HVAC system not working

[brianl703]

I'm more jaded than you. I don't think it's incompetence. They make more money if they're called back.

Exactly this.

 

[vwmaniaman]

When we had to replace our 32 year old system the evaporator coil was rotten. It never would have taken the pressures of the 410 charge. It has been doing really well the last 3 years now and our electric bill has been just over $100/mo It has been hot here and acoording to the weather man we had the hottest June in many years. It is a Goodman system that was properly installed.

 

[brianl703]

That's impressive that you found an hvac tech that is that lazy.

I think techs like that are a dime a dozen around here.

 

[thastinger]

Took about 2lbs of freon and seems to be good now. Unit is almost 10 years old, should I be looking at replacing it or spend $$$ in terms of isolating a leak? Thank you

It is actually illegal for the tech to put that much in a system without first finding and repairing the leak.

I had a leak in a 20 year old R22 system and the techs couldn't find the leak, the leak ended up being one of the shrader valves in the service ports so it didn't show as a leak while the tech had their gauges hooked up to the high and low side ports.

 

[alarmguy]

deleted

 

[alarmguy]

...
Very hypothetical question, probability of having a leak on the outdoor unit vs indoor coils, which one is high? Thank you.

I'll vote for the evaporator coils or that area. 10 year old unit I think would be most likely as if it was outside you would see oil on the piping or condenser coils.

Some 10 year is old units in our community started having an issue on the evaporator side. One neighbor about 8 years back had the evaporator coils repaired or replaced for I thought it was $750 or so. It might have just been a matter of "brazing" the area, I cant remember, however he was told at the time it could last 1 year, 2 years or forever, he didn't know if the weakness was due to manufacturing... anyway, he took the gamble and turned out that unit is still fine 10 year later. Some other units had the same issue and replaced the whole system. Seems like the guy who had it repaired was the smarter one or lucky one depending on how you look at it.

You have to remember, for these AC companies HATE repairing things, sell you a whole new system and big money for them. So they will always skew the conversation towards replacing or discourage repair unless they are honest.

 

[zzyzzx]

You have to remember, for these AC companies HATE repairing things, sell you a whole new system and big money for them. So they will always skew the conversation towards replacing or discourage repair unless they are honest.

Their default repair option is always the most expensive one possible. It's the same way with transmissions. They never fix, just replace. More profitable that way. That's also why I keep spare window AC units.