the house? Please help, I cannot sleep 😅 I’m just confused why it suddenly got so bad when this wasn’t a problem before January.

I was wondering what these white spots and the black lines could be. I believe the white spots have appeared within the last week. I have a dehumidifier that keeps the area under 50% humidity and has a drain line to the outside. The temp is set to be 65 at night with it jumping to 70 in the morning and 75 mid day, then down to 70 around dinner time, then 65 for the night.

Unit passed away in September, was told to wait until spring. We're signing for a Carrier 5T dual stage HP+multi stage furnace for $14k, replacing a 5T r22. We are keeping the gas heat section. Please let us know this is a decent deal, or if we should change anything? Thanks!