Grow Room A/C

[FooDoo]

Just a heads up for other farmers.

I took the advice of this forum and hired a professionally trained HVAC tech. Hes actually a 63 year old guy who owns his own HVAC company . he also loves to medicate.

My ideal air had a leak and stopped cooling. He found and fixed the leak at the line set connection. Vacuumed. then weighed in a charge. That was all good. However these house tech guys do this thing where they take the temp of the line set and compare it to their read out temp and if its not a 15-20 degree difference they keep adding more refrigerant. He over filled the system and within an hour or two the manifold feeding the evaporator on the inside unit exploded and leaked a bunch of freon into my grow room.

We found the leak and sweated it closed .

Basically paid the guy 560$ to break my minisplit then come back and fix his mistake which he wouldn't admit to making.

My new Mr slim gets delivered today and once I harvest I will replace the ideal air with this unit.

I'm highly tempted to buy gauges and do my own charge

 

[Og Gong]

Just a heads up for other farmers.

I took the advice of this forum and hired a professionally trained HVAC tech. Hes actually a 63 year old guy who owns his own HVAC company . he also loves to medicate.

My ideal air had a leak and stopped cooling. He found and fixed the leak at the line set connection. Vacuumed. then weighed in a charge. That was all good. However these house tech guys do this thing where they take the temp of the line set and compare it to their read out temp and if its not a 15-20 degree difference they keep adding more refrigerant. He over filled the system and within an hour or two the manifold feeding the evaporator on the inside unit exploded and leaked a bunch of freon into my grow room.

We found the leak and sweated it closed .

Basically paid the guy 560$ to break my minisplit then come back and fix his mistake which he wouldn't admit to making.

My new Mr slim gets delivered today and once I harvest I will replace the ideal air with this unit.

I'm highly tempted to buy gauges and do my own charge

Lmao wow sounds like he was trying to charge with using superheat/subcooling. Which is what you suppose to do. Most that charge that way don't have a clue that they suppose to go by target superheat. If the lines inside blew out and he wasn't the installer it is not his fault. Just my .02.

 

[FooDoo]

@Og Gong the line the cracked and leaked which we had to sweat and solder was inside the plastic casing of the inside air handler. A part that has nothing to do with an install .

In this generic picture off Google , the crack happened on one of the copper pipes on the right side that feed the evaporator

 

[Og Gong]

@Og Gong the line the cracked and leaked which we had to sweat and solder was inside the plastic casing of the inside air handler. A part that has nothing to do with an install .

In this generic picture off Google , the crack happened on one of the copper pipes on the right side that feed the evaporator

View attachment 533304[/QUOTE
A refrigerant system does not explode by overcharging. If it was running a couple of hours and then ruptured what was the head pressure? The system has a safety high pressure switch that shuts the compressor off if it exceeds the 400-500 psig head pressure. So if the lines ruptured it could of been a small leak or a stress fracture from shipping that was found after the charge. If you weight in a charge and you still have a low suction pressure you may have a refrigerant restriction or low airflow. This is where you troubleshoot with superheat and subcooling. The discharge pressure and suction pressure will give you clues if you are over or under charge, restricted refrigerant line or a airflow problem. If your tech put the system on a vacume did he achieve 500microns? If not there are still leaks in the system or his gauges leaks. I'm not saying it has leaks just trying to give you all the scenarios that can happen. Good luck with it brother.

 

[Og Gong]

Oops my quote is in the quote, have to expand it. I don't know how I did that.

 

[CannabisJohn]

Just a heads up for other farmers.

I took the advice of this forum and hired a professionally trained HVAC tech. Hes actually a 63 year old guy who owns his own HVAC company . he also loves to medicate.

My ideal air had a leak and stopped cooling. He found and fixed the leak at the line set connection. Vacuumed. then weighed in a charge. That was all good. However these house tech guys do this thing where they take the temp of the line set and compare it to their read out temp and if its not a 15-20 degree difference they keep adding more refrigerant. He over filled the system and within an hour or two the manifold feeding the evaporator on the inside unit exploded and leaked a bunch of freon into my grow room.

We found the leak and sweated it closed .

Basically paid the guy 560$ to break my minisplit then come back and fix his mistake which he wouldn't admit to making.

My new Mr slim gets delivered today and once I harvest I will replace the ideal air with this unit.

I'm highly tempted to buy gauges and do my own charge

Ideal Air units are garbage. I had to say that.
Mini splits are critically charged. The amount of refrigerant shipped with unit is on name plate. Also on nameplate should be how much line set it is charged for without adding more refrigerant from factory. All he needs is a scaled not be fucking lazy. Assholes like that give us good techs a bad name. I don't believe the cheap ass Ideal Air units have a high pressure safety. It's possible without that safety that he caused the problem. Sorry it happened to you. Still don't recommend that u install or charge new unit.

