Our A/C compressor went out on our 2002 carrier unit. We were quoted 6,000 for a new compressor or 10,000 for a new unit + new evaporator thingy in the furnace. We have a home warranty still since we bought the house a little under a year ago so maybe that will work. Anyone have experience or recommendations to us before making a final decision?
Home Warranty company is gonna try and fix it and it’s gonna depend on the Freon type how expensive that can be. I would get them to estimate how much to fix it and then get several other bids. My first bid to replace was like 7 grand. Couple others ended up being less than half that.
Hardwood near the dishwasher is bowing. Think there is a water leak. There was a bit of a dip there when we moved in but feels worse. Also is likely how the water line to my master bath is routed. Surely couldn’t be from when I replaced the dishwasher a few weeks ago. Fortunately it’s right over my utility room so I can see the baseboards I guess but I don’t see anything awry from the bottom.
How much else can go wrong if you fix the compressor alone? I'd be wary of doing that on a 20 year old unit if there's a bunch of other things that may soon go out
Seems like that would be putting a band aid on the whole thing since that compressor and the Freon it uses isn’t produced anymore
Home warranty companies don’t make money choosing the best (and most expensive) option for a repair. They’ll likely opt to fix the compressor if not something less. I’d get as much out of the home warranty company that I can and start putting money aside for a new unit in the meantime
This is a good point; usually those 20 year old systems are fairly inefficient and a newer unit can improve that. Usually the home warranty companies will write you a check for the amount they would have covered if you chose to replace it yourself. You just have to show them who did the work and document they are licensed.
Seems like a good time to remind people that I sell used pool equipment (equipment I and the customer deem better off to replace than to spend money on repairing due to overall age/condition of equipment) to a company that services home warranties. The guy/company I sell it to washes it, paints it if need be, and slaps it on home warranty company accounts to get from point A to point B. These guys are paid X amount of $ to service Y amount of warranty accounts for Z amount of time. If they spend more keeping accounts functional than their contract pays, it is a loss. The “home warranty company” does not give a fuck. They make their money. It is the subbed companies that are doing the work and have to find a way to make a profit. Best of luck!
Have the company document the issue so you can show it to a neutral third party who isn’t being paid by the warranty company. Most of the vendors who work with the home warranty companies are doing it at a loss bc they can make money on other stuff. So they are usually quick to mark stuff up big time to recover costs. Find a couple local A/C companies and call them and have them quote installing a similarly sized unit. The original company should have quoted the size and efficiency rating (SEER) of the unit they would be replacing. So you should be able to easily get competitive quotes. I would also tend to pay the premium for the higher SEER if you plan on staying in that house for a while. There should be calculators out there to figure out your payoff timeframe from one SEER to the next.
1. I have customers with old junked out equipment that needs repaired. 2. Customer decides much better use of money to replace rather than repair. 3. I sell that junked out piece of equipment to company that services home warranty. 4. That company puts lipstick on a pig. 5. That company uses those pieces of equipment to use on their home warranty accounts to keep them up and running, but only need it to stay running until their contract for that account expires. 6. No interest in best solution for customer, only to be a bandaid to get them to the point where warranty contract expires.
So if they offer to replace the compressor should I just go ahead and pony up for a new unit from a reputable company?
I don't think it could be due to the weight itself, but hopefully they just need to be readjusted after switching out the dishwasher.
Idk. Straight up ask them if it is new. Get it in writing. Components generