The $79 insect....

Last Wednesday, in the middle of this heatwave, the central a.c. decided to take a dump. Our service guy came out, replaced the capacitor on the blower fan motor, and it was back up and running in no time - until Saturday morning anyway. It's dead again! Called the company back - said it would be a minimum $120 weekend service call, and if it was the blower burned out, we wouldn't be able to get it fixed till Monday. So instead of dumping that money out for probably nothing, we held out for today. Saturday wasn't too bad in the house, since it was cooler and rained most of the day, but Sunday was brutal. It was well over 90 inside the house, and all the fans did was blow hot air around. I was tempted to sleep outside in the hammock last night, but toughed it out in here instead, and it did cool down a little over night. Pups and cats were miserable, along with their humans.
Around 10 this a.m., service guy shows up. It was a different, older guy than last week, and I'm glad it wasn't the same one. I don't think the other one would ever have found the problem. Anyway, this guy takes the cover off the electric works on the inside, and starts testing this and that - couldn't find any reason for the problem at first, and then - success. It seems an insect - maybe about 1/2" long creepy crawly looking thing, decided to sit on the contacts when the unit wasn't running, and when it kicked back on and the contacts tried to close, Mr Bug got mashed between them and interrupted the circuit and shut the fan down.
Holy crap - never heard of such a thing!!! But he pulled the bug out with tweezers, hooked a couple of wires back up, and the old girl is working once again. He said it's not a common problem at all, but it does happen on occasion! :eek:
Service call - $79. Pretty darn expensive bug, but at least we have the a.c. again. :eek: I text'ed the info to son and DIL and they both had the same response - "you're kidding - right??" Wish I had kept the bug and taped it to the bottom of the bill..........:p:D

Living in Florida, I can fully understand and believe this. We have a serious problem of squirrels chewing our car wires.

I'm glad you got the AC back, Ellie. If it gets any hotter here, I have to move to Alaska.

Gee whiz, that much for a service call? Not "user friendly" are they? But it was a week end..

That capacitor is what went out on mine the first time it went out, the second time he said was probably because they didn't connect the capacitor secure enough because a wire was just loose on it so that was a free visit..

Who woulda thunk it? :eek:

Glad you are cool again. WOW!

That's why they call computer glitches "bugs" as long ago, a fly got into the system and shorted out one of the first computers!

Wow!!! What a bug!!

Glad to hear you got the system back up & running. The earwig is a bug around here that is drawn to electricity & people have had trouble with them. They smell horrible when a person squashes them. It must be all the rainy damp weather we have had to bring them on.

RIP little bug. :(

Glad to hear you are cool again.

Wow. That's really something, Ellie. Glad you're nice and cool again, though.

Just when ya think ya heard it all.....:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Bonny

Glad to hear you got the system back up & running. The earwig is a bug around here that is drawn to electricity & people have had trouble with them. They smell horrible when a person squashes them. It must be all the rainy damp weather we have had to bring them on.

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Yes - earwig - that's what it was. I just couldn't think of the name of it yesterday.
And funny thing for it not being common to get a bug on the contacts---a guy my son works with had the same thing happen. :eek:

:) That was a darn expensive bug.. Who would have thunk it.. Glad your all cool again..

Better 79 dollars than a whole replacement?:eek:

Laughing my head off here Ellie. You sure do grow huge bugs out your way. But that service call wasn't that expensive. The cheapest call here starts at $125 and that's with the service man being generous. Who would have thought...and what the heck is an earwigg, something that gets in your ears?

Maybe if your a/c goes off again you can go down and check everywhere for a bug ....beats sleeping in 90 degree heat.

OH yeah!! I completely understand the nature-type interference of our complex lifestyle - if you remember, I posted a comment about a snakie that decided to get chopped up by my A/C unit about 3 months ago. No issues cause except a very nasty odor and some flies for a while. And I felt horrible about the snakie.

We bought a cover for the a/c to try and avoid that happening again but that caused another issue. The cover slowly blows open when the a/c fan turns on and allows whatever has settled on top of it to slide off. Unfortunately, the a/c unit is right next to my bird room and the opening of the cover caused hysteria every time it happened - birds screaming, throwing themselves around the room or huddling in corners for the entire day waiting for it to happen again. So it was either block the windows or remove the cover. Needless to say, we removed the cover.

PS - I hate earwigs. . .they give me the heebie jeebies.

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Originally Posted by Asiel

Laughing my head off here Ellie. You sure do grow huge bugs out your way. But that service call wasn't that expensive. The cheapest call here starts at $125 and that's with the service man being generous. Who would have thought...and what the heck is an earwigg, something that gets in your ears?

Maybe if your a/c goes off again you can go down and check everywhere for a bug ....beats sleeping in 90 degree heat.

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Nah - this was a little guy, altho some species of them get very big. There are lots of pics - just Google.
Myth has it that they would get in your ear and lay eggs and the larvae would go to your brain and that's how they got their name, It's those pincers that make them so creepy looking I think.
I don't think I would want to check the a.c. out myself - not worth getting electrocuted over. I'll leave the fixing to the pros......:D

I keep forgetting about Google. I'll have to go check up on earwig. Never heard of that but it sounds a bit creepy, glad we don't have them here.

By the way, if you decide to check your a/c , turn it on off before......lol.
There's a switch on the side of the furnace also for that. If I was stuck in 90 degree heat you'd see my head in the a/c pretty fast if no one was home to check it.

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Originally Posted by Asiel

By the way, if you decide to check your a/c , turn it on off before......lol.
There's a switch on the side of the furnace also for that. If I was stuck in 90 degree heat you'd see my head in the a/c pretty fast if no one was home to check it.

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This is a giant behemoth that sits outside and runs independent of the furnace. The only common thing it has with the furnace is the inside thermostat on the wall, and the duct work that the air flows thru. Not talking a little window unit here. If I stuck my head inside that monster, it would probably take it off. No thanks - we'll leave it to the pros! :D


BTW - you have earwigs where you are, but maybe you've just never seen one.

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Originally Posted by Daisy and Delilah

Living in Florida, I can fully understand and believe this. We have a serious problem of squirrels chewing our car wires.

I'm glad you got the AC back, Ellie. If it gets any hotter here, I have to move to Alaska.

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D&D, a couple of years ago I had an episode with MICE chewing through my car wires! At the time I owned a 2007 chevy cobalt and when I was going to church one sunday, I found I couldn't shift out of low, use the acceralator right or use the car very well. I made it home and my brother nursed the car over to the nearest chevrolet dealer and that's when we found out about the chewn wires! It wasn't under warranty, darn it!