 ROCINANTEOriginal Member 007Premium
join:1999-06-29
Hartsdale, NY | reply to Goober
Re: [Heating or Air Conditioning] Are these quotes reasonable? said by Goober:However, recently the AC stopped working and we had a guy out to do repairs. He found that the fan motor in the condenser unit was seizing up which may also have resulted in the capacitor crapping out. He replaced both of those items and the AC is has been working fine for now. The cost for the AC repair was $800. These are fairly easy items to replace. I only needed a good multimeter to test the capacitor and contactor. I replaced mine (fan motor and capacitor) by doing some research on Youtube. It only cost me $120.
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CRUNCH THIS!
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 GooberPremium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
kudos:5
 ·Dish Network
| said by Derwood:I know for me, the base choice made the most sense and will give me a better ROI than the more expensive systems. That's the thing. When I run it through this calculator »www.acdoctor.com/energy-calculator.php?, I don't see how I recover the cost differential of a higher SEER unit within a 15 year time span. I'm not sure I need all the bells and whistles of the more expensive units but I would like the better blower in the third option.
said by pende_tim:Did any of the replacement companies actually do a Manual J load calculation and a Manual D to verify the ducting size?
Don't assume the old unit was sized correctly as back in the day "bigger was better". Now for energy efficiency and comfort a heating and cooling system needs to be properly sized. This will help control humidity, ensure an even temperature and minimize operating costs.
5 Ton may be too big in this day and age of high efficiency units. No calculations. I'll ask him if he needs to do that and if not, why. But from all I've seen and read, a 5-ton unit is pretty normal for the size of house we have.
I'll ask the other 2 companies about the calculations prior to them starting their quoting process.
said by ROCINANTE:These are fairly easy items to replace. I only needed a good multimeter to test the capacitor and contactor. I replaced mine (fan motor and capacitor) by doing some research on Youtube. It only cost me $120.
Yeah, I know they're pretty easy to replace and I've done that stuff in the past. This time though, given the age of the unit, I wanted someone to come in and really inspect and clean it. So that's what part of the cost was. He was there for several hours. I talked to him and watched what all he was doing trying to learn what all else he needed to check. It was then that the heat exchanger crack information came to light. There's also a capacitor on the blower motor that will likely go bad in the relatively near term.
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Yedinitsy do nulya. Good job, idiot. |
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nonymousPremium
join:2003-09-08
Glendale, AZ | reply to ROCINANTE
said by ROCINANTE:said by Goober:However, recently the AC stopped working and we had a guy out to do repairs. He found that the fan motor in the condenser unit was seizing up which may also have resulted in the capacitor crapping out. He replaced both of those items and the AC is has been working fine for now. The cost for the AC repair was $800. These are fairly easy items to replace. I only needed a good multimeter to test the capacitor and contactor. I replaced mine (fan motor and capacitor) by doing some research on Youtube. It only cost me $120. My old one had an out of stock motor harder to replace with oem years ago and the ac guy put in a quality brand name one and made it fit. Plus did capacitors just in case. I was going to say even with extra labor to make another motor fit and the capacitors it was less than $300. Either costs went way up or people back east just have money to burn.
The motor was properly sized just not oem and the mountings needed some adaption. |
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GooberPremium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
kudos:5 | tl;dr?
I said he did other stuff as well.
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Yedinitsy do nulya. Good job, idiot. |
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nonymousPremium
join:2003-09-08
Glendale, AZ
1 edit | said by Goober:tl;dr?
I said he did other stuff as well.
Sure he inspected it to see if they could sell you anything else. 
My AC guy checks the whole system also. Even adds to his notes on the inside of the unit so next time he comes out he can see if there are any changes.
If the hvac guy knows that out of so many times checking for cracks for free he can sell a unit it is not out of the goodness of his heart.
Not saying the are rooking you. Just that some of that stuff is normal to do. Plus do it enough the odds are they either get a chance to fix something else or sell a whole new unit.
Like when I take my under warranty SUV to the dealership for the free oil change. They check everything for free. Found a broken motor mount. Sure the fix is free for me but the dealer ship gets to charge the manufacturer. So if out of every x free oil changes and x free inspections they find something needing fixed they at least break even on all the freebies and maybe come out ahead. |
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