Central system with low air flow?
Question:I have a twenty yr old central system with poor air flow to the farthest vents. I had a tech come in and he found some significant leaks. Most of these were from the 4" take-offs. Another problem he suggested might be the "squirrel cage" of the blower could be plugged up. Does this make sense? What else would you suggest?
Answers:
considering its age it is areal possibility the squirrel cage blower needs cleaning as will the evaporator coil in the air handler...once you clean these and you still have poor air flow at your furthest vents then you can buy duct boosters to help push the air through those vents .if the duct pipe is round you can buy round ones and it the duct pipe is square you can get square ones.these work with your blower by pulling air to the duct and then pushing it on to the vent...they should wired to turn on when your blower comes on and off when your blower is off...these are not very expensive and easy to installl...
the filter may be bad and the drainage system may be clean
i hope you didn't pay the "tech" very much money...have the coil cleaned , replace the air filter, clean the blower , make sure you have adequate return air (check to make sure you haven't blocked any of the air intake grilles) seal all the leaks, make sure that the cooling speed that has been selected (usually the motor has 3 or 4 speed taps to choose from) , if none of that helps then maybe consider the booter fans that have been suggested (i'm not a big fan of them as people tend to put them in without considering all the other problems that can cause this and it is just a band-aid type of solution. sometimes the addition of balancing dampers can help as well...good luck
Have you considered having your ducts vacuum cleaned by a professional company? Most charge by the number of supply and return registers. Dust and other debris may be causing significant friction on the supply air. We had this done to our 50-year old house, and they removed 55 gallons of dust from the ductwork.
Are there any ducts that are sagging? flex duct works best if it is held rigid and not allowed to bow.
If you aren't sure what the squirrel cage is, it is the blower attached to the motor inside the snail-shaped housing. If you are lucky, the motor has a plug in. If not, write down the color wire and where it is attached on your machine so that you can put it back correctly. Most of these housings are easy to pull out with two or four screws. Take it out into the sun and brush off with a stiff-bristle nylon brush. If you are ambitious, you can remove the motor (mark where on the shaft the fan is attached so that is centered in the housing). After removing the motor, you can wash the assembly with a hose. Let it air dry for a while in the sun and replace the motor.
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