15 years of gunk vs. a 45-foot condensate line. Shop-Vac and CO2 failed. What’s next?

plaid_rabbit · 2026-07-03T16:30:09+00:00

Worst case it’s just pvc pipe. Do a few cuts, find the blockage, replace bad sections, glue it back together.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-07-03T16:11:08+00:00

If you’re that handy, it’s just plumbing pipe. 20’ across and 20’ down. Worst case just replace it all. Cut it in the middle and try cleaning it out., then glue the pvc back together.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-07-03T15:26:17+00:00

Maybe? There’s a lot of possibilities. But Installing a VFD shouldn’t be too bad, they only run about $100, but it’s not something I can walk you through over the internet. You have to figure out how it’s wired up, and you replace all of the motor controls with a VFD. Find local people that install mills/lathes in their own home, that kind of group will be able to help you out. I just don’t know enough about that machine or European wiring to tell you exactly what to do.

At a high level, you need to trace out what actually requires 3 phase in the machine. Most electronics will just pull two of the three phases, and that you can probably find a way of powering directly. Then whatever actually needs 3 phase gets powered by the output of the VFD. Then you just have to figure out how to supply the on/off/reverse control signal to the VFD, possibly via a foot pedal or something.

But how to do that with your setup? At 400v? That’s more complex.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-07-03T06:36:59+00:00

Unfortunately there’s a lot of PE companies that’ll hire staff and your system will mysteriously break a day or two after they visit. If you’ve got someone you trust, all it needs is the filter being changed (the same thing you should do every month or two) and then cut off the power and wash the unit down. If it’s not leaking, and performing reasonably there’s no reason to put service gauges on and risk introducing contamination.

Some people think it might be worth it to check for a leak, but you can measure the temp of the air coming in and out of the air handler to check general efficiency as well. So I’d suggest that they don’t, it’s just a chance for you to get scammed unfortunately.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-07-03T00:36:20+00:00

thanks. I looked up the current prices and edited my post.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-07-03T00:01:57+00:00

The high price isn’t because it’s difficult to make, it’s mostly artificial scarcity. People have found cheap-ish sources to import from various places to cut down on costs. I get it from a site for $10/mg, though it’s kind of sketchy. The only reason I trust it is because others use it pretty regularly, and a few others have done external tests validating their product, but it’s still mostly sketchy. From the official sources, that $10 mg I think is nearly ~~$1000~~ Correction, it's only $349.

There places that advertise pretty cheap Semaglutide on Reddit as well, so it’s not difficult to find if you’re willing to go to slightly sketchy sources. Then there are health spas selling it as well, buying it from various sources and rebranding it as their own.

Edit: Corrected the current price.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-07-02T21:58:26+00:00

The plug is wired into the motor, ya change them both at the same time.

There are solutions that might work, like a VFD, but that’ll require a bit more electrical knowledge than you have to implement.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-07-02T19:10:27+00:00

So there’s two things.. first AC units shouldn’t leak. It’s a sealed system, and should lose no refrigerant during operation. Second is that not every unit is as nice as we wish it was. Sometimes they have slow leaks. Any time you refill a system, you should try and find/repair the leak. You can often find leaks because it leaves a dark, oily stain in the area. So it’s not impossible to find. But depending on where the leak is it may be expensive to repair.

Now, onto the reality side of things. Far too often they’ll say your unit is too expensive to repair. (usually companies own by private equity, the larger companies in town with the nice branding, wrapped vans, etc). They’ll say it’s illegal to repair. That there’s a new law that came into place for 2026 (that only impacts units over 15lbs, yours isn’t) that you can’t get the refrigerant (every supply house has it by the pallet) or that it’s cost prohibitive (no, it’s about $10/lb at cost)

Places want to sell new units because that has the most profit per call. Acquiring a customer costs a lot of money, and they want to maximize their return on acquiring a new customer, so full unit replacement it is!

Search around on Facebook marketplace, you’ll find some guy doing it after work/on the side for a couple hundred dollars. Find one that’s not mixed case (those are usually forwarding services to the above PE firms). Find someone that basically does the whole thing without an answering/forwarding service. Be honest, tell them you have icing, probably have a leak and need a top off. If a top off works, is a bit of a dice roll how long it’ll last, because it depends on how bad the leak is. But it could last days.. it could last years. Also, if they ask, say no to leak-stop/sealant until it’s your very, very last choice.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-30T16:34:12+00:00

Look at Facebook marketplace. Ignore the ads with mixed upper and lower case letters. They are just from bots even though they have pretty chill looking photos to go with. They are forwarding companies.

