No Hot Air from this AC Tech

News2u

Called an AC repairman about my son’s non-blowing air handler. Before that, I was ready to clean the evaporator coil, which had iced over. But when it thawed, the coil was as clean as a whistle.

When the tech arrives, he sees right away a juddering fan that wasn’t spinning. He instantly knew the fan speed relay was out. Said it’s a $1200 fix including the $800 part. Without prodding from me, he checked the unit’s 5 year warranty with Carrier, but my son was 6 months too late.

I asked if he minded if I checked Amazon and eBay first. He not only didn’t mind, in 10 seconds he looked up the part for me on his smart phone.  Plenty available — so I did a 1 click purchase on my iPad — price: only $100 on eBay.  The tech then showed me how to slide the blower assembly out and disconnect the harness and 2 other leads to the relay, AND where to find the 2 long screws holding the relay to the motor. I found 2 tiny Torx screws he forgot to mention.

He said it’s obvious I’m mechanically inclined or I wouldn’t have taken the panels off trying to troubleshoot the problem. His point was he’s not out, as he said, “…to “steal my money,” explaining my small job was standing between him and 3 much bigger jobs paying 3 and 4 times the money. 

Pragmatically, it made all the sense in the world for him to save me a lot of money so HE could make a lot of money. He said don’t worry, “I’ll just tell the office you got a better deal.” Anyway, the part came in a day early, and sticking it in yesterday was a breeze…as in cool, flowing air.

Talk about going above and beyond...

Legume

Won't need AC in a few years, we just started a cooling trend.

Spaightlabs

Nice to hear that there are some honest folks willing to help others out!

Well done sir.

I hope you told your son it was originally 1200, but you got it down to $600 and pocketed the money?  

kl8ton

News2u said:

Called an AC repairman about my son’s non-blowing air handler. Before that, I was ready to clean the evaporator coil, which had iced over. But when it thawed, the coil was as clean as a whistle.

When the tech arrives, he sees right away a juddering fan that wasn’t spinning. He instantly knew the fan speed relay was out. Said it’s a $1200 fix including the $800 part. Without prodding from me, he checked the unit’s 5 year warranty with Carrier, but my son was 6 months too late.

I asked if he minded if I checked Amazon and eBay first. He not only didn’t mind, in 10 seconds he looked up the part for me on his smart phone.  Plenty available — so I did a 1 click purchase on my iPad — price: only $100 on eBay.  The tech then showed me how to slide the blower assembly out and disconnect the harness and 2 other leads to the relay, AND where to find the 2 long screws holding the relay to the motor. I found 2 tiny Torx screws he forgot to mention.

He said it’s obvious I’m mechanically inclined or I wouldn’t have taken the panels off trying to troubleshoot the problem. His point was he’s not out, as he said, “…to “steal my money,” explaining my small job was standing between him and 3 much bigger jobs paying 3 and 4 times the money. 

Pragmatically, it made all the sense in the world for him to save me a lot of money so HE could make a lot of money. He said don’t worry, “I’ll just tell the office you got a better deal.” Anyway, the part came in a day early, and sticking it in yesterday was a breeze…as in cool, flowing air.

Talk about going above and beyond...

Nice work.  I really like these types of stories.  

News2u

Spaightlabs said:

Nice to hear that there are some honest folks willing to help others out!

Well done sir.

I hope you told your son it was originally 1200, but you got it down to $600 and pocketed the money?  

He was like Superman. Flew in just in time to save the day. Never even got his name.

Mattman3969

Not to be a jackass because I'm glad you got yours sons AC fixed.  Was there at least a service charge for this guy coming to your sons  house and diagnosing the problem? It still cost his employer $$$ to send this guy out on a service run.  

SemolinaPilchard

News2u said "Never even got his name."
Isn't that The Lone ranger?

News2u

Mattman3969 said:

Not to be a jackass because I'm glad you got yours sons AC fixed.  Was there at least a service charge for this guy coming to your sons  house and diagnosing the problem? 

I offered, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Being freed up to tend to the bigger jobs seemed to be paramount and thanks enough. Go figure. Could be they’re under that much pressure or management encourages it as a good will gesture for repeat business while being able to tackle the bigger jobs. Your guess is as good as mine.

His reasoning was he’d have to install a loaner part that mostly worked till the new part gets in. Then he’d have to schlep back to switch them out. I can see where concern over diminishing returns could come into play.

NPHuskerFL

On the DL what company?  And out of sheer curiosity only, did you just replace the "module"?  $100 is a great deal on even just a Carrier spec "preprogrammed" module. Unfortunately there are other techs out there that wouldn't have been so kind. Myself, when I used to do residential, was on the same page as this particular tech.  Glad your AC is working again my friend.

