Podcast excerpt (Derek Cole, 2020-07-16) in which a technician explains why one side of a mobile home can be hotter: mobile homes (mostly double-wide) have two duct tracks (front and back) connected by a crossover duct; if the crossover is damaged or disconnected, one track won't receive conditioned air. When replacing systems, crossover ducts often need replacement; technicians may install "four-point tie-in" boxes (two on each track) to improve airflow. Animal damage (cats, squirrels) is cited as a common failure cause. The segment ends with casual banter and a misheard word ('duct' vs 'duck').
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With mobile homes. We do a lot of mobile homes, mostly double wides, do a few single wides, but mostly double wides. With the mobile home. You have, basically, if you can visualize the top of your mobile home looking down from Google space, you have two tracks of duct work in the mobile home. You have the front track and you have the back track. Now, connecting those two tracks is what we call crossover duct. So when you go in to replace a system, oftentimes the crossover needs to be replaced because something has happened to it. So that kind of sounds like what's happened here. You're getting the air on the front, but the crossover duct to go to the second track is not connected or has a hole in it, not getting the air where it needs to go. So that's why you're hotter in that side of the house versus the other side. Also, what we do a lot of mobile homes is, and I talked to a contractor last week about this because he was not aware you could do it, is we do what we call four point tie in. So we replace. We leave the tracks in the duct because obviously you can't mess that up. But we put in two boxes on each track so you have four points and then we tie it in so you have better airflow. But to answer that question, it's probably a crossover duct problem, which we can handle and look at. And typically when we replace a system, the crossover needs to be replaced. That's why you ladies see that in the notes quite a few times. So we do a double wide is because every time it deteriorates, get damaged or has a cat or a squirrel, whatever is under there, messing it up. A what?
Ducked.
You say deaf. I heard deaf.
I said duck. She said ducked person. I meant to say duck.