HOLY REDNECK INGENUITY BATMAN
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- I forgot about this footage and found it while organizing my hard drive, this was a funny one to say the least.
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I'm not an ac tech, but I'm a computer engineer, and that's a "nope, if I touch it, I'll own it" kinda thing.
Absolutely Positively!
So true
that right there is what we call a “legacy system”. no one touches it, no one knows how it works. all we know is that flipping one switch takes down all of sales.
good luck.
Definitely something i would rig up for myself, but would refuse to work on if it was someone elses
Ha ha, you seen the "window shakers" converted with ducting for cooling tents in deserts. The even have barrow wheels and handles for easy moving.....
Growing up we had that same ac unit in our kitchen window and it was a 220 40 amp dont ask all i know it cooled the house and froze up on muggy days pain in the but it was
This can’t be a real service call.
I assume that California Law doesn’t incorporate CO testing when it comes to cracked HX’s. Here in Melbourne, Australia if the CO reading is 0, decommissioning is not required…
Talking about junk and mabeya slum lord
I would be ashamed wiring things up like that. I mean WTF? But at least they installed a dome cam to watch that mess on a daily basis.
Hvacr India style 😂
Today on "Just Called In": customer says the air cooling doesn't work properly and the heating smell funny and dizzy...
Air conditioners need at least 3 minutes after you turn it off for the head pressure to bleed off through the capillary tubes. It will trip off with too much hwad pressure. I've worked HVAC more than 40 years, one of the first things I learned.
This is like the most sketchy thing i have ever seen. And stuff like this is being done in a commercial space? crazy stuff...
This actually decntly common in my area
Seen worse
If it’s commercial the odds of it being sketchy is higher lol
t. worked residential, now working commercial
I saw one guy wire up a 120v contactor coil for a compressor directly up to the power supply 🔥
🇺🇸❄️👍💪
Was in the service business for 35 years. When I ran into situations like this I said no thankyou and walked away. The liability is too great to deal with nonsense like this.
Looks like someone retrofitted the HVAC equipment in the 1970s onto a building that pre-dates WWII.
And, it does not appear to have been maintained since...
That was my first take as well. That fan looks like it's been there since 1950. (not sure when consumer safety laws made those things illegal.)
@@jfbeam I remember seeing fans like that for sale into the 80s. They changed the cages to better protect fingers somewhere before 1990 as I recall.
I was an electrician for 40 years and the minute I saw that mess I would have turned around and went home. Too many things wrong with some of the electrical systems and it is a hazard!!
That just means your scared to diagnose.
Agreed, that’s a bottomless pit of liability
Holly hell how old is this building the AC looks like it’s been messed with a lot over the years lots of bandaids. The heater on the roof looks ancient going off the burn marks from the exhaust it’s been there awhile. Everything looks like a fire hazard.
Your liability insurance cannot handle this ! RUN !
I lived in a single wide trailer growing up, we cooled the entire house with a massive window unit my grandfather bought used, that thing took up the entire window and had motorized oscillating fins inside the housing. It lasted like 10 years until mom and dad bought a new house with central air. The central unit died after a few years, and we broke out the old window unit and it worked through the summer.
Also I remember my father and grandfather sternly telling me to never restart a window unit immediately after it is shut off, it will damage the compressor. Summer storms and power flickers were a race to the ac unit.
Old A/C units used to have a message on the front panel : "Wait 2 minutes before restarting". Same applied for mucking with the temp knob.
I owned a house (built in the 50's) that, when we bought it, had a similar 220V a/c in a "window" (it was a hole through the wall to the garage) that was used to cool the living room. It had a standard 120V plug going into a standard 120V outlet, but the second outlet was taped-off. At the panel it was wired into two physically separate breakers to get the 220 volts to that 120V outlet. As a bonus, it was wired with a heavy duty 220V *flexible* cord (ie stranded wire) through the attic, and the entire length of wires in the cord was dried and cracked. It was an attic fire just biding its time until going off. That was not the only wiring issue this house had, but those are stories for another day.
I’d bet that fan was from before they decided to duct the thing into the building. It probably wasn’t great so they decided to duct the thing and hope for the best.
That receptacle is a NEMA 6-30, on a 20A breaker... Should have been on a 30A breaker, this would lead to nuisance tripping. That unit probably had a running load around 15A, so held on most starts but not all...
