Does anybody have a suggestion for a good Air Conditioning installer, and repair contractor

Suspicious hole in a copper line, has us not wanting to use the our manager's heating an air conditioner contractor, where they want to charge time and a half over the holiday weekend. Probably should put a new unit in the house, and spending a $1000 to refill the freon and repair a copper line is silly.

I'd just call some and see what they charge.

While I was working on the project, I stayed in this rental house and showered and slept. I ran the air which worked perfectly. I came in one day when the manager thought I had returned to Illinois, and the thermostat had been opened and batteries removed. I was furious. Nobody authorized anybody to mess with anything. My wife calls, and the manager says she just replaced the batteries......this simply was not credible. I left about two days later, and my wife got a call that somehow a hole formed in a copper tube which goes from the inside A frame to the outside condenser, and that all the freon drained out and it will cost close to a 1000 to replace the tube and freon. I have been building houses for 35 years, and I have NEVER had a hole in the actual tubing. You will get leaks around connections, but a failure of the tube.....Never, but the best part thinking with a new tenant that we would just say yes, they wanted to charge time and a half over the holiday weekend. Our answer....tell the tenant who was suppose to move in today to go find another rental, do not do any work, and as sick as I am I will have to pull the copper, find the leak, and determine if I can trust the contractor, and now my agent.......I get things stop cooling....everything fails, but copper lines and copper pipe just do not get holes in them. Once I have determined the cause of the "hole" I can proceed, but I can hardly walk, and the idea of people trying to take advantage of my wife after I am gone gives me superman strength. It could all be legit, but the battery thing has me furious, and this following that.....has me suspicious. Looking at 3k replacement which is no big deal because those things are part of renting a house, but time and a half and a hole in a copper tube.....sorry time for an unexpected visit.

I don't se the problem w/ replacing the batteries but I agree about the hole in the pipe. How could that have happened unless somebody was trying to steal the copper and twisted the pipe causing a hole?

A copper line can kink. If you have a water line from a freezer to make ice, and somebody frequently moves the refrigerator, it is possible to kink a water line, but most failures in plumbing using pvc, copper, or plastic water lines fail at the joint. When two points are stationary, the kinking option is non existent, unless during installation a kink weakened the line, and then failed. I only have to look at the line to know how to proceed. I have had some auto dealers treat me as stupid, with the same routine, and I always will give the benefit of the doubt, but a hole in a freon copper line not at a joint......do not think so.

In regard to the batteries, that is something which requires our permission per our rental agreement.......any replacement or repair and entry into the home, must be approved by us. We had five smoke alarm batteries with ten year batteries removed and we were billed for new smoke detectors......we get there the good batteries are gone, cheap replacement batteries and the same smoke detectors.....we have made a formal complaint last year on that agent, and this firm has been with us for 15 years, but some of the actual agents have changed and I am simply very skeptical as to this unit not cooling when I was just using it.

Have your neighbor go and take a picture of it and send it to you.

I am weak, but I can still walk and drive. I am most concerned about the humidity and heat in Pensacola next week because I do not do well now in heat and humidity, but I will take care of this, and I have to finalize some plumbing plans with a contractor on the project......so I will spend a week getting this figured out......I am a little bit concerned because the benefits of my shots have been wearing off earlier as I decline, and my next shot is July 11th, so it will be a bad 11 days anyway.......no big deal.....just another challenge.

Are you in pain?

Are you in pain?

Its variable. Some days good. Some bad. I have not taken a prescription opiate pain pill in over a year......I will take over the counter Ibuprofen if it gets real bad, but I want nothing to impact the liver. Literally, I am the luckiest person alive, because with four marble sized tumors in my lung and a five inch metastasis on my liver, I am basically living my life about the same as I always have......the weakening getting out of a chair has been a steady decline. It has become a bit embarrassing playing poker, but I got a good PM message from a forum member, and I have been adjusting the chairs at the poker level to find the ideal height to assist me to get to standing. People would have no idea the number of PMs I get which are very helpful. Please understand.....if you looked at me you would not even think I was sick, until I try to get up from a chair. Once I am up.....I really am still doing good. I will not be sharing much once the decline gets depressing because it is one thing to educate, it is quite another to make people sad......I think I will make Christmas, but again I go on Medicare in December, and my two 30mg shots will be reduced to one 30mg shot.....at that point, I will be pretty quiet about my illness. I get blood tests the end of July, cat scans late July early August, and probably one last debulking of my lung tumors if I am strong enough. I want to get that done before November because the pneumonia is getting tougher with each bout. I have now lived eight years since the first tumor, and steve jobs lived 7.5 years and my cousin's husband lived 7 years from his first tumor........so I have gotten a full year of life more because of the dual shots......there will be no white knight, and honestly I am not even close to sad, but quite happy......the prospect of living a long time with disability and pain in a nursing home is not a goal of mine, and this will advance rather quickly.......I will sleep more......my posts will be less frequent.......and I will be restricted to my lazy boy where we will move a lifting lazy boy closer to our handicap bathroom where I have grab bars and will only have to go ten eight steps from the lazy boy. We have met with the hospice folks last year and we know the routine............I will share with people until it gets depressing this is hardly depressing but really a good quality life with loving people around me.....really....no big deal......yet.

