OK just my 2cents but... In Florida it would be a violation but on your part for hiring an unlicensed plumber and his for doing the work. The work itself is not "incorrect" but rather poorly done. 50' is a BIT far for 1/2 and should have been 3/4"...if I was doing it I would have run 1" unless there was ZERO chance of running more pipe for more hose bibs in the future. Shut off your house meter and take off the hose bib. Check out the hose bib to see there is nothing in it and open it fully and make sure the rubber gasket looks good. (IMO I always replace hose bibs....but thats just me) Turn back on the meter and run the water through the open pipe for 1 min. to be 100% sure there is nothing in the pipe. Although it is rare it can happen that when soldering a fitting the guy used too much solder and made the pipe fill with solder. This would restrict the flow greatly. Could happen at any join he made. BTW I know after the fact it sucks but never hire anyone who isn't licensed for what they are doing. I am a sprinkler contractor, I have done this type of work many times, I would NEVER do it for a customer. It would put my license in jeopardy. Good luck, Tom

Everything else outside sounds like it's running... the unit doesn't shut off. When it's blowing the warm air and the fan stops, the unit makes a loud buzzing sound and you can feel it putting off hot heat. As soon as the fan starts back up the sound goes away and it pushes out cold air. I haven't taken anything apart on the outdoor unit yet. But I took the panel off the indoor unit and it looks like new on the inside. I'll look at the outdoor unit more in depth tomorrow. Are those two things something that I can replace and if so, how can I tell which part may be bad?

Hi Davidro1 - I'm not sure where you would like the newspaper taped... to cover the filter opening or hanging down from the filter opening. Let me know, and I will give it a go when my camera girl gets home tonight. The owners manual does not specify anything on ducting other than to calculate equivant length and say that the bends should be as far apart as possible. Here is the chain of correspondence I've had with Zephyr after I had contacted Customer Support on the phone and the service man came out: Hello Zepher - I contacted my contractor at the beginning of November with this issue... it is still not resolved. No one (including Zepher customer service and the Zepher service man) can seem to figure out what is going on. We had our kitchen renovated last year and are having problems with the exhaust fan. The contractor installed a Zepher AK8100AS (600cfm on max). Here is the situation... We have 8 foot ceilings. The vent hood is installed inside the cabinet above the stove and is 39.5 inches above the cook top. The exhaust exits the top of the unit in a 6" pipe, make a 90 degree bend (perpendicular to the wall the stove is on) in the ceiling, runs to the next joist opening (18 inches ish), makes another 90 degree bend and runs 4 feet (parallel to the stove wall) to the outside of the house. There is what looks like a large dryer vent on the outside of the house with a single flap and a triangular shield. The only joint I can see in the cabinet is a joint... no screws or tape. I don't remember what is in the ceiling. The vent is really loud when it is operating, and there are no appreciable differences in sound between the 3 speeds (the spec sheet gives the range of 1.4 - 6 sones for L/M/H). The vent appears to be blowing into the kitchen. When I light a candle and hold it up by the fan, the flame dances around, it isn't being pulled. It feels like air is blowing in when I put my hand next to the grate, and it will not hold a piece of paper against the grate. When I set the candle on the stove and blow out the candle, the smoke 'wallows' around and eventually dissipates into the kitchen... it isn't sucked up. The vent flap on the outside of the house opens when the fan is on. The manual specifies the hood to be mounted 26-36 inches above the cook top... we are too high, but that should not be an issue if I am holding a candle close to the fan. The Zepher service man says the hood is operating correctly and thinks it is an installation issue. Zepher customer service thinks it is a ventilation issue. Installer can't figure it out and need parts from the cabinet installer to lower the unit before he can start trouble shooting... Another retailer suggested that with the two bends so close together there maybe some flow issues causing some of the air to blow into the house and some out of the house. Can you help me resolve this issue? The response from Zephyr: From what you are describing, its almost 100% guarantee to be a duct issue. If the duct, as you say, is 6 inches on the hood, we would need to determine if the duct is 6 inches in diameter, all the way thru. We have had issues to where installers will reduce the duct size between the hood and its exit point, down to 4 inch diameter. The best way to determine if its a hood issue or a duct issue, is that the duct will need to be disconnected at the hood, and then the hood turned on. This isolates the duct run from the hood. The main issue that you describe is all 3 speeds sound the same. this is 100% issue with the duct, most likely being reduced in size. When this happens, the hood will be noisy and air will actually blow downward back into the kitchen. When the hood is on, it is trying to force a very large amount of air thru the duct. if the duct is smaller or reduced in size, it is trying to force 6 inches of air thru a smaller opening, which it cannot do. that excess 2 inches of air has no where to go but back down thru the hood into the kitchen. My response: Thanks for your quick response. I am fairly certain that there is 6 in duct work in the ceiling. The flap on the vent on the outside of the house is 6 inches in diameter, and the venting that sat in my kitchen. I am attaching a picture of the venting sticking out of the ceiling and the vent piece going through the wall before it is installed... What about the short distance between the 2 90 degree elbows? Any other ideas? Zephyr response: if possible, please out line the entire duct run, how many feet inbetween turns, basically from start to finish. As for distance between elbows, there needs to be atleast 1-2 feet inbetween any type of turn My response: Just confirmed with the contractor that the ducts are 6 inches in diameter... That was the last thing the installer did on my job and has the receipt showing he purchased 6 inch duct work. The duct run is as follows: Vent Exit -> 12 inch (approx) 6 inch diameter duct -> 90 degree 6 inch diameter elbow (the turn takes the run perpendicular to the wall the stove is on) -> 4.5 inch (approx) 6 inch diameter pipe-> 90 degree 6 inch elbow (turns the run parallel to the stove wall) -> 54 inch (approx - max) 6 inch diameter pipe -> 6 inch wall cap with damper The installation manual does not specify distance between turns. If the best way to determine if the hood or duct work is at fault is to drop the hood, why didn't the Zepher service man do that? Comments? Zephyr Response: We see that the issue is most likely the 4.5 inch between elbows. It is always best to have ateleast 1-2 feet inbetween elbows. Being that 6inch is the minimum size, if you are to keep that run, you may have to increase the diameter of the duct to 8-10inch to possibly eliminate that restriction.

I'm in a totally different industry (computer science) but I have come to realize that many American males have ADHD (not kidding). You can give these people specs, drawings, instructions, and they ignore it all. Most of all you need really detailed specs - of exactly how you want it done, and you need them to sign off on the specs. This is the only thing that protects you from getting the job done correctly. Not that it will be done correctly the first time, nor does it protect you from frustration of having to get the job done over and over again. I've been fortunate in my career, to have owned a software company, that had very good sales. I've remodeled (gutted) our kitchen, and two baths. Plus paint / fix everything in our home. Neighbors have said to me: "why are you doing this yourself - you could easily pay to have it done". When I do it myself, it gets done right, to my satisfaction.