A missed opportunity, Chris - this could have been made into a fabulous video for April 1st. Nonetheless, it was hilarious!
Some serious thought went into that unit. I don't know if it's GOOD thought, but you have to admire their effort in a perverse way...
6:58 All window units are like that. The older ones would have a label that says to wait 2-3 minutes before restarting, newer ones have that delay built into the unit.
Bloody hell. How hasn't that lot burnt to the ground? The electrical inside and out is just kack. The whole lot needs to be chopped and redone and that's even before the air side of it is looked at. I'm afraid to ask but was that their mains flapping around in the breeze outside?
I think those wires are telephone. That's what they look like and they're in the wrong place to be feeding the load center inside.
Large window units will always trip the breaker if restarted that soon, unless there's a digital control board or some sort of time delay relay built in.
As a random layman, all I know is that my first thought would be to get an electrician to rip out all the wiring and re-run it. Messy wiring may not necessarily be unsafe, but given the amount of shit you uncovered during your brief visit, I think it is very fair to say that very little of the wiring in that building is likely to have been vetted against regulations for fire safety and the sort. What a mess.
You should have rigged up a hair dryer on an evaporator anti ice control as a defrost for when that coil freezers up. It could also function as heater since your exchanger was cracked on the gas heat.😂
Just absurd...
The whole buildings infrastructure is most likely equally screwed as this weird HVAC setup.
This job has written start over all over it.
Have an electrician rewire the place first before it goes up in a fire.
one of the most hacked buildings ive seen, i would walk away, no way im working on the stuff.
Those older wendow units dont have a compressor delay. Same with those old line stats. And if the compressor is tired or the capacitor witch im sure is oem on that unit is getting tired then they really dont like starting under pressure. So you need to give it 5min to equalize pressurs or the compressor will just stall out an trip the braker. The least I would do for that unit is to put a compressor delay on it so it cant lock up like that. But honestly given how this unit was installed servicing is nearly impossible. If i had done that install i would have at least had the controles in a separate electrical cabinet and just the wires for the fan an compressor going to it. This way you can still access an replace the capacitor when needed. But this is a far from ideal install in general. Those old wendow units really were troopers that seemed to last for ever no matter what conditions you put them in. Cant say the same for the new stuff sadly
I mean I do redneck shit too but even this electrical job gives me the heebe jeebies.
How to be a HVAC tech: Step one open fancy backpack and pull out random gauges. Step two ask the customer if they've considered replacing the unit. Step three try to sell the customer a new unit.
Seems the same for nearly everything now
I've learned about HVAC stuff at college, and my professor always taught us that guys like that aren't real techs. Real techs test, check, and replace parts when the parts themselves are bad. Lots of issues are simple wiring or fuse issues.
This disaster is beyond repair.
Say it with me: SHORT CYCLE. Of course it'll pop if you cycle it within minutes. (window units rarely have safety timers. and something that old never thought of it.) But otherwise, yes, that old unit is done. It's not even worth paying you to take it out. :-) Mini-split is the way to go. (kind of wish that's what we'd put in our flex space.)
I like to be the kind of guy that fixes the stuff others won't (most of the time) 😊
When you said mini split, I wasn't entirely sure what that was. Had to check and I was right. The nearest mini split is four feet above my head :D Here in Finland they have been sold a lot in the last 20 years. Almost every third household has a mini split and mainly for heating.
That's not quite a window unit, not quite a PTAC, that is a through wall air conditioner. Not being in the trade, I don't know exactly where the line is drawn with PTAC vs through wall, but in my observations, PTACs are generally closer to the floor and generally have arrangement for heat, but I've seen a heat equipped through-wall unit installed that way too. The biggest tattles for me of a PTAC are the width versus height (on modern units), but mainly the placement of controls. PTACs have controls on the top (modern units can be remotely controlled, by IR remote, wall thermostat, or dedicated wall remote unit) and there is usually a door for the controls. I think the oldest PTAC I've run across is from the 1960s. I don't have access to that building anymore and if I did I wouldn't be allowed to take a photo as it is on a military installation.
There were quite a few setups like this on some of the old cottages on Fort Myers Beach. 1-2 ton window shakers attached to ductwork with line voltage thermostats. They actually worked surprisingly well, efficient, and extremelt quiet. They usually mounted them underneath the cottages with floor vents for everything. I'd agree mini-splits are a better solution today, but this was somewhat common in the 1970s-2010s.
