r/hvacadvice

We moved into our first home a last month. In the two weeks between our closing date and our move-in date, the restaurant on the street behind ours (whose parking lot backs up near our backyard) installed a large ventilation unit which runs 24/7 and produces a very loud mechanical humming noise that seems to revv up and down every couple of minutes. We can hear it in every room of the house and basically can’t sit on the back porch at all because it’s so unpleasantly loud. It sounds like someone is running a lawnmower next to our house all the time, at all hours of the day and night, even when the restaurant is closed. It’s been a huge stressor to say the least. We live in an urban area so we don’t expect silence by any means, but this level of constant droning noise is beyond a reasonable expectation of noise. From our back porch it is 65-70 dB.

We have talked a couple times with the owner to share our concerns, and he is planning to figure out some ideas about installing sound barriers etc. to help reduce the noise. But ultimately, his business is pizza, not HVAC, and we want to give him some prompts of what options he has to fix this issue.

So a couple questions -
Does anyone understand why they’d need to run this unit 24/7? That can’t be good for the motor I would think.

Any recommendations for sound barriers or other approaches to reduce the noise from the unit?

Seemed to only be more condensation on hotter day but I’m seeing more and more pooling of water everytime i checked. Above the door before you even open the door you can see condensation dripping too. So I’m assuming it’s just the temperature difference bc the cold central air? Or maybe it’s a bigger issue?

Okay. This is my 4th time here.

3 months ago I noticed my AC wasn't cooling super well. It was running 24/7 and still above the set temp. I posted here, somebody pointed out that the pipe outside was frozen which could mean low freon. Had a tech come out, he agreed on low freon, said there was a leak, and in 30 minutes was in and out and it was supposedly fixed. He never went into the attic to check for attic leaks, just to clarify.

31 days after he visited, it happened again. I did what you guys recommended, I had literally replaced the filter 3 weeks prior but replaced it again anyway, turned off the system, let it thaw, turned it back on and it was alright for a week.

A week later, it happened again. I replaced the filter again. I let it thaw again. It was fine. Mind you, I know this can't be the filter so soon but I'm just doing everything I know to do just to get us through this till this shitty company wants to cover their faulty repairs because they have refused thus far.

NOW today. Its hot as balls, and I go to check the thermostat. It's off. The screen of the thermostat, it's totally off, no power, nothing on the screen, no light. Buttons doing nothing. I put batteries in it and it turned on, but the AC unit stayed off. I checked the outlets and they are working and on, my phone charged in them so they have power, so I went outside and shut off the breaker and waited about 15. When I turned the breaker back on, the AC still was not running.

I took off the panel as seen in this photo and realize it's got power, it's just flashing an error code. 3 fast blinks, 4 slow. Code 34 says ignition failure. Everything on Google says that should only matter for heating, not AC, but the AC isn't working either. The system WILL NOT cool at all. I checked all vents and everything is open and clear. Please somebody know what is wrong because I'm gonna lose it if I go another 105° day with no AC.

Just installed a new 4 ton R32 unit with a new evaporator coil. The piston is .080.

Our Wall unit is completely frozen, from the top to the bottom of the vents. Filters are frozen into the ice. At the time of posting, AC hasn’t work in 4 days to thaw… but clearly that’s not working.

Any idea what could possibly trigger this?

Does this flashing need to be sealed? Just had this installed a few days ago.

Woke up this morning to find this. The cover is bent like something tried to bust out of the vent. What could have caused this? Apologies for the background noise in the video from the television.

EDIT: SUCCESS! It took a few different attempts (shop vac was a failure because of my crappy Ryobi, measuring tape with duct tape almost worked but couldnt hold on to the can on the way up after a few inches. Finally, a fiberglass fish stick as suggested with Gorilla tape made all the difference. My kids already are so happy to not hear that infernal racket when the AC is on. Thank you all so much!

New construction home. For years I complained to my builder about a clanking noise that my system made in a bathroom that the builder dismissed as just a damper expanding and contracting. I finally got frustrated enough to take things apart. That there is a beer can left in construction 4-5 feet down that vent.

How do I get it out? It’s likely out of warranty support from the builder and I’m getting quotes for up to $100 just to have a service call diagnostic. As it’s aluminum I can’t use magnets and a shop vac wasn’t about to get enough suction. Curious as to solutions to help fish this damn thing out.

Hello? Moved in to a new rental in Austin TX and someone previously sealed up the Furnace/AC closet. Not sure if it’s a good idea. When I open the closet while the AC is running it’s pretty warm in there. There is the main intake below and I just changed the filter. Should I remove the insulation they taped up to seal the slats in the door? I’m not a technician but it feels like the unit needs more air flow to stay cool.

The ducts squeak pretty badly when (larger) people walk upstairs. Its driving me insane since my work from home office is down here.

I'd like to add rubber between the duct and the joists, but that would be a huge pain, especially since I can't really access the top of the inner one. Would lowering the ducts a fraction of an inch be a bad idea? If not, I'm adding rockwool and sound absorption panels.

SOLVED

EDIT: I appreciate all the comments and the quick answers and I will take all of your advice the best I can!

For some reason since spring I've only been getting 1 and 1/2 months out of my filter for my HVAC system on my 1200 square foot house. I have three cats in the home and I vacuum mop and dust everyday and my HVAC fan probably runs for 18 hours of the day but my filter looks like this after 1 and 1/2 months. It's 12x20x1 fpr 5 filter. Can anybody tell me what's causing this to be so frequent and what can I do to make my filter not clog up so fast. The filter in the picture I just changed out today and you can see the date I installed it written on it. I changed it today because my AC was not coming out with much volume.

Tldr: I need my filters to stop clogging so fast!