 

[CannabisJohn]

Hey guys I'm thinking I need to upgrade
My mini and would like some opinions. It is an aura 36,000. Back when I installed it it was for 6 air cooled 1000s and I never had a prob cooling them. It has been about 18 months since installation (bought it used with I'm not sure how many hours). And since then i have added a water cooled co2 burner and one more gavita 600. I clean both the hamster cage and the condenser after every run. I take good care of it. I am looking into going to 8 1k air cooled and ripping out the gavita ( it was just a lil test light) I live in Michigan so the new mini split has to be able to operate in the frigid cold if thats the route I go. I'm pretty sure that my current mini split isn't inverter technology either so it would be nice to switch up to something with that for energy concerns. ( cause when it did used to cool the room properly it would be on for 10 minutes and off for maybe 5.) I used to have no problem cooling my room down to 79 and with this summer heat latley I can't get it below 86 . I also have a tech that just recharged it too and that did seem to help for about a month (maybe).

Make the lazy tech come back out for free. He or she needs to find and repair leak that caused them to recharge unit previously. With that said Aura units are not very good.

 

[Tylrr420]

Thanks cj I kinda figured you would say that. Can you please tell me what to look for when buying a Mitsubishi? I noticed that some of the 30k plus units are 2-3000 and some are 5-6000? What are you getting for double the price?

 

[FooDoo]

Ideal Air units are garbage. I had to say that.
Mini splits are critically charged. The amount of refrigerant shipped with unit is on name plate. Also on nameplate should be how much line set it is charged for without adding more refrigerant from factory. All he needs is a scaled not be fucking lazy. Assholes like that give us good techs a bad name. I don't believe the cheap ass Ideal Air units have a high pressure safety. It's possible without that safety that he caused the problem. Sorry it happened to you. Still don't recommend that u install or charge new unit.

New unit has landed

 

[CannabisJohn]

Thanks cj I kinda figured you would say that. Can you please tell me what to look for when buying a Mitsubishi? I noticed that some of the 30k plus units are 2-3000 and some are 5-6000? What are you getting for double the price?

Not sure unless you I could see model numbers or Internet ad.

 

[CannabisJohn]

New unit has landed

View attachment 533384

Now you're talking.

 

[Tylrr420]

https://www.acwholesalers.com/Ductl...5&subCat=cat1033&trail=68436:more+than+30,001



For instance the Mitsubishi on the first row compared to any on the second row

 

[CannabisJohn]

https://www.acwholesalers.com/Ductless-Air-Conditioner-Wall-Mounted-Air-Conditioners/cat1028.ac?mainCat=cat22185&subCat=cat1033&trail=68436:more+than+30,001



For instance the Mitsubishi on the first row compared to any on the second row

That's a P series unit. It is a server room level unit. Heavier duty. Mitsubushi will tell u that we shouldn't run the M series in our rooms and run the P series. IMO that's bullshit. I have had very,very few problems with over 200 M series installed in our industry. So IMO the P series isn't worth the money. LG makes a fine unit also with most of their units having same warranty as Mitshbushi (7 yrs compressor and 5 years rest of unit). Both are similar in price also.

 

[Tylrr420]

Thanks so much man

 

[dexfarm]

Hey CJ, you never mention these units, are they no good?

 

[CannabisJohn]

Hey CJ, you never mention these units, are they no good?

Only one I've ever seen was broken with only 2 months of use.

 

[Doc G]

i am aware mitsubishi & lg, fujitsu are @ the top of the class for the mini splits.... Currently rocking two lg's. But need a little something for VEG & kitchen so was wondering about a pioneer with inverter technology? any feedback welcome please on the durability and reliability of this brand...

 

[Doc G]

@ CJ & @ OG GONG

 

[CannabisJohn]

i am aware mitsubishi & lg, fujitsu are @ the top of the class for the mini splits.... Currently rocking two lg's. But need a little something for VEG & kitchen so was wondering about a pioneer with inverter technology? any feedback welcome please on the durability and reliability of this brand...

Never dealt with this brand before. IMO it'll either be a POS or great. Let us know what u think if u get it.

 

[Tylrr420]

Hey john I was wondering what your opinion was about mounting a mini split condenser to the wall? I've seen it done before and I seen the brackets for sale on eBay specifically for this. I would assume that cleaning the fins out would be a task unless you left a 2 inch gap and used compressed air instead of water. I have a low key spot where there is an inside corner in my house that would be perfect for this application as none of my neighbors would see it. Then again I could just build a fence around my central ac and my mini.