@tigerdunes. 1800 sq ft, 75 setting during day 72 at night; I don’t know the exact humidity outside but it has been very humid with intermittent thundershowers the last 2 weeks. Internal humidity is keeping around comfortable 40%

Also the Installer said supply temp is btwn 51 and 55 though when he was pointing the laser it would take him several tries to find that reading (not sure if that’s standard or unusual)

Is this a through the wall HVAC system? Is this for cooling only? Is the one condenser intended to cool the whole 1800 sq. foot apartment?

your location, and again outside conditions, both temperature and humidity. Google it. You personally should verify the inside supply temperature. I would say a 2 ton for 1800 sq ft could be undersized.

TD

@mike_home yes through the wall and cooling only. The 2 ton was the largest that fit through the only window we are allowed to install central air in our coop.

I’m less concerned with whether the unit can get extremely cool, as long as it holds a 72 temp at night which it has gone back to doing after not doing for a week during the water leak. I want to a) understand the risks of switching out the condenser for a new unit and b) understand if it’s better to have a condenser that is not discontinued. I also wanted to understand whether based on what was described as the two issues thus far (initially not cooling and then the water damage which was blamed on rainwater and it taking 72 hrs post adjustments to work) are reasons to believe there may be a problem with the condenser. They were willing to swap it out as soon as we asked which leads me to believe they detected some issue, but I cannot get clear info.

I think you have purchased this AeroSys Sytem. I am not an expert on these, but I understand the limitations you are facing with your coop.

If you read the document it says the equipment has a 2 year warranty. I don't know how this warranty works or if the installer has to register the equipment with the manufacturer.

I think your contractor hired the lowest cost HVAC installer he could find. This contractor did a poor installation job of installing a piece of equipment that is discontinued. He probably got it at a bargain price. I am very suspicious about the story you were given about missing insulation.

HVAC equipment comes with a factory charge. It is the job of the installer to install the proper amount of refrigerant when it is installed. It may have been too cold in March when it was installed to do set the proper charge, so we will give them the benefit of the doubt. But there should have been a follow up visit to complete the installation.

I don't understand how the AeroSys equipment can be replaced under warranty with another brand of equipment. The distributor is not going to take back equipment without a thorough investigation of the problem, so I am suspicious of what you are being told.

My recommendation is to talk to the contractor about the equipment and labor warranty. If you says you are cover until March 2020, then I recommend keeping the equipment for this summer and see if it performs well.

HVAC equipment is constantly changing so I would not get very concerned if the model you have is not longer made. It is fine if it was installed properly, which quite honestly I think is the real the problem. I would be inclined to get another HVAC company involved for a second opinion and give the bill to the contractor.

Super useful @mike_home, thank you. If the rain wasn’t what caused the leak, could it have been ice from low Freon? And if so, I assume it would be best to replace the condenser?

In terms of the warranty, while it is through March I’m worried about these guys disappearing if I don’t have them replace now. As I mentioned before it’s been an extremely stressful renovation full of errors.

Low refrigerant can cause the coil to ice up. Once the ice melts it could was an large amount of water to be drained. The fix for that is a proper amount of refrigerant which a qualified HVAC tech should be able to do. You don't need to replace the condenser for that type of problem.

The unit needs to be pitched properly so that water from normal condensation and rainfall will drain away from the house. This may have also been a problem. It sounds the installer wanted to blame the manufacturer for an installation error.

I am not sure swapping the equipment will make the situation better or worse. It is the summer and HVAC companies are very busy. This increases the chances of rushed work and mistakes.

Mike is 100% on. In the vast majority of hvac problems, it's the installation and not the equipment. I know this from experience. :(

I'm far from an expert on these matters, but 3 of my rentals happen to all be 1200 square feet. Two of them have 2 ton air conditioners and the other (less insulation) has a 2.5 ton unit. I hear no complaints about them from the tenants (except when something breaks), so I assume they're (the tenants) comfortable in summer.

This makes me think that unless your heat gain there is pretty low, you may not have a large enough machine for cooling 1800 square feet. Shame about your condo's restrictions that give you so little choice in the matter.

I may be confused?? Are you talking about changing out the condensor in the new unit they just installed?? If so, why would you want to do that. You dont know if the new unit is going to perform well, or not. Also, since it has been very very hot a lot of places, sometimes, the AC units just dont keep up, particularly if the sun is shining on them.

Thank you @ cat_ky. Yes, that is what we are contemplating bc the unit was behaving erratically/differently after the water damage. But we are indeed worried about the risk that the new unit doesn’t work properly esp since the last two issues were bc of install and it will be the same installer.

Update on this thread from many months ago. They had installed the wrong sized condenser from what was indicated in my drawings/specs. They replaced it with the correct size and the apt cools fine.

Thanks for the update. So they installed a 3 ton unit?

Yes