Home Improvement → Air Conditioner Fan Motor Replacement Cost

It appears that the motor that spins the fan in the air conditioner died last night. I cannot spin the fan blades and the motor makes a loud buzzing sound when turned on and the blades do not move at all and the motor is very hot and smells like it burnt out. I am 95% sure that this is the only problem with the unit. What should be the cost to replace that motor?

The model is BDP Company (I think it is Bryant now).
Model: 567CJ030
Fan Motor FLA - 1.3
Volts - 208-230
Hertz - 60/1

I live in the Philadelphia Suburbs.

I have someone coming out to look at it but I figure the motor should be around 100 bucks and the service/labor would be around another 100 bucks even though it should only be a 30 minute job to replace the fan motor.

Can anyone confirm?

~400 is typical for a turn-key job, IE you watch an AC company come to your home and fix it

Do it yourself for about 75 bucks

It's more likely its just the start capacitor, that's more like a 20 dollar part

Thanks for the reply.

I am having a party on Friday, so I figured I should just call have have it repaired quickly, otherwise I would have replaced it myself over the weekend since it seems like a pretty simple job to replace the motor and capacitor. I guess thats the price I'll have to pay to have it done quickly.

$380 to $440 canadian averages for condensor motor
make sure he changes the capacitor if one is there

Sounds more like a seized bearing to me.

Well, I had the unit looked at and the fan motor is bad and needs to be replaced, but the guy said he thinks that the motor is going to cost about $500 before labor. He is going to look up the price when he gets back to the shop but I cannot believe that it costs that much. I will get the motor part number and details and see if I can find one cheaper and do it myself (I do have a union electrician living with me so he should be able to help). If it truely does cost that much I may just replace the whole unit. Does anyone have a ballpark range for a price on a whole unit? The current unit has a cooling capacity of 28,000.

The motors are generic on most. Just 220V, fractional HP.

Usually can just get another motor the same size and Hp and shaft size (careful some are 12mm while others are 1/2".)

Should be less than $100.

Sounds like they only use OEM parts so they can charge the inflated rates and don have to do any work matching up motors.

I had my motor and cap replaced a few years back and as I recall it was something in the neighborhood of $250 to $300 dollars. Most of the labor is simple, but sometimes it takes a while to get the fan off the old motor, what with rust on the shaft and all.

The last time I priced the name-brand motor at retail it was something like $150. Generics work just as well and will be cheaper; you just have to find a match to the specs on the label, plus find the same mounting style. Surplus places sell these motors at rock-bottom prices; I was able to buy the exact same motor that's in there right now (whatever the HVAC guy put in last time) for $25 from a surplus place on Ebay. I am keeping that motor as a spare for when the current one dies, at which point I will swap it out and might attempt to repair the dead one (bearings, most likely - I can do it myself if I can find the parts) and use it as a spare.

One thing on longevity of these motors - unless the motor is sealed then it needs to be oiled every year or two. Sealed motors are supposed to last much longer, but you never know.

I forgot to add that, unless the motor is completely dead by now, sometimes you can turn it on and while it's buzzing give the fan a good shove with a yardstick or something and it will spring to life. The fan blades should be turned upwards so it won't chop up the yardstick or anything, but be careful anyway. I had to do this one long holiday weekend when I couldn't find anyone to come out to look at mine. I generally kept the thermostat turned down so that the unit would run continously and not shut off, though, so it cost me a little extra electricity. This might buy you some time while you shop around. If you decide to do this then it might be advisable to go ahead and oil the motor, too, if you can.

Also, since you will be replacing the cap anyway (standard procedure) you might as well go ahead and replace it first to see if it cures the problem. There's no need to replace the motor yet unless it is actually dying. In my case I could hear the bearings squeal off and on so I knew I needed a new motor.

ah you don't want to change out a condenser for just a bad condenser motor
Shop around the motor can be done cheaper
Also look at the contactor too it might be pitted and is cheap to replace at the same time

500 bucks net is a lot of dough by the time he is done he'll want your first born..shop

yes and you might i typed might have a time getting the fan blade off the shaft so oil it good, remove the hold bolts and let the oil in there to get on the shaft
go into a local supplier that sells bryant and pay cash

Take the motor out and take it to an electric motor shop. $100 - 125 for a generic replacement. Personally I would replace the capacitor and contactor also. Everything for $150 to 175.

Just to give you an idea of what kind of profit that guy is trying to make off of you, check out some of the prices here:

»www.electricmotorwarehou ··· tors.htm

$500 plus labor should be criminal.

»cgi.ebay.com/EMERSON-K55 ··· 567831d7

and

»cgi.ebay.com/3727-1-6-hp ··· 88ef52af

would be best to get a model number off the motor and crossreference it with the google thingie.

dont let the ac man assrape you for a sub 100$ motor...

good luck

-j

I had my fan motor and capacitor replaced on my 1 1/2 ton ac unit for $200 earlier this year(fan motor bearing were getting ready to die very very noisy lol). Well worth it to replace

The specs for your unit are available on google - "Model: 567CJ030".
Your fan motor is a 1/6 HP Permanent Split Capacitor 208-230V 1075 RPM.

