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Secure compressor to pad


SteveSarasota

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Hello,

I typically tell buyers to have their condensing units attached to the concrete pad to avoid potential refrigerant leaks due to excessive vibration of the unit loosening the soldered lines.

Is there a code that requires that?

Any idea how long its been in use?

Thank you for your time,

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Hi,

I usually find them bonded to the pad by a huge blob of silicone. Don't laugh, I used this stuff once to reattach a rubber impeller to a steel shaft in a washing machine pump. The danged thing held up until the washing machine wore out!

Anyway, I just took a quick glance in my HVAC CodeCheck and didn't see anything. Maybe one of the code gurus with something more in-depth immediately at hand can give you a better answer.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

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Originally posted by Home Pride

Steve,

Here in Florida it is required. The code specifies how many anchors per side (usually 3) but if they've bolted it down at each foot I'm happy.

Dom.

What a strange requirement. Around here, the pads are made of foam. I'm not sure it'd be possible to bolt anything to them in the first place. Even if it were bolted, it wouldn't stop anything from moving. The foam would just move with the unit.

I presume that, in Florida, the pads have to be concrete?

- Jim Katen, Oregon

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The pads are poured concrete, and the condensers are bolted down with one of several special clips, or just plain concrete screws (Tapcon or similar).

I've seen those foam pads, some pool contractors install the pump equipment on them. Those things are cheap and flimsy.

Dom.

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Originally posted by Home Pride

The pads are poured concrete, and the condensers are bolted down with one of several special clips, or just plain concrete screws (Tapcon or similar).

I've seen those foam pads, some pool contractors install the pump equipment on them. Those things are cheap and flimsy.

Dom.

Why is it code though?

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In Michigan the "pad" might be most anything and I have never seen a unit secured on one. My personal house a/c has it sitting on four patio blocks for past twenty years. Garter snakes live under it and wife won't let me change it.

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Could hurricane requirements have anything to do with it? I have a friend who used to be the county engineer for Hernando County (Tampa), and he would tell me about some crazy requirements to keep things from flying around.

Jim - I can't recall seeing any pads of a foam material. All the ones I've seen have always been concrete, and most of those need to be re-leveled.

Kirk

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FBC-Mechanical

301.13 Wind Resistance

• Mechanical equipment and supports exposed to wind shall be designed and

installed to resist the wind pressures on the equipment and supports.

• Ground Mounted Units for R3 applications may be anchored with #14 screws

with gasketed washers according to the following:

1. Unit with sides less than 12 inches, 1 screw at each side.

2. Units between 12 and 24 inches 2 screws per side.

3. Units between 24 and 36 inches 3 screws per side.

4. Units greater than 36 inches or 5 tons anchorage shall be

designed in accordance with 301.13.

Thanks Dom!

The code was basically created to avoid more flying objects in case of Hurricane Force Winds.

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All we use is concrete. I have never seen a uv, or fiberglass pad... ever!

I did not know that you were supposed to attach the unit to the pad either, seems to me this would have a higher likeleyhood of causing more damage to the unit versus a free standing application.

The silicone makes good sense as it could act as a shock absorber as well as an adhesive.

So what is the general concensis?

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Originally posted by evergreeninspections

. . . Jim - I can't recall seeing any pads of a foam material. All the ones I've seen have always been concrete, and most of those need to be re-leveled.

Kirk

Actually, I'll bet that you have seen them. They look very, very much like concrete pads.

Now that I think on it, maybe they're not actually foam, but plastic as Kibble describes above.

Rap on one with your knuckle. The plastic/foam/whatever ones sound like EIFS.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

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So what is the general concensis?consensus (spelling)

Required in Florida.

Rarely done anywhere else.

In AZ we also have plastic forms filled with concrete used as a base for the units. Concrete pads are the most common, then the filled form. then the composite. I have seen the composite ones bend in the summer time.

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