gordonr, If there's nothing else I've learned during the course of my renovations, I've learned that everything ends up being more complicated than you expect. Once you open up the ceiling or the wall, there always seems to be something in the way of what you want to do. A floor joist where the tub drain needed to be, pipes where I wanted recessed lights to go, and now the recessed light over the tub is where it would make sense to run the duct. I can hardly wait to get to the kitchen renovation! I spoke with a rep in Miele's technical service group yesterday. Initially he was telling me he thought what I wanted to do entailed too long a stretch of duct - that it would reduce the performance of the dryer. I told him I expected that it would not be optimal performance, but what I was trying to determine was whether it would reduce it to the extent that a condenser dryer would have the same performance. He didn't seem to understand what I was getting at, so I gave an example: If the vented model has 15% better performance than the condenser model and the venting I'm doing reduces performance by 15%, then the condenser model would be generally equivalent, but if the vented dryer's performance is 50% greater, the same 15% reduction in performance would still mean the vented dryer was a better choice. I asked if he could give me any information about how much better the vented dryer's performance was than the condenser model and how much the venting I was considering would reduce the vented dryer's performance. At that point, he said he wanted to talk with one of the senior technical reps and put me on hold. When he came back, he told me that the dryer was rated for up to 60 feet (which I already knew) and that I should be fine with what I was planning on doing. He also told me that the sr. rep had indicated that having a condenser dryer in a closet could be problematic because it puts off a lot more heat than a vented dryer - you'd need a lot more air circulation into the closet with a condenser dryer. The closet I'll be putting the w/d into is 68" wide by 29" deep, so the extra heat and air circulation need may not have been as much of an issue for me as it might be for others with a more confined space. One learning that I took away from this: if you start to get the sense that the technical or customer service person you're talking to may not be as knowledgeable as you'd like, ask to talk with a senior rep. Like anywhere else, initial phone calls will be answered by more junior staff who will route the more complicated issues to more experienced staff. I've decided to go with a vented dryer, and now just need to decide between the Miele and the Asko. I'll let everyone know which one I end up with. Jan

Mr.havac/brickeeye, Both responses are plausable, shortly after posting, I had a friend come over and check the charge. On the suction side( outside temp at about 82 deg F) and set point in the house at 72 deg F we found the pressure at about 52psi. At this point the split temp was running about 12 degrees. We gave it a charge to get the pressure up to 68psi and the split went up to 15-18 degrees. It was extremely humid that day, so the ideal 20 degree split I think may have been unachievable. I agree with the concept of diminishing returns when it comes to lower inside temps than 70 degrees and with the loss of head pressure. I had my wife read your response and surprisingly, coming from someone she doesn't personnally know, has agreed to bring the night-time sleeping temperature up a degree or so. Thanks for your help.

Thanks to Dovetonsils for the lead on the contactor (in my non-HVAC-speak, this would be called a relay). After a little web-searching Friday based on his\hersuggestion, I was able to pinpoint the contactor as the likely source of the problem and yesterday I put another one in. All is peachy now! For others with the same problem, I pulled the thermostat unit off the wall mount pins but the condensing unit continued to run, so I knew it had to be something with the circuit board on the air handler or the condensing unit itself. I then turned off the power to the air handler\circuit board, but the unit continued to run. At that point, it almost certainly had to be an internal wiring issue with the condensing unit. After making sure the circuit breakers were turned off to both the air handler and the condensing unit, I pulled the quick disconnect (what I call the wall-mounted fuse cartridge). I then unscrewed the panel on the unit. I saw the two silver capacitors that looked like whiskey flasks, and with a couple of insulated screwdrivers I shorted out the contacts on each. No sparks were noticed, but I had read that the wiring in the fan motor would have essentially discharged the capacitors soon after the power was turned off. Still, it never hurts to be careful, or put another way, it can sometimes hurt when you aren't careful. The contactor was obvious (I had seen a lot of pictures of it on the web by that point), and frankly a little disappointing in its simplicity. I took a bunch of photos of it with my phone from different angles, drew a diagram of it on paper indicating which wire went to what and how it was attached, and then labeled each of the wires with some tape ("upper left", lower right", etc.). Yes, this was overkill, but it was also new territory for me so I wanted to be sure to get everything back in the right order. I unscrewed the sheet metal screws holding the contactor to the internal sheet metal, then with it in my hand I pulled off or unscrewed the wires connected to it. I could now inspect the contactor, and could see that the contacts (like automotive distributor points) were both blackened and melted in places. The spring loaded plunger that raised and lowered the contacts seemed to be fine though (my assumption was that the plunger itself had some sort of problem, but that didn't seem to be the case). My guess was that the heat from arcing from the points to the copper plate might have caused the areas of contact to stick to each other. Whatever the problem, the contactor had to be replaced. I checked with all of my local hardware stores, appliance repair shops, and A\C distributors. Everyone was friendly and most had what I was looking for (a single pole contactor rated at 30 amps), but they all politely declined to sell me one, saying either that it wasn't an end user item ("not for the DIYer") or that they only sold to licensed contractors. I could see that these things are readily available on line and pretty standard in design. I was just about to order one when I happened to go out and get the mail. When I got to my mailbox I saw a truck owned by a friend of mine who has an apartment rental maintenance company. I explained what I was looking for and he said he had three on his truck. If I replaced it with a new one at some point, I could have one of his right now. Bingo. I hooked it up in a flash, remounted it on the sheet metal, closed up the panel to the condensing unit, and then began to turn the power back on to the air handler and the unit. I turned the thermostat to cool, and heard the lovely sound of both the fan and the condensing unit kicking in. When that side of my house got to the desired temp, the thermostat shut off, and miracles of miracles, the condensing unit did as well. Thanks to everyone else who provided advice. Unfortunately, I didn't see the answers until the morning, but all of the suggestions were sound one. Happy (and cool) Sunday to everyone! Nick in Palm Springs

In order to replace the outdoor unit, you will need to replace the indoor coil as well because it uses R-22. Good luck finding a R-22 compressor in 2019. If it's not leaking and you have a scroll compressor in the unit I would let it ride til it dies. I am not sure which type of compressor you have because according to the manual it came with both types. You can look inside the condensing unit and if the compressor is short and fat it's reciprocating compressor. If it's tall and skinny you have a scroll. Scroll units are pretty robust, even if you have a reciprocating unit if it aint broke don't fix it. Change the contactor. The part is cheap and easy to install. Cut off the power to the unit, discharge the capacitor take a picture if you can't remember how it wired and go for it. Fire it up this spring and if it runs and keeps you cool, let it be. I have a 21 year old R-22 reciprocating heat pump on a rental and with the exception of an occasional cap and contactor (mainly damn fire ants) it runs fine. If your looking for a more energy efficient unit, that is a different story.