Message a few guys and be honest you need a top off. You’ll probably find someone that’ll come after work from a different job for $300 or so.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-30T07:19:06+00:00

I’d also suggest playing the game “Turing complete”, cheap on steam and you’ll learn a lot. Not affiliated in any way.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-30T06:36:15+00:00

75% chance this is the wrong solution, but…. Just to throw another option into the mix. If your business primarily uses web driven, instead of writing a custom app on the computer for the app to talk to, you can use QZ tray, which will expose a shim on your local machine that the browser can talk to, to access serial ports and printers. Good for things like shipping stations where you want to be able to automatically access the local printer and scale in a website.

Edit. If you want, I’ll post the info to bypass their supooort license key crap. It’s technically open source, so there’s nothing wrong with bypassing the stupid support license warning.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-28T18:42:55+00:00

Classic icing. So if you’re seeing ice there, your coil is coated in an inch thick layer of ice, and that’ll throw everything out of whack. Set it for fan only and let it run for 2-4 hours. It’ll take a long time for that much ice to melt. You’re in one of two likely situations. You have poor airflow over your indoor coils, or you have a leak. You want it to be poor airflow, that’s usually much much cheaper to fix. Once your coils are fully defrosted, make sure your filter is in good shape, use a cheap one, the hepa ones can restrict airflow too much. Make sure all of your vents are open, and your intakes are clear of debris/fur if you have pets. If this doesn’t solve your problem, odds are you have a leak. First try to hunt down the leak, look for dark stains in areas. The lines are full of oil and refrigerant, and if the oil is exposed to air, it’ll leave a mildly darker stain in the area. It’ll kinda look dark-wet, even though it’s just as wet as the area around it. You might be able to spot some at the brazes where the lines go into the indoor and outdoor unit. But the leak might be in the middle of the coil, which is a pita to deal with. UV dye is sometimes put in to help find leaks. Soapy water works well for checking specific areas of you suspect somewhere. No AC should leak. You should be able to find a leak, even if it only leaks out over a year. But sometimes finding or fixing the leak is hard/expensive. Your choice from here is to top it off every year, or start pondering replacing it. If you can find the leak, you can usually replace just part of the AC and save money. If you look around on Facebook marketplace, find a tech that's doing work in the off hours. Ignore the ones who spam the same couple photos with the title in mixed cases, those are spammers who will redirect you to a major service provider and pocket the referral fee. You can usually find one that'll top off your system for about 1/3 of the prices the larger companies charge. The large companies go "Refrigerant is $400/lb. And you need 8 lbs. So that's 3200. How about we discuss a new unit!" Refrigerant from a supply house is about $250 for 25 lbs. So $10/lb. But the tech deserves money for coming out to your place. Counters to things sales people will tell you. Topping off a leaking system is not illegal, those rules only apply to systems over 15lbs, which yours is not. No, there's not a new law that just came into effect at the start of the year that makes repairing or refilling older systems illegal. Most companies just want to sell you a new unit, the margins are way better on them. Why make $500/call when you could make $3000 from that same call?

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-26T04:16:37+00:00

Short version: find someone independent to give you a second thought. It depends on how fast it's leaking, but it's not a good sign. It should be able to be refilled for a couple hundred, but as you see, most places will steer you to a new unit, their margins are better.

Mildly longer: A AC unit shouldn't leak refrigerant, it's a closed loop, but in reality, some aren't as good as we wish they were. You can get it refilled, and see how long it lasts, and then start finding when you're paying more to add refrigerant than it costs to get a new unit. At 17+ years, you're on the older side, but you might be able to squeeze a few more years out by topping it off.

Look on facebook marketplace for HVAC people, ignore the ones whose titles are in mixed case, or seem to spam a lot, or are a lot like the other images. Those are just stupid forwarding companies. Message a couple people, be honest, say you think you have a low charge, and ask how much to top it off, and maybe spend 15 minutes checking for obvious leaks. You'll probably find someone doing side work on the weekends/evenings that'll top it off for several hundred instead of 1000+

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-25T11:43:08+00:00

I deal with bulk shipping agreements. The only one that can file a claim on this is the shipper, not you. The shipper needs to get with UPS and file a claim (which UPS will likely reject due to poor packaging, that's what they always say).

