AC Return Registers

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

Greetings!

I have a central AC system and recently was not cooling. Tech came by and found freon leak.

Upon inspection he advised that the return registers were incorrectly installed, as in location. There is one in the hallway, one on each side of double living room, and one near rear door entrance. Thay measure about same, say 1.5 foot long and about 6 in. wide there abouts.

He said that ideally only one register is needed; one bigger register, and should be placed right near where the thermostat is, which is in one of the living rooms because it was right about the middle of the house and all returning air would just come one direction and not through several different directions at different places. Said the ending result would be much faster cooling, and much cooler. Just wanted to get your thoughts...?

Featured Answer

sktn77a

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

You currently have enough return register area for a 2 ton system to work correctly. Doesn't really matter if its a single return or 4 returns - if anything, multiple returns spread out throughout the house are better than a single central return for even air distribution.

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Comments (7)

Stax
3 years ago
You got baloney from the "Tech."
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Francisco Horta
Original Author
3 years ago
It's comforting to hear. I cant rememeber the exact reasoning he mentioned as to why, but it had something to do with the location of the thermostat and since there is only one register where the thermostat is, under the thermostat, that the thermostat is oinly reading the return air temp from that register and not the others,....hence??? then got lost
Stax
3 years ago
More nonsense from the Tech.
outpaientzero
3 years ago
The guy is trying to scam you, and after that he will sell you a bridge. Your returns are fine.
PRO
Charles Ross Homes
3 years ago
All other things being equal, locating HVAC returns in multiple locations provides superior air flow distribution compared with a single return. The question of where to locate the thermostat is really the same irrespective of the number of returns. The thermostat should be located where the temperature it senses is representative of the temperature throughout the space conditioned by the system. That can be a tall order for a single (non-zoned) system.

The technician isn't necessarily scamming you. It could be that he knows next to nothing about HVAC design.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
3 years ago
I agree this is a scam but the placement of the thermostat might be an issue but if the system worked before the leak relax it will work now just fine.