If you follow me on Mastodon, you may have seen some posts regarding a saga that I’ve been having with my condominium’s HVAC system.
To quickly summarize those:
- With as hot as this summer’s been, with stretches of days into 30ºC and above, my air conditioner had been struggling to keep my condo cool.
- Looking back at my smart thermostat’s data, there’d been a slow decline in performance since last year
- A technician that came into look to diagnose the issue couldn’t do anything about it due to not being able to remove the compressor unit, because of a pipe (we suspect it’s a drainpipe) in the way. They said that it should be possible to access the unit from outside, but that would need help from my condo building’s property management.
- I’d since been on to my condo building’s property management company to get further assistance, explaining the problem over a number of phone calls, emails, etc.
Fast forward to today. I’ve just had technicians around from another HVAC company, who allegedly can deal with external access. What they found today was pretty much nothing new, and that they said that external access is probably the best way to go about fixing this issue. However, it’s not a cheap or easy thing to do. Because my condo is on the 4th floor and there is no access to the external vent area from the balcony, the company would need to get some kind of lift system to get up there.
One thing they suggested was that the problem could be due to dirt and grime buildup on the secondary coil, which should be accessible from behind that vent. There should be regular maintenance performed to ensure that those are clean, but in my time living here (since March 2018) I do not recall that’s ever been done. So a convenient option would be for the property management company (of which we’ll be switching to a new one come December 1st) schedule a time sometime in April to go and clean these for all the suites in the building, which means that a lift has to be rented just once, and works out cheaper in the long run as its for all suites not just one. Also, while they have the lift, an HVAC tech can check my unit out to see what’s up with it, whether the refrigerant levels are good, etc. Then things should be in a good position for summer.
Another thing that the techs suggested was the our building sue the building’s developer for how these HVAC units were put in… because it’s just insane how they were installed.
Not only is the drainpipe (black pipe) obstructing the HVAC unit, but there are vent pipes for the hot water heater in the way as well. To really get at the HVAC system, everything in there would have to be disconnected, which means liaising with the gas company as well. The way that everything is in there makes it near unserviceable, which is why the technicians were saying that it may be grounds for legal action.
Anyway, these technicians are going to email the current property management company their report. I have also given an update directly to the property management company myself, and I’ve sent an email to our condo corporation’s board apprising them of what’s been going on as well, so that they’re aware and things don’t get lost in the management company handover.
I know that nothing is going to get fixed on this now until early Spring next year, and I’m going to make sure that the issue doesn’t get forgotten so it does get addressed.