Youdon't need that kind of aggravation. So sorry you are dealing with underhanded people.

So sorry you are dealing with underhanded people.


That has not been established. We have been very happy with our agents until the last six months. Nothing major, just some differences, but a hole in a copper tube and somebody fooling around with the thermostat after they thought we were gone.....not good. After the bad experiences with the other agent, we have learned to nip things in the bud.

I've had copper water pipes fail... but never in a refrigeration or cooling system. I was able to switch off ibuprofen to naproxin... which I never expected. I had to stop ibuprofen before my neck surgery... that was very tough. It is really much better at pain relief than narcotics. Naproxin does an adequate job tho... and is much better for you.

I have constipation issues with opiates and always take stool softners when I finally give in to the pain, but I agree Ibuprofen gives relief and I have no digestive problems or stomach problems. I am waiting until the pain gets unbearable to take prescription meds because just like you said Ibuprofen is great......does not get rid of the pain, but moderates it. You also build up tolerance for pain. I was as a kid very pain sensitive. I am kind of numb now, and I really believe that the mind plays a very important part.....as an athlete you know what playing with pain can be like, but there are times where the mental focus seems to take the pain away. When my kids were young, and they would not very seriously hurt a finger or toe, I would always go over.....assess, then once I determined the degree of injury which finger or toe.....I would go to the other hand and start squeezing and twisting with gentle increasing pressure telling them that two ouchies make the first one go away......they thought I was insane, but the crying stopped, and as they got older they would hardly cry when they had an ochie.....because they knew the two rule.....they still laugh at me........no it was not sadistic torture of a child, but clever slight of hand where the mind disconnects from the pain....that mental control I think is a necessity when dealing with chronic disease and pain......but some pain.....well it simply cannot be moderated.....and that is a hell I wish on no person.

The nerve pain is pretty bad to deal with. I had just dealt with it before that fusion surgery two years ago... but waiting really just caused more damage. I'm acting quickly this time so that I don't cause permanent damage again... and because the pain shooting down my arms is nearly unbearable. Very hard to be comfortable unless I have my head and arms in exact positions... and sleep is getting nearly impossible. I hope they decide on a fix quickly. Pain really ruins your quality of life.

I have been blessed by only having back and neck pain once in my life.....I will take this cancer thing anytime over back or neck, or kidney stones......not even close. If anybody thinks you can do anything without your head moving....they are clueless. I have nothing but compassion for that pain.....I have seen people literally wither away with chronic back and neck pain. That is why I am so happy.....the pain just has not taken away the quality of my life....kidney stones and neck and back pain can seriously impact the quality of life......a pain free day is a good day, and most my days are good days.

I decided not to ask that.

Cut out the piece of copper tubing with the hole in it when you have it repaired.  Then you can split the tubing open and see what caused the hole.  Moisture/freon  can cause a pipe to fail. Any ways you will know what caused it. They are talking about evaporators but some what the same..Formicary corrosion is caused by a chemical reaction between molecules known as volatile organic compounds and the copper tubes, and results in microscopic tunnels within the tubing which causes the coil to leak refrigerant Formicary corrosion is a particularly insidious defect in an evaporator coil because the resultant leakage is difficult to detect, and usually results in consumers being forced to repeatedly refill their air conditioners with refrigerant, often at significant cost, which only works to mask the defect for a period of time, until the Coil fails.