That is normal behavior for large old window units. The built-in thermostat/controls *somehow* implement a restart delay but if you turn them off and on via the breaker (or any other upstream switch) there is *no* short-cycle protection, so the compressor tries to restart with pressure already against it. You'd expect the thermal protection on the compressor to shut it off but if the unit is close enough to the circuit limit they certainly can, as you just demonstrated, trip the breaker first.
Yup. Starting against pressure.
The worst for them is when you get a power drop out for a second or two. The compressor motor keeps turning but runs at high slip and draws far too much current.
Being poor and broke and having 90+ degree days here, I did the same exact thing. Took an old thru-wall that I had laying around and ducted it into my furnace plenum with a 24vac damper that opens and closes and a contactor to send power to the A/C unit. This unit has a 2 minute power delay and retains the temp and fan speed with power loss. It's only 10,000 btu and only kept my house at 74 degrees when it was 90 out. Still better than ballsweat 90's in here. After running all day long at about 22 cents an hour, its not very practical. It also freezes up the coil due to the poor airflow im forcing it to do. This is why they probably have that fan there. It keeps warmer air moving around to possibly prevent the coil from freezing up. Im thinking of going a step further and putting a timer on the control side to shut the A/C down for about 10 minutes to help defrost the coil. The coil also gets dirty really fast and had a HVAC tech laughing at me and at one point said its going to build up moisture in make shift plenum I taped to the front and possibly trap bacteria and cause illness. He wanted to install a minisplit system for around 8 grand and my car is on its last leg and if I had 8 grand, i'd buy another car first before giving up the "Redneck Aire" brand system I have now.
Some stuff is just better to walk away from
I take it the building inspector doesn't come around that building very often eh?
Where TF are you?
Man, I wouldn't have touched with 10 ft. Pole. Nope, not me.
You can’t restart an old ac pump like that after switching it off. The compressor still has lots of head pressure. You have to wait till the pressure equalizes on the high and low side. It’s kinda like starting a car in 5th gear. Air compressors have a bleed off circuit for this same reason
I love hearing stories like this: "You're my friend, I want you to stay my friend, so I'm not touching this job with a 10-foot pole."
Dude! I would have walked away from that fire hazard.
That certainly looks like the window unit started there as it's the only place it can go, with the fan to circulate the air , then on a refurb the internal walls were added but this stopped the air flow so they ducted the cold air exhaust into the front of the site, if it had been done so the unit could be removed all fine and good but it wasn't, a short length of flexible ducting would have made that "better" but why did the thermostat work backwards it turned on when you turned it clockwise, it must have a contactor to switch the high current for the unit, the only thing I can think of is the wires to the heater unit are causing the control to work backwards, as there is a single thermostat switching heating and cooling, essentially shorting the wires outside makes the AC unit contactor to switch on , obviously a major fire hazard
I remember doing something similar in a place I was renting. It had central heating but no central air. I needed something cheap with the least amount of modifications to the home. There was a door next to the inlet in the laundry room. So I removed the door and replaced it with 2 pieces of 1/2 plywood and installed 2 very large second hand 24,000btu window AC's. I wired them with a combo box with 2 15 amp 2 pole 240v brekers that was plugged into the dryer outlet. I set the furnace to fan mode and put the two AC's on the lowest setting. It sort of worked but they kept cycling when the laundryroom hit 60 degrees. So I bought 2 sheetmetal register boots from Home Depot and I cut them with tin snips to fit the AC's air outlets and sealed them with caulking to make them airtight. I ran 2 8" flex ducts to the furnace air inlet covered with 3/8 plywood I cut 2 8" holes for the ducts. Bam! 4 ton cental air for a couple hundred bucks. All bolt on, no modification to the home.
P.S. My setup was way nicer than this because I left the filters attached and my ductwork was flexible.
That's actually pretty cool! Using the central heating at the distribution ducting
Looks like they just threw it up there and said? “Yah… That will work! Let’s call it a day!” Wow… just? Wow….
Don't forget that they patted it and said, "That ain't goin' nowhere."
Those were wire nuts, they are made made for grounding so you can have a tail come out to hit your device in residential electric in plastic boxes. They should never be used for hot or neutral wiring.
