HVAC Woes

S

shurguywutt

Joined
Jun 6, 2017
Messages
252
Location
FL, USA
I had a HVAC guy do the biannual maintenance on my AC the other day. He said the TXV valve is stuck open and quoted $2k to do the repair. The unit is a 9 year old Goodman. It runs OK but he said since the TXV is stuck open the coils never fully saturate with refrigerant so the air will never get as cold as it should be and it will also run longer/harder causing a higher power bill. Currently he measured around a 17* split (I think)? I think he said it was supposed to be closer to 23* but I am not certain. The compressor currently is running at 12A and maxes out at 19A per manufacturer (on its way out?). They also did a load test on the system and saw that I was only getting 2.6 tons of air even though it is a 4 ton unit. Seems I have multiple problems?

I don't want to dump good money on bad being that this unit is 9 years old and out of warranty. They quoted a new 4 ton Carrier system for $12k. That quote seemed high to me. They made it sound like my duct work needs to be redone because I only have 11 vents but my house is 2500 sq ft so my AC can't cool efficiently. Unfortunately the duct work could be the same price as a new AC unit, but these ducts are original to the house (90s) so what gives?

The system is working as it always has although probably not efficiently. My plan for now was to let it ride until it dies. The purpose of my post is to get some opinions to start thinking on what could/should be done. I am an HVAC novice but I know some basics like how to read amperage, change capacitors and contactors but that is about the limit of my knowledge. Any advice/suggestions is appreciated.

I was hoping I could just run some VRP in the system and clean it out and restore it to factory spec 🤣
 
Last edited:
shurguywutt said:
I had a HVAC guy do the biannual maintenance on my AC the other day. He said the TXV valve is stuck open and quoted $2k to do the repair. The unit is a 9 year old Goodman. It runs OK but he said since the TXV is stuck open the coils never fully saturate with refrigerant so the air will never get as cold as it should be and it will also run longer/harder causing a higher power bill. Currently he measured around a 17* split (I think)? I think he said it was supposed to be closer to 23* but I am not certain. The compressor currently is running at 12A and maxes out at 19A per manufacturer (on its way out?). They also did a load test on the system and saw that I was only getting 2.6 tons of air even though it is a 4 ton unit. Seems I have multiple problems?

I don't want to dump good money on bad being that this unit is 9 years old and out of warranty. They quoted a new 4 ton Carrier system for $12k. That quote seemed high to me. They made it sound like my duct work needs to be redone because I only have 11 vents but my house is 2500 sq ft so my AC can't cool efficiently. Unfortunately the duct work could be the same price as a new AC unit, but these ducts are original to the house (90s) so what gives?

The system is working as it always has although probably not efficiently. My plan for now was to let it ride until it dies. The purpose of my post is to get some opinions to start thinking on what could/should be done. I am an HVAC novice but I know some basics like how to read amperage, change capacitors and contactors but that is about the limit of my knowledge. Any advice/suggestions is appreciated.

I was hoping I could just run some VRP in the system and clean it out and restore it to factory spec 🤣
Click to expand...
Check your warranty.... My Carrier carries a 10 year parts warranty...minus the labor....
 
I have a 10 year old Carrier unit and you couldn't pay me to take another Carrier one. I will leave that story for a different day.

Find another contractor and fix it, assuming its otherwise worked well. Look at it this way - if you pay $14K for a new unit and it lasts 10 years then thats $1400 a year. If you fix what you have and it lasts 18 more months your ahead. These guys get commissioned to sell new units, so thats what they do.

My guess is your old unit is better built. They continue to cheapen everything.
 
These are the same guys that charge $250+ to replace a $15 capacitor. Get another outfit out for an estimate.
I've had great experience with Carrier. The Payne system in our beach house was 24 years old when the AC failed. Replaced it with a Bryant. The Carrier furnace in our primary home failed, bad heat exchanger. Replaced it with a Payne single stage and got a $600 warranty credit from Carrier.
 
SC Maintenance said:
I have a 10 year old Carrier unit and you couldn't pay me to take another Carrier one. I will leave that story for a different day.

Find another contractor and fix it, assuming its otherwise worked well. Look at it this way - if you pay $14K for a new unit and it lasts 10 years then thats $1400 a year. If you fix what you have and it lasts 18 more months your ahead. These guys get commissioned to sell new units, so thats what they do.

My guess is your old unit is better built. They continue to cheapen everything.
Click to expand...
Sad what happened to Carrier...because I have 2 Carrier units that are 33 years old and run like tops still, they both have their original condensers/compressors and coils. R22 systems with NG heat.
 
The last HVAC system I had replaced was 4 units and like never before I got 5 quotes...a real eye opener.... the most expensive system was obtained below the cheap junk by simply asking ...

And they did a great job too...
 
zzyzzx said:
The $2000 charge could be for just the labor though.
Click to expand...
Nah but if I had to guess I bet they are charging for a full system charge in there. TXVs are easy to get too.

It cost me ~$600 in labor and 1 lb of freeon to warranty my 3rd Evaporator on my Lenox unit.

Lot of the same labor (evac and charge) involved in changing out TXV but no where near 2k.

OP should find a local mom and pop HVAC company not one gunning to replace your unit.
 
I got a bad Bryant oil heater and my parents a bad Carrier oil heater..
It's a crap shoot... as they say it's the installer that makes the difference.
 
zzyzzx said:
The $2000 charge could be for just the labor though.
Click to expand...
He said it was $700 in labor and ~$1500 for the part. 😅

I already have an idea what I am going to do. A neighbor uses an old guy that has an HVAC company. The old guy's son has been working with him to eventually take over the business. I am going to give him a call for another opinion.
 
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