AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
A few weeks ago we had a near lightning strike that caused a power surge that took out the incoming internet box on the outside of the house, the modem, the doorbell, and the AC. Centurylink replaced the outside box and modem, a new $60 doorbell is incoming, (it's a special AC/DC all in one unit,) and the AC problem turned out to be a fried control board.
I had to call in an HVAC company as I have no way to diagnose but suspected the board. $90 call out charge, tech shows up and checks the ground unit then goes into the attic where the air handler and heating unit are. He replaced the blown 5A blade fuse (that I found and replaced hoping it was the problem,) closed the door switch and heard a relay chatter and said fried board. We came out of the attic and back at his van I gave him the part number off of the board that I had a pic of. He gets out his tablet inputs the part number and says it will be $550 installed and won't be available until next week. Problem is I found the board available from $100 - $200 online at various sources. Told him I knew he didn't set prices but I thought that a bit steep and I may try it myself. This was 3 Fridays ago and we were leaving on a 2 week trip on Sunday. I ordered the OEM board to be delivered ($120) to my daughter so it was waiting when we got home yesterday. Last evening when it cooled down I went up and including taking pics of all the connections and labeling identical blade connectors for location it took me 20 minutes to R&R the board and the AC fired up. A tech who knew where the wires go would do it in 10 minutes. I owned a small business and get costs and profit but that just felt a bit steep. If it was a 3 hour job would be a different story. The HVAC shop is 6 minutes away. Sometimes previous experience pays off.
Interesting that the Centurylink tech and HVAC tech both said it was an EMP from a near strike since it was only low voltage equipment that was killed. No evidence of a strike on our property or the neighboring properties. Next door neighbor says she lost a humidifier.
I had to call in an HVAC company as I have no way to diagnose but suspected the board. $90 call out charge, tech shows up and checks the ground unit then goes into the attic where the air handler and heating unit are. He replaced the blown 5A blade fuse (that I found and replaced hoping it was the problem,) closed the door switch and heard a relay chatter and said fried board. We came out of the attic and back at his van I gave him the part number off of the board that I had a pic of. He gets out his tablet inputs the part number and says it will be $550 installed and won't be available until next week. Problem is I found the board available from $100 - $200 online at various sources. Told him I knew he didn't set prices but I thought that a bit steep and I may try it myself. This was 3 Fridays ago and we were leaving on a 2 week trip on Sunday. I ordered the OEM board to be delivered ($120) to my daughter so it was waiting when we got home yesterday. Last evening when it cooled down I went up and including taking pics of all the connections and labeling identical blade connectors for location it took me 20 minutes to R&R the board and the AC fired up. A tech who knew where the wires go would do it in 10 minutes. I owned a small business and get costs and profit but that just felt a bit steep. If it was a 3 hour job would be a different story. The HVAC shop is 6 minutes away. Sometimes previous experience pays off.
Interesting that the Centurylink tech and HVAC tech both said it was an EMP from a near strike since it was only low voltage equipment that was killed. No evidence of a strike on our property or the neighboring properties. Next door neighbor says she lost a humidifier.
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