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Hello.As a new member, non welder, I had a question for the members. I do appreciate any help you can give me. Please bear with me.An unforeseen and unfortunate incident occurred recently. A painting contractor, while discussing a proposed exterior repaint job at my home, without warning, leaped up on to the corner of the air conditioning heat exchanger unit. (He did this to be able to view the top of some window trim boards and the condition of the paint. If only he would have given some warning, I would have stopped him and gone into the garage and grabbed a ladder!)I was nearby and saw the unit depress abrubtly into the plastic pad it sits on. The unit tilted down at the corner he had his one foot on. It is hard to gauge, but I am guessing that corner went down about an inch or more than the rest of the unit. When he jumped off, the unit rebounded to its normal position.If this had been a grade school child with a body weight of say 70 pounds or so, I would not be so concerned, but this man was probably about 175 pounds.Although there are no leaks of regfrigerant (so far) at the welds that can be seen, I am very concerned that some of the welds may been weakened by this abrupt shock force when this man leaped onto and then off the unit. The copper piping and welds are standard size. The heat exchanger is a good size one (called a "5 tonner").Are my fears baseless, or is there a potential future problem? In other words, is it an all or none scenario (either welds are broken or they are still 100% fine)?Sorry to be so long winded.Sincerely, Larry
Reply:First of all, there will be no welds in your copper tubing, they will all be soldered joints which are very strong and quite abuse tolerant, providing the tubing didnt crack or kink you should be just fine. Copper is fairly flexible and can handle quite a bit of deflection before you have problems provided its not an everyday problem I highly doubt any damage was done if you havent seen a leak yet.
Reply:If your A/C still works, then he didn't break anything. If it fails in a few weeks and the repair guy sees stress fractures in the lines, they were probably there already.Those copper lines can easily be hand bent to wrap a coffee can, and then be bent back to straight again (not that I would suggest doing this repeatedly).You have nothing to be concerned about.
Reply:Thanks for the info ironmangq and rlitman.When I saw the unit move the way it did, it unnerved me. It only vibrates slighty when it is on.My favorite metal when I was younger, in my 20s and 30s, was iron. I loved pumping it in the weight room.Thanks again. Larry
Reply:If some ******* jumps on a condensing unit, you should beat him severely. If the installer brought his A-game, it was brazed, witch is much more tolerant to impacts and vibrating. If the Suction line is kinked enough, ( big pipe ) you got a problem, if the Liquid line is kinked, ( little pipe ) call a service tech to pump down the unit and repair the lines... He may have also damage the condensor coil, the copper is very thin as its job is to reject heat....Run the AC, after 15 minutes, if theres no ice buildup and its blowing cold air, you might be fine...Lincoln Power MIG 210 MP ( boat anchor )Lincoln Weld-Pac 100 HDHobart IronMan 230Cutmaster 42Jackson NexGenSumner Ultra ClampsDWM120
Reply:Thanks MadMax31 for your reply.I was too surprised to react and beat him over the head. However, I visually inspected everything after he had left. There are no kinks in any lines. This unit had been replaced in early Sept, 2004, due to factory defects that led to complete loss of coolant. I now think the soldered joints must be strong and there is no visible damage that I can see by peering between the fan blades from above.I was/am worried about small leaks that may go unnoticed and not be very apparent until the unit completely fails.The east coast is dealling with brutal temps currently now, but, here in northern Nevada, we have had unseasonably cool temps and the A/C only fired up for the first time late yesterday. |
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发表于 2021-9-1 00:14:26