LESLIE: Now we’re going to try to help our very warm friend, Jill, in Florida.
Jill, what’s happened to your AC?
JILL: Hey, guys.
LESLIE: Hi there.
JILL: We have a central unit and it’s just, for some reason, not blowing straight into the master bedroom. And we’ve had the – it’s still under the warranty and we’ve had the contractor come back out and he turned up the fan speed and went up into above the garage and pulled the coil out and then we cleaned the filter and it’s still not blowing any cool air into the bedroom.
TOM: Is the bedroom like as far away as the air conditioner as you can get?
JILL: Probably.
TOM: Yeah. You know what? This is most likely a design issue. It’s not something as simple as a filter. But if you’re not blowing enough air out of that duct, you might need to add some more ducts; might need to increase the size of the duct. It’s not where you can – you know, there are devices called duct boosters which are like fans that can help pull some air through but they’re really – they’re not for like newer houses; I mean they’re for like old houses where you’re trying to put square pegs in round holes. If this is a newer system, it ought to be working properly the first time and if that duct is not blowing air, it is either restricted – i.e. crushed somewhere or bent or not connected properly – or it’s just not big enough and too far away from the system.
JILL: I see, I see. I wouldn’t even have thought (AUDIO GAP) located would have been a factor into it. But that does make some sense.
TOM: Yeah, you need to look into that, Jill, and get them working on that. And the other thing is this: make sure that you have return ducts up there in the bedroom area because if that’s going to be far away from the central system, you need to have both supply ducts and return ducts. So if it’s not like right outside the door of the bedroom or not in the bedroom, you might want to add one because that’s going to recirculate the air back to the cooling system and that’s going to be the only way it cools efficiently.
JILL: It has one little duct in the room which we don’t – you know, that only has one little duct for the whole room and it’s a pretty good-sized room.
TOM: Yeah, that doesn’t seem like it’s enough.
JILL: No.
TOM: No, I think it’s a design issue.
JILL: So maybe adding another duct into the ceiling.
TOM: Yeah, it’s a design issue. That’s what you’ve got to do.
JILL: OK. Well that sounds like a plan. I appreciate you guys taking my call.
TOM: You’re real welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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