About Tim McAuley Expertise can answer general questions on air conditioning & heating. cannot answers questions on appliances.
Experience 19 yrs wholesale distribution of refrigeration & A/C equipment and related parts, 1 yr manufacturers representative for air conditioning & heating equipment, 10 yrs manufacturers of A/C & Heating equipment, 3 yrs with contractors as a mgr of service & sales. Currently employed with a manufacturer of heating & cooling thermostats for residential and light commercial applications.
Education/Credentials high school, some college. Many industry related schools & seminars, manufacturers education programs.
Question I just had a tech look at my 10+ year old heat pump. It is not blowing cold. He connected his gages and immediately diagnosed the problem as a bad compressor for the following reason... The pressure on the high side was within specs, but the pressure on the low side was too HIGH. The pressure is "bleeding back" through the valve in the compressor. He showed me the gages while they were connected, but I did not take note of the actual pressure readings. Does this make sense? He released some freon thinking that might help reduce the pressure on the low side, but that didn't work. The tech seemed honest enough, but I'd like to get confirmation before going forward with a large purchase.
Answer Chris - The symptoms for bad valves in a compressor are high suction pressure with low head pressure. When valves are bad, the compressor pumps refrigerant thru the valves, but also sucks some of the refrigerant back thru the defective valves. This is what causes the suction pressure to rise. However, the flow of refrigerant to the condenser is reduced which causes low head pressure.
So, he may or may not have diagnosed the problem properly. I'm not a technician and cannot diagnose from here. Releasing refrigerant from the system will not help the system if the valves are bad.
I don't know if you want to spend the money to get a second opinion, but, like I said, he may or may not be right about the valves.
