Verifying operation is difficult without a test device. Rather than tear an appliance apart, I hook an inductive ammeter around one feed lead and switch between low and high heat while the unit is running. If the draw doesn’t change, either the switch or a heat element is bad.
How do I get to the the feed leads without ripping the machine apart?
My advanced knowledge of circutry makes me ask questions like: what does it look like? and where does it live in the machine? And I won’t get electricuted if I do that?
What’s a month old?
Look at this picture of an air handler in take port. The filter normally occupies the hole we’re looking through and just on the other side you see the coils packet with lint. This happens very fast with no filter on the unit.
Well, there’s a safety issue then. I go to the breaker or fuse panel and measure the current flow there because it’s typically at eye level and involves undoing four screws. If you’re not familiar with the innards or have a working knowledge of electricity, then you should not venture within. Do you have a learned friend with an inductive ammeter?
:smack:
Sorry, I’m doing packet analysis at work.
Packed. As in caked. Filled with.
Electric dryers can be run on either 220v or 110v. If yours is running on 110v, it will take longer to dry and cost more. Check it out.
Apologies. My lack of experience in this area makes it difficult for me to describe what I’m seeing.
Let me try again and hopefully it will make more sense.
The thermostat in on one wall.
On the opposite wall is a closet. Inside the closet is the furnace. The furnace appers to be two compartments, with the furnace proper on top and a compressor below. The compressor sits up off the ground and connects, via some ducting, to an air intake port that opens to the outside through the right hand wall of the closet. More ducting comes out the top, above the furnace, presumedly going to the air outputs in my house.
There was a filter seperating the compressor from the opening of the air intake which was filthy. I could also see the second filter which I had placed last month in the air intake.
Outside is the air conditioner. I couldn’t find any coils like the ones in your picture. The air conditioner itself looks pretty clean and the furnace looks unremarkable. Though I wasn’t keen to dig around behind the pilot flame.
So, if I understand what I’m seeing, the system works like this: When the thermostat triggers either the heater or air conditioner, the air compressor in the closet kicks on and starts drawing unmodified air through the air intake. The air then runs either through the furnace or over cooled pipes provided by the airconditioner outside which are somewhere within the machinery in the closet. Newly modified air then runs out the top of the closet and is ducted throughout my house. Right?
So, part of my problem is that I thought there was no filter on the air intake when there actually was. So now I’ve got double the filter. Another part of the problem is that the original filter was filthy.
If I’m on the right track, then I now know about the filter and can try getting a new one. I feel so smart! S-M-A-T! </homer simpson> 
Having located the real air filter and replacing it is definitely a big step. It alone could account for the disastrously low efficiency of your system, which appears to me to be a 1-1/2 ton unit (I didn’t look up the model number - GE’s are obsolete, having been sold to Trane and then bought out by Amana).
Hopefully, this has alleviated your problem, but IME, many are not so lucky. As you describe your air handler, you appear to have a typical upflow unit. What you are calling a compressor is the indoor fan section. The gas furnace sits above that and (I would wager) your evaporator coil sits on top of the furnace. It will be a medium-large box with 3 pipes connected to it. At least one of the pipes will be insulated, generally with a black foam called Armaflex or Rubatex. One of the pipes will be copper and relatively small. The third pipe will be PVC or copper and it is a drain for condensed moisture from the evaporator.
OK, enough background. The one and only purpose of the filthy filter you discovered is to prevent this evaporator coil from getting clogged. Since the filter was extremely clogged and you don’t know how long it has been there and don’t know how often it was changed in the past, there’s a fair to middling chance that your evaporator coil is dirty. You should check it and clean it if needed - some tools and minimum skills required.
And for the sake of completeness, if the evaporator is dirty, I would guess that the fan blower is also somewhat crudded up and needs to be cleaned as well (more tools and skills needed here).
It sounds like a lot of work, and it sort of is. A trained professional could knock this out in a couple of hours with the right tools. A basic handy homeowner might want to dedicate the better part of a day to it and be prepared to call in the pros if they cock it up. An un-handy homeowner might want to get some estimates and check the budget for the necessary funds.
The upside is that your A/C unit will work much better, live longer, and cost less to run, assuming that the evap coil is actually dirty. If it’s not, then Wooo-Hooo! - you’re good to go with nothing but a $1.29 filter.
Awesome. Thanks, Rhubarb. The weather has cooled down enogh that we’re fine with the fans. We’ll change out the filter and keep an eye on how the furnace runs when we eventually kick it on. The good news is that our management is pretty proactive about keeping the equipment running, so we’ll call them in to do the tricky cleanings you spoke of if the new filter doesn’t make a big enough impact. Woohoo!