The Heat is On

I had hoped to type up a review of last week’s Weird Al’s concert last night, but something else has been on our minds (and dripping from our brows) over the past couple of days.

Our air conditioner broke. Again.

So far we’ve had our blower replaced and our compressor replaced. The fan outside was still working, which pretty much covers all the parts of a home air conditioning system. Susan and the kids returned home from Tulsa on Saturday to find the house hovering around 85 degrees. Our army of box fans succeeded in pushing the hot air around, but that’s about it. We called the same place we’ve called the past three times to again come out and look at our air conditioner. They said it would be $180 just to show up on a weekend (plus double time for any labor), so we toughed it out until Monday.

Jeff came over Sunday night and found the problem almost immediately The plastic switch inside our air conditioner had completely melted. The ground wire had melted and fallen off. The switch was melted into the “on” position and, even with the fuse pulled and the circuit breaker off, the unit buzzed and hissed as if it still had power. Carefully we put the unit back together and waited for the professionals to arrive on Monday.

On Monday it rained, and the a/c guy said he wouldn’t come out while it was raining. It’s a good thing Susan was dealing with these people over myself, as I was ready to strangle somebody. Eventually the rain subsided long enough for the guy to show up. He confirmed what we had found; the switch that connects to the new compressor had melted. Of course the guy said this was completely unrelated to the compressor they replaced two weeks ago. Nobody (not even the guy who said it) could possibly believe this, but whatever. We paid the guy the $200, he left, and within an hour or so the house dropped 15 degrees, making everybody much happier.

With the temperature back to normal, we can start getting things done around the house again.