Should be around $100:
I'm not sure why, but DSLR won't let me post a link (I've drilled down to about 6 motors). IM me if you want the link.

$500 seems very high. You should probably call someone else or just go to Grainger and get one yourself. As mentioned, you should probably replace the run-cap at the same time.

Can you read the motor frame type? (EG, 48, 48Y, 48YZ)

Does Grainger sell to the general public these days? Their web site still sells "wholesale only". In fact, the very first time my condenser motor went out I did some research and found that these sold for $35 each on-line at the time (I would have to add shipping and wait for it to arrive), but Grainger had it for $70 at a location just a couple of miles from my house. Still a good price, but when I tried to buy it they refused me and said I had to show a business license or some such. My wife was already impatient about not having reliable AC, so I called a service tech and he showed up about an hour later to replace the motor. As I recall he charged at least $200.

Funny story about that - and one reason why I hesitate to call out a service tech unless I absolutely have to. I had already discovered the yardstick trick before I placed the service call, so I knew that when the fan was running everything else still cooled like it was supposed to. But when the tech showed up he took one look at my condenser (which was only about five years old at the time) and told me that I needed a whole new unit! I played dumb and told him I thought I just needed a new motor. He insisted that if the fan motor ever stopped then the compressor had also burned out, no doubt about it! I asked how much and he said it would be at least $2,500, as it's probably a four or five ton unit (4.5 tons, to be exact). I asked how much for just the motor and he said around $200 installed, but that it would be a waste of money. We went back and forth on this for a couple of minutes, with me finally telling him to either replace the motor or leave. He finally agreed to do it rather than waste a service call, since he hadn't done so much as even physically touch the unit yet and I wasn't going to pay him just for showing up and doing nothing but arguing with me!

Anyway, as his reward I stood around and watched everything he did, just to make sure that I got what I was paying for and that he didn't "find" any other problems with the unit. I'm sure he just loved this, but I actually learned a lot about how the condenser was put together and how to work on it. When he finished and switched everything back on, he started raving about how tough that compressor was and how I should hang onto it as long as I possibly could. I thanked him and sent him on his way, knowing that I would never call that particular HVAC place ever again. That was 20 years ago and the compressor is still going strong!

I'd like to say that this was a one-time occurrence, but over the years I've dealt with at least four different professional HVAC places, and they all have either burned me or tried to burn me at some point. So now I do all maintenance and repairs myself, with the exception of the EPA-regulated stuff - and thanks to the internet I even have a permit for that, just not all of the tools.

Grainger only sells to businesses. However when I setup a business account with them I gave them my business name and they didn't check anything or need any proof. So I'm sure you could just make up a business name and go with that.

Just remember that when posters here are saying generic motors they still most likely are referring to name brand motors.
Not off brand no brand Chinese junk.
Name brand motors just not OEM.
They are first rate just do not have that OEM sticker or price.

After I got home yesterday I got the details from my housemate. The total they wanted including labor was $548. Even including the labor this does sound high. If I can get the motor for under $150 i'll just replace it myself. Otherwise I may just wait until I replace my furnace (it is even older than the air conditioner) and replace the AC unit at the same time, but I do not anticipate doing that until late this year or next year. I will take the old motor out this weekend and get the exact type of motor that is currently in there. From what I have seen on the internet, replacing it is fairly easy as long as I can get the blades off.

You probably don't have to remove the motor to read the label on it. You can usually read it with a flashlight shining in through the angled fins that protect the fan blade.

That's a ridiculous price for a condenser fan motor replacement . . . just as an example . . . here's a Dayton 4M261 Fan Motor, PSC, 1/6 HP, 1075, 208-230v, 48YZ at Amazon for $77.76

»www.amazon.com/Dayton-4M ··· 01GBRX84

For 500+ the guy better show up with roses and take you to dinner.

here's a thread I made on a similar subject a few years back:
»The 2nd annual "I oiled my furnace blower motor w/ car oil"

It finally crapped out and I think I ended up paying $300 for emergency that day replacement (motor and cap). After he left I cut the side out of the cardboard box and looked it up, the motor was an emerson and only costs about $85.

www.emersonmotors.com

Of course I paid for his knowledge and ability to replace it quickly (middle of winter, two kids). But the point is these motors really are cheap it's the experience you pay for.

A lot of "name brand" stuff that I buy these days turns out to be "Chinese junk" anyway, just hopefully made with a little better design and quality control than the no-name or off-brand. However, I note that quite a bit of off-brand stuff is slowly turning to name-brand (the brand itself is gaining respect), which I guess is a good thing, overall.

Often, when you go into a store with a wide selection of some product, you'll see at least three different categories:

1. The quality, name-brand product, made in America or similar (expensive).
2. The quality, name-brand product, made in China or similar (moderate)
3. The junk, knock-off brand, usually made in China (cheap)

Over time options 1 & 3 tend to fade away a bit, leaving mostly option 2, which is the sweet-spot in quality and cost.