As mentioned I have been helping my brother clear out his hoard collection and clean up his 2 BR condo.
You might imagine what his HVAC system looked like, the air return grate was blackish gray from a 15 plus year dust build-up. After cleaning and removal, to my surprise there was no filter associated with it. Just a 20x20 in square cut out in the dry wall of his apartment, underneath the air return grate.
Looking up his HVAC unit online, I found that there must be a place for an air filter at the "bottom" of the unit, pending the original installer's design.
It was a relatively high end efficient unit for a 1k sqft condo, a Carrier Weathermaker 9200, a heat exchanger type with a dicey repair record in general.The original installation is a POS as far as the accessibility of the air filter is concerned, you pretty much have to bend or partly fold the cellulosic pleated air filter into place, so it's certainly not airtight once installed. The one I removed from the unit was somehow filthy, despite being so bent it wasn't remotely air tight and had a huge air gap behind and under it.
Anyway I managed to replace it with a new one without too much distortion of its rectangular shape, and have also stuffed a more porous air filter in the square cut in the drywall over which the intakes grate sits. Are there simple metal frames made that house the 20x20 inch filter I have wedged in the drywall, and is that what's normally done by a more respectable HVAC outfit than the scum who designed the Carrier unit's air filter placement as originally built?
I have never seen such an awkwardly constructed system that makes it so difficult to replace a dirty air filter. I mean I get that it takes up minimal space, but wasn't it idiotic not to place the filter right behind the air intake grate, to begin with?
Almost all filter returns are sloppy fits. Yes and some registers are weird sizes. 2 of mine are supposed to be 12 x 12 but are really 11 1/2 x 11 1/2. I can find them occasionally, otherwise I need to scrunch as 12x12 in. So maybe his have the same "nominal" sizing.
Almost all filter returns are sloppy fits. Yes and some registers are weird sizes. 2 of mine are supposed to be 12 x 12 but are really 11 1/2 x 11 1/2. I can find them occasionally, otherwise I need to scrunch as 12x12 in. So maybe his have the same "nominal" sizing.
The coils and fine and all the innards of the air handler have to be a mess, I guess. Looking at the thick sticky wad of dust that collected on the exterior of the return grate, and then at the interior walls of the air return duct work, I can only imagine what the innards look like. The A/C was repaired 2 years ago when it stopped functioning, and my brother said it needed a $600 or so repair which was about half a part replacement and half labor, but he doesn't have a clue what that repair was aside from it being compressor related, and thankful he didn't have to replace the entire compressor. He said many or several of his neighbors had similar failures of their Carrier HVAC systems that cost more than his repair.
I researched it, and found that Carrier had lost a class action suit about the 9200 unit and was required to make a no cost repair to the system sometime in the early 2000s, but my brother knows nothing about that, and apparently none of his neighbors (that he spoke with anyway) knew about it either. I gather condo owners are typically much much less hands on than homeowners!!!
Thanks for the reply re the engineering of the air supply duct and air filter fit. What a fucknut that is... It would have been so easy to make a proper filter housing at (just behind) the air return grate. And the 20x20 size would have the exact same capacity as the 16x25 fitted awkwardly near the guts has.
No sense.
Sec125, that's gonna go on the list of things to arrange, for sure. Lots of local HVAC guys in the area, (North Bergen county).
One step at a time with my hoarding dinosaur brother. Other stuff first. He currently has no WiFi whatsoever, pays a ridiculous amount total for separate services of mobile phone, regular phone (with international access), and cable TV.
I just ordered a new cableTV/ WiFi/ landline phone service for him, and through the Optimum Altice One service, and looking at their mobile phone offer, if he switches to their mobile phone service as well, he'll end up paying less than he currently does in total, while adding home high speed WiFi.
He'll have many more TV channels than his current minimum subscription, but he'll need to cancel certain "free services" at 6 months and one year before they become pay for services at exorbitant rates.
Next, we need to throw out his old TVs and buy flat screen HD TVs.
Then change his mobile service provider.
Then select new flooring and an installer.