I watched a home inspector do his thing today and he “wrote up” the outside A/C unit because it was leaning.
He told us how to level it and get it straight and plumb and he said the leaning causes wear and premature failure of the compressor
I told him most A/C unit I have ever seen are leaning. Some pretty badly
Agree with the inspector? Disagree?
Edited 6/30/2008 10:18 pm by mrfixitusa
Replies
Well, he's correct about one thing ... the A/C is supposed to be mounted on a level pad.
a lot of them have a little lean on purpose, to move the condensate away from the unit/structure
Silly me ... I thought that's why they had piping and catch pans.
Huh?
I took it he was talking about the outside condenser unit. Where do you get condensate there?
The real issue with a sevearly leaning compressor/condenser unit occurs durring the winter months. The refrigerant gas tends to migrate to the lowest and coldest point in a line set or outside coil. It also tends to take the oil with it, so you could potentially create a low oil situation in the compressor durring start up. It tends to happen more in long runs of line sets and unit with high lifts in the line set, rather than in the condenser itself.
Outside condenser sets are designed to be self draining for rain water. Maybe if one were tilted far enough over and junk built up insde the coil, it could pond some rain water, but not much. It would still run out through the coils.
Me thinks the guy was just trying to show someone he knew something.
A heat pump will have condensate at the condesnser in winter operation.
Yes, but no condensate pan that I have ever seen. It just drops and drains wherever.roger
Still probably not a bad idea to have the pad ever-so-slightly tilted away from foundation I should have added.
thats what i was talking about, don't hurt a thing and more better to have moisture move away from structure.
The info I have seen from the manufacturers generally "allows" up to 10degree tilt.
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Slight skewing of the unit has no effect on the unit perfomance or longevity. So, how much is "slight"? Less than 15 degrees. Anything more than that looks bad. The motor shafts are all vertical and the slight lateral load might decrease the lifespan by a few hours.