Air Conditioning Madness

You never realize how important something is until your without it. When I was growing up, living in Maine you didn't really come across any homes that had air conditioning except for the few "rich" people that had the window units. Business's carried air conditioning but that was it. You got used to the heat and it wasn't as hot up there like it is in the south. So when I moved to Texas and met David, I learned how convenient air conditioning was and how needed it was.

When we bought the house in Cleveland, it came with a 24 year old Carrier air conditioner. The problem with it was that it wasn't big enough for the house. We also worried that some day it would just quit working. So October of last year, we had a brand new 2.5 ton Trane Unit. We decided on the Trane because it was the only air conditioner that had high ratings and was still completely built in the United States. The technicians came and installed it and had to replace a part on it the day that it was installed. That should have been our first clue right there, but the unit continued to work beautifully up until this week.

I had noticed earlier this week that the unit was starting to have trouble keeping the house cool but I thought that it could be a number of things other than the unit itself. I considered it to be that it was 100 degrees plus outside for the past week. Well come Thursday night, the unit was really having problems. The house got up to 80 degrees by 9 that night. David started checking things out and the unit was blowing 82 degree air inside the house. So instantly we were worried about Fallon and how she would handle the heat. By midnight, when we had exhausted all our ideas on what could be happening, I tried to find a certified technician that could fix it as soon as possible and honor our warrenty. We didn't find any last night so we stayed in a hotel for the night.

Finally, a technician called us today at 11 am to meet us at the house to work on the system. He found out that there were two cooper pipes that have rubbed together so much that they fused together. When he opened up the system, the pipes released and created a large leak, of course that wasn't really noticed until the guy went through 5 pounds of Freon. The next thing that he noticed was that the orphis (don't think I spelled it right) valve was damaged so that needed to be replaced. This air conditioner is only 8 months old. It's awful. So we are in a hotel for the weekend. How great is that?! RIGHT!!! I am sorry that we didn't believe the 24 year old Carrier wouldn't make it because it sure as heck proved that American made isn't always the best.