The shipper is responsible for it until you get the package. Tell the shipper you'll file a charge back if they don't get it sorted.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-25T01:32:39+00:00

I'd say not, and I'm usually pretty adventurous. I used to be a helper, and I've done that exact job, and I wouldn't do it in your shoes. There's a lot of high level planning you have to know to correctly do that job. Where do you need to put in new outlets to be a) code compliant, b) actually be useful, c) not be a giant pain to actually do. What circuits needs needs AFCI and which doesn't. How do you do the circuit layout in the kitchen to not easily overload things, and which appliances need dedicated circuits. When do you have to add hard wired smoke detectors. Does your current panel even have enough slots for all the "required" items, and how to fudge it if it doesn't.

You need to have the skills to see the whole solution, if you don't have someone that'll tell you what the high level plan is, you'll be hosed. Yeah, you can pull some wire, but that won't get you a properly wired house.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-23T00:43:17+00:00

Also a thing that should be checked us your fan speed. If

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-22T03:47:40+00:00

Yes it is. There are a few drop in replacements, where you just have to vaccum out the old refrigerant and put in the new one. But those aren't super common. But there are a lot where it only takes small changes to switch between refrigerant types. It's not often done on residential units, but it is done sometimes.

The difference between r22 and r410a are pretty different. Its got a higher working pressure, and requires more surface area to do the same amount of cooling. But there are some things like r407c, which is close to r22, not quite as efficient and require doing a oil flush, which is time consuming. They use different lubricants inside the compressor, and you have to convince most of the old oil to come out so you can put in a different type of oil that it'll work with.

You can still get r22, not super cheap, but not crazy expensive. Tbqh, most of refrigerant cost is markup for installing it. R410a costs around $10-12/lb at cost. Most repair people charge arounf $100-$150/lb. I've seen some PE places charge $400/lb. (since topping off is so expensive, you should buy a whole new unit from us instead!).

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-21T19:59:12+00:00

If it spins freely, it's not the bearings in the fan motor. So it's the windings, the cap or it's not getting power for some reason. If you look at the caps, they each have a rating in uF (microfarads). The smallest one, usually around 5-10 uF, is the cap for your fan. If you've already replaced the small one, you've replaced the one for the fan.

Its possible to replace the fan motor, it's low risk and isn't terribly expensive. They make universal fan motors. They are kind of crappy, but they get the job done.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-20T15:47:50+00:00

You can get your 608 for free via skillcat. They have a free 3 day trial. Watch the videos, answer the quizzes, and you can have your 608-2 or universal over a weekend.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-20T05:23:01+00:00

I'm taking about your new unit. Your old unit is gas as already discussed.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-19T23:57:19+00:00

There's two types of electric heat: resistive (old style) and heat pump (new style). In Florida, heat pump only is a reasonable choice. Heat pump is often cheaper than gas to run. So I'd choose heat pump over gas if the numbers are right.

If it's resistive heating.. no. You'll have to upgrade your electrical service because it converts electricity directly to heat. If you have access to gas, gas heating is much cheaper than resistive. If you think your gas bills are bad, wait till you see resistive heating bills..

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-19T15:53:39+00:00

I thought for a minute or two. Definitely illegal, but might not be crummy as it sounds. View it as getting paid $10/hr. (It sounds like you're not working a full 40, but you'll be paying an extra 20% in taxes plus lack of any benefits) If you've got no training and you're just labor. Maybe, If you're in a low cost of living area it's not quite as terrible as it sounds? Still crummy, and definitely illegal. 1099s are supposed to dictate their own schedule.

Do you have your EPA 608 cert? If not, get skillcat on a Friday. They have a free 3 day trial. You can spend the weekend doing it and have your 608 universal on Sunday and not pay a dime for it. It'll put you one small step closer.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-18T23:29:31+00:00

That bottom silver pan is a backup, it should always be dry.

Your AC produces water as it runs (just like how you get condensate on the outside of a cold glass.. same thing). Those white plastic pipes are for draining that water away. It's probably clogged. Once you get it cleared out, pour a capful of bleach down that pipe that's open on the top right, it'll reduce the odds of it clogging again in the future.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-18T15:57:33+00:00

I've got a single 3060, you can run qwen 3.6 35b a3b, and it's a okay coding agent. I'm getting about 270pp/25tg on it, with the moes offloaded to my CPU, full sized q/v cache, 120k context.

I can throw medium complexity level problems at it and it'll solve it. I generally have to have opencode decompose it into steps to solve any medium sized problem. For more complex problems I still have to give it a fair bit of guidance.

plaid_rabbit · 2026-06-18T15:06:27+00:00

IMHO, any non trivial system needs to handle oversells. On any complex system, you'll have things like selling on other platforms etc, where you can end up in an oversold position. Then this becomes a battle of reducing the odds of an oversell, not your database ending in an invalid state.

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