When the bill for the service call costs more than the worn out equipment is worth😂
"Sorry, we are not certified to work on window units."
My grandfather cooled his house this way for many years with a massive window unit that he hooked up to duct work and a proper thermostat with a relay. Of course he did a much nicer job than that train wreck of an installation. It cooled his 750 sq ft. house quite well.
“Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." - Ripley
A multisplit with 3 or so indoor units is probably the best for this place for cooling and heating
It can run from that 20A circuit no problem. Al thou I would definitely rip out every single wire in that building before hand.
I cool and heat my entire house (about 2200 sqft) with one 5-unit multisplit. That thing runs on a 20A breaker and I measured only 12A once an a very cold day
At least the window unit was solidly mounted.
I wonder if that building was rented out on a demolishing contract and the owner wanted it just to work until it was going to be demolished.
Interesting video for sure, def unique. Thats not a window shaker though although i guess i can see how you could mistake it for one. Its called a through the wall unit. Typical of hotels, much larger than a typical window unit, and they come as heat pumps as well, and at least newer ones than this have ability to control via 24 v control circuits. But man what an abortion they had here. Cant believe it worked so well
My boss could learn from you, some times you just gotta tell the customer no, im thinking of doing some "engineering " in my service truck with a window unit, so its not so hot in the summer.
Take the service charge and run. Lol
Honestly, telling someone this isn't my skill set you are better going with another company is one of the best things you can do.
Backyard AC at its best
Good call disabling the faulty heat system. Safety is important.
I would be tempted to pull the fiberglass out as well.
i would have walked off within the first 5 seconds in the room.
I think you're right, the client's best solution would most likely be mini-splits.
The electrical was pretty sketchy, the homemade ducting was facepalm-worthy, and that gas furnace is probably an older vintage than most of the top-shelf wines in Napa Valley!
Those "vintage" thru-wall units don't like quick restarts, often the owner's manual will say to leave it off for 7-10 minutes before restarting. As other commenters have noted, the capacitor is probably original from the - guessing here - late-70s to mid-80s. Very power-hungry units, especially by today's standards, they are quite simplistic (not even having time delays on the compressor) and they really do need most of that 7-10 min for pressures to equalize or they will struggle and strain to restart.
Replaced and Rewired at the MINIMUM...
People without the proper training have been playing with the A/C and heating...they also haven't been pulling the proper Permits either...
Permit=bootlicker Of course you want your government telling you what to do.
@@Look_What_I_Did If you're under 45, i'm willing to debate with you on the validity of some permits. If you're older, get off the internet and your lil echo chambers please
6:08 - Wha?. How did you put probes on that?! Oh, I see. Only temp probes.
it was fun except the gas heater that was a little scary just hanging on my bare wire
those wirenuts are mainly used in grounding.. allows a wire to come out the top
I had a furnace at my house that was the original from 1973 and it would always smell like something was burning when it was on. Come to find out when we called an hvac technician to check it out. The heat exchanger was all corroded and melted inside. We ended up getting an entire new system A/C and furnace
Aha! that explains it. the guy owns several restaurants, and must have moved it from one that served Chinese food. so its defiantly a won-ton - [ one-ton] 😂
When I was a kid, we had a massive window shaker in our trailer my grandfather had installed. Something with the internal thermostat was messed up so he wired up a line voltage thermostat. It was ghetto, and you had to watch out because it'd freeze up, but man, she worked for YEARS. Many years later (a few years back now, before I met you guys) I had a massive ancient window shaker given to me, and similar issue. I wound up figuring out you could purchase and wire in a wireless control module with remote for one, if you were really so inclined lmao! it was still working in 2016 when I ditched it during the renovations.
When grandpa does his own install
YEAH LOL, with wires he kept in the garage he took out of his Chrysler Newport back in the day... yikes.
I've never heard the term "window shaker" before. Is that an industry term or a regional term?
I would kind of say industry term for any hvac tech me working for a commercial/ industrial hvac company most of the techs we have referred to them as window shakers as well.
We use the term all the time. I'm in the Chicago area
That is an industry term, have used that term in Washington state and Colorado.
Dude, that was probably a 24000 or 30000 btu window shaker. Nice big old 208v unit. That would prob cool an entire floor of a house with no problem. Lol at the gas heater. Overall, it is definitely great ingenuity and very clever of the previous owner. Not mad at you for walking away from this one though. Lmfao
The fact he actually tried to trouble shoot it, shows his professionalism. Then he gave them legitimate reasons that they need to replace them, not just "its junk".
