Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Forever Alone




She Who WIll Be Obeyed is traveling and I hold the watch, alone. (Along with all Cat Support duties).

Two of us drove to the airport, yesterday. One of us returned home.

View from the Spousal Unit's room, taken by iPhone.


So it was time to go find out what was wrong with the Mom's air-conditioning water leak. It seems that the condensate drain was clogged, so I (Not knowing what really to do) took off the drain pipe and looked for anything obvious. Nope. I tried blowing into the pipe, but there is no way I have enough hot air to dislodge what ever is blocking. Time to call the experts!

A phone call was made and I was given the dreaded "Between ten and two" arrival time for the technician.

The tech arrived near twelve and he concurred with my assessment. Then he opened up the access to the cooling coil and showed me the mold and junk that had accumulated on the coils. Yuck.

"That will be $149.00 to unclog the drain and $189.00 to clean and unclog your coils".

Since I was paying, I made sure to watch every move the thief Technician made. I will not pay for such services again.

"Brian" was a nice enough fellow, he knew he was over charging me and I knew, too. So when he suggested I do something I gently suggested back that he was doing the job and I was studying his methods.

We got along fine.

Anyway, he took a compressed air can over to the air handler unit (It sure looked like a container of refrigerant, R-34 or something like it), placed the hose into the drain and sealed it with his hand. He asked me to confirm if anything comes out of the drain. I hear the sounds of compressed gasses going into the pvc pipe.

Yep. Brown sludge accompanied by an equally evil smell defecates forth from the drain. Yuck. You will have to imagine it all on your own. Brain bleach, please!

Brian puts the pipe back together with the drain pan and tells me that the cleaner used on the coils will drain and clean out the pvc pipe.

So the tech uses pressurized gases when he should have used an air compressor... Fine with me. I am mentally formulating my plan to go to Harbor Freight Tools and buy a $39.00(with coupon from NRA Magazine) compressor, since I will not be able to use expensive refrigerant to blow my pipes out, next time.

Brian takes out a plastic pump bottle (Like the kind the bug spray/fertilizer comes in), fills half way with a cleaner from Ace Chemicals called "Eco-Kleen" and the rest with water. He starts off by spraying a bit on the dirty coils and using a dog tick comb to pry out the yucky molds and other junk from the delicate metal blades.

This part of the effort took about 25 minutes. After the gunk was removed, the spray jug was used to get the detergent into the coils and deep cleaning began in earnest. Another 20 minutes went into that.

After the coils were completely clean, Brian began to clean my wallet with his bill. It came out to about $370 bucks, even after I presented coupons for a discount. I hate to pay but the job needed doing. The good result is that I know how to perform the same task, too.

Education is indeed expensive!

Today I will stop by the Mom-dwelling and make sure the a/c system is still running well. The reason for using professional services is that I don't mind calling them back in to uncluck anything they have clucked.

 Have a nice day out there!


UPDATE;

Who am I kidding; I am the Cat Litter Custodian, even when the Spousal Unit graces our stately manse!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, I just figured it out...For as much as you pay the "Professionals", I could come down there, Do the work as "Raul" and live on what you'd pay me....
Your own personal maint. guy!

Buck said...

Education is indeed expensive!

Especially when ya pay the hourly rate. DAMHIK.

Barco Sin Vela II said...

Raul;
It would be great, but you can't afford to keep your lifestyle up on $400 a week. And I'd have to get a job to keep you paid...

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