I am going to purchase a portable large room air conditioner( we will use it for guests in our current home after the new system is installed). We have one large window unit in this house, and the tenant insist that they want to stay. I have told them it may take two weeks to put in new central AC, but in the interim the portable AC will allow the house in combination with the other large window unit to remain cool while I get bids for a new system. I have purchased precharged freon copper tube for 45 years and when building houses NEVER had one fail in the tube. I have only had one water copper pipe fail after it froze. In any regard, I will not be rushed, and would rather the house sit empty for two months than be manipulated or told that something unseen must be done as directed from 900 miles away.......We have seen rampant dishonesty which on the face of it is so bone chilling stupid.

McCombs Electrical Co., Inc., Milton, FL  Ph (850) 994-5467 & ask for Benny, who takes care of dispatch for all the A/C work and is knowledgeable and easy to talk to.

We originally learned of them through a local, quality home builder who re-sided our house for us.

They have been fair, honest, and reasonably priced with us since then.  They even corrected a prior contractor's error and didn't charge us full bore as they could have.

I think I gave you this name some time back.

Thanks. You probably did, and my box of contractors is in literally a box at the Park Model, so I am trying to get a heads up, as I will travel at 3am this morning so I can first thing Tuesday install a window unit in the bedroom so the tenant will at least be cool in the bedroom on the new unit I am bringing down, and the old units was 15K btu which is huge and cools the kitchen and living room. These new window units have 12seer, and I am sure the old central is about an 8, so if they adequately cool the house, she will be saving money, and I can wait to October when I think I want to put in a new furnace, air conditioner, and condenser which between seasons is the contractors slow time. I like a Milton contractor because I have three rental homes and the park model(the central air needs a tune up) in the Milton area. I had a very difficult time putting the AC unit on the cart and into my car, but I had to see if I could handle it because my wife cannot make this quick trip down, and I must be able to do this myself.....I will push the envelope a bit, but I have another issue with prepaying a plumber in May, and no work has been done on the project, when I thought my backflow and water lines would be installed........I am staying alive by pushing that envelope, but I sure hope the next week there is a cold front, and I can get back into the comfort of my lazy boy and get my July 11th shot.

I got a new system put in Oct. and Energysavers was the best price. McCombs couldn't match it and I had used them for years. The condenser has a lifetime warranty. The prices ranged from $3500 to $5000 for a 21/2 ton. They were $500 cheaper than McCombs who was the next cheapest w/ no lifetime warranty on the condenser.

Thanks I was figuring a new furnace and air unit would be about 5k, and the home is about 20 years old, and it is silly to put AC in an old furnace unit.......we will see. I will call both this week. Thanks for the info....I am going to watch my Sunday HBO shows and try to get a few hours sleep......I drive four or five hours, and pull over and sleep as necessary. I am most comfortable in the Prius, but I will need to take the chevy down because I will need to tow some equipment when I get there........I figure three or four days and then lots of rest after the shot will not let me get as worn down as in the past efforts on the project. Life is one series of challenges....and honestly the more chit piled on my plate the happier I get.....it is good to be alive, and you learn to not sweat the little things, or expect perfection.....

Vikingwoman wrote:I got a new system put in Oct. and Energysavers was the best price. McCombs couldn't match it and I had used them for years. The condenser has a lifetime warranty. The prices ranged from $3500 to $5000 for a 21/2 ton. They were $500 cheaper than McCombs who was the next cheapest w/ no lifetime warranty on the condenser.

Of course we all know price is not the only consideration on a major purchase like this nor in ongoing maintenance relationships, but obviously you were comfortable selecting Energy Savers and more power to you. I don't personally have any experience with them but that doesn't mean squat.

Sea, watch your asz on the road and drink plenty of coffee.

PkrBum wrote:The nerve pain is pretty bad to deal with. I had just dealt with it before that fusion surgery two years ago... but waiting really just caused more damage. I'm acting quickly this time so that I don't cause permanent damage again... and because the pain shooting down my arms is nearly unbearable. Very hard to be comfortable unless I have my head and arms in exact positions... and sleep is getting nearly impossible. I hope they decide on a fix quickly. Pain really ruins your quality of life.

Pkr, this is a late reply but I've been meaning to tell you I've hated hearing of your travails, and am so glad you're jumping on the case earlier this time. You are so right about pain - it just sucks and, as you likely know all too well, only begets more pain. Hope you'll keep us in the loop and hope you'll soon be sleeping like a baby.