Small one bedroom apartments from the sixties would sometimes have a big window unit mounted through the wall and ducted into the bedroom and front living space. The duct would be in a conditioned space chase furred down by framing and sheetrock.
That was a mess, and the loose fiberglass getting into the air system is pretty sketchy.
The glass blanket is just a wrap around a metal duct. You can see it when he pulls back the end at the unit.
Good call running away from that dumpster fire.
That whole setup is the best example of a chingus
just walk away from that one unless they do a complete replacement
You gotta wonder! I worked with a guy( he just retired,tgank god) he bastardised everything do to his way of thinking! Overfilled glycol systems,so he could notice leaks faster,point every diffuser directly at the ceiling,so the air throw is 2 ft instead of 20! Drilled a hole in an ADA faucet handle and screwed on a plastic stopper so it didnt hit the backsplash intead of just adjusting the cartridge! 5 relays and lots of wiring to have low temp lockout so it wouldnt run in the winter! Im like shut the disconnect off! Total mess ,everything he touched
Lol. Probably used an aluminum can over a light bulb instead of turning it off. 😂
if it works it works
theres a straight up ac scam about a tiny swamp cooler saying itll bring temps down from 149 to 65 degrees an it literally played on your video
Doubt he has anything to do with that advertisement, but yah crazy, lol
If it's a direct fire code violation and doesn't get taken care of, that place WILL get condemned. Lmao
@@jamesf.189 its only a fire code if the circuit breaker an wireing is old an outdated an not the type that can handle two 120 volt motors
@@mbburry4759 pretty much he gets paid by a company that pays him to have an ad on the video that he can say no to
@@joshuaryanferguson3702 youtube adds are based on the subject of video and what data they have on you - he didn't and certainly wouldn't endorse that
Haha! This is the kind of thing you see, start laughing, slap your friend on the shoulder, shake your head, and walk away.
Love the big security camera next to it lol
that one camera probably worth more than the whole hvac setup lol
She's a beauty Clark. A real beauty.
I did one like that but was 4 window units you needed to ensure they started sequentially of it would trip the breaker, used solid state relays and timers
Wait wait wait, you ran 4 window units on a single breaker? LOL... you mad lad...
the only time i've pushed a breaker like that was when i used to have lan parties with friends, couldn't power on all of our systems at once, had to wait abit for each, old pc's would draw quite abit at boot, spinning the hdd's turning on power hungry crt's and such. we spread the load around the house across multiple breakers but ya all of them were drawing too much considering i just had 10 amp breakers.
Oh my, this was a mess, on the plus side a single 30 amp break could probably handle a big enough mini split service , but wow hooking up duct work to a big ac and then thermostat oh lord
I just had a call on a WI freezer where I was chasing a short with similar enginuity. After opening several junction boxes, I found someone had grabbed power from the wiring connected from condenser to the evap, and ran a circuit to a 120v receptacle for there plug in drain heater, which actually had 208v. The heater shorted to the copper drain line and what tripped the 3 phase breaker. 3 hours of searching. There is places and customers out there where you really need to be careful, and wonder if it’s worth the hassle when they call again.
Thanks for the content!
I've seen some rigs before, but this is the best.
Thats some marrying your cousin type of setup. 😂😅
If I didn’t know you were in California, I would definitely think you were in south FL😅
That setup is a death trap, obviously client is as tight as a rusty wheel nut and would likely spit feathers when I hit them with a bill.
You now own that piece of junk..
Thanks for showing us how to RUN from jobs like that!
Geez that looked some skeevy rig in a strip mall church that's been continuously running since the 90's
Man! This is a building fire trying to happen so hard!
If I were to walk up to this, I wouldn't work on this, there's too much wrong on this. I'd quote for everything to replaced, no way I'm working on this, too much liability.
I'm a firm believer of the 'if it works is it really a dumb idea' but that's a little far even for me 😂😂
That kind of unit needs like 2 min to reset. Probably 2 ton. A decent mini split would be a good option to replace it with. The lack of filter is an issue.
lol i wouldn't even touch that mess
First thing that sprung to my mind is why your not running down the road at top speed, that rats nest looks like the things that will give you nightmares
Your most and least interesting video all in one.