News2u

NPHuskerFL said:

On the DL what company?  And out of sheer curiosity only, did you just replace the "module"?  $100 is a great deal on even just a Carrier spec "preprogrammed" module. Unfortunately there are other techs out there that wouldn't have been so kind. Myself, when I used to do residential, was on the same page as this particular tech.  Glad your AC is working again my friend.

Yes, just the module, thanks ONLY to his astute diagnosis. I have no doubt the part I ordered was a new, USED part. But it works a heck of lot better than the one we had.

The tech is from the same company that replaced my system 10 years ago. Since then, I can’t count on 3 fingers the number of times I’ve had to call them for service. Each time, they’ve sent me a straight shooter. BUT this time around was something special...a pro cut from the same cloth as you, I’m proud to report.

News2u

 Legume said:

Won't need AC in a few years, we just started a cooling trend.

I’ll make sure to tell my son to move the thermostat up.

News2u

SemolinaPilchard said:

News2u said "Never even got his name."
Isn't that The Lone ranger?

Who was that masked ac repairman? You would be 100% right. Wait a minute; are you Kemosabe?

Mattman3969

You had to have known the name of the  Service Company.  Most of the time it's not up to employees to decide if there is a charge or not. Even at a $150-200 service charge you would have gotten off pretty cheap with the cost of the part.  I'm just saying it cost the company money to send the gentleman to the house. 

Not  trying to pick a fight but looking at it from the other side.  

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

@Mattman3969 my guess is they have a customer for life in @News2u. In business, sometimes it benefits you much more to earn a client for life over something that cost you next to nothing than it does to charge them a couple hundered bucks. Most businesses, especially that industry would much rather give a free service call and gain your future business (and your friends because obviously he's going to tell people about this company) than to charge you. Seems like this is a great company. 

Mattman3969

Are you the homeowner or the business owner? Very many of these types trips in a month defeats the purpose.   Even at a simple service charge @news2u would be several dollars ahead and should be happy for it. Not saying biz owners need to take advantage of homeowners but the sane could be said in reverse.   I would never expect nor accept any company to send a service person to my residence at no charge.  

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

I am a homeowner and a business owner. I have done my fair share of work for no charge in order to gain clients. Sounds like he has used this company for 10 years or more so obviously they are doing something right. I wasn't trying to argue with you. I was just trying to shed some light on why it can be beneficial in the long run. Sure they could have charged him a couple hundo and he would most likely continue use them in the future. But maybe then he only tells 1 person about his experience, instead of multiple, or in this case, over 200. Either way the outcome seems to be a win win for both the client and the company. 

nolaegghead

I got sick of fixing the 20 year old HVAC, broke once or twice a year.

So I found a guy that sells split units to the General Public through eBay.  He had me fill out a heat load survey form, he plugged everything into a computer and said I needed 5 tons of AC, don't remember the BTU on the furnace.  Turns out 5 tons is what we had before.

So we ordered all the stuff.  Added a high efficiency big secondary filter box, 95% efficient gas furnace.  I think it was around $3400.  

Probably spent another $800 on copper, insulation, etc.

Decided to move the condenser to the roof.  Borrowed a ABL I sold a friend and used it as a crane.  Mounted on a metal frame I built and screwed into the rafters. 

The air handler/evaporator/furnace was larger than my attic door.  Sigh.  So I had to tear that out, enlarge the opening and put a new door/stairs assembly in.  Muscled the stuff up, installed. 

Ran a nitrogen purge when I silver soldered all the new pipe. Pressurized, checked for leaks, pumped down.  Put a couple inline filters in the loop.  Condenser came with a charge.  had to add some for the long run to the evaporator.

10 years later I replaced all the ducting.  Got a tax break on the high efficiency furnace.  

Have never had a problem except once when the compressor relay broke.  Easy fix.  Had some slow starts when running off the generator.  Put in a super-start capacitor and that seems to fix it.

I'm a chemist/database engineer in my day job, but have enough experience through the years screwing around with commercial HVAC in the lab to go for it with a DIY central system.  I didn't cut any corners, and that pays off with reliability, so far.

Anyway, admire your sensibility with this stuff.

nola out

News2u

Mattman3969 said:

You had to have known the name of the  Service Company.  Most of the time it's not up to employees to decide if there is a charge or not. Even at a $150-200 service charge you would have gotten off pretty cheap with the cost of the part.  I'm just saying it cost the company money to send the gentleman to the house. 

Not  trying to pick a fight but looking at it from the other side.  

I think his explanation speaks for itself. Sure I knew the company from a spattering of visits over the years. But I didn't know him from Adam. And there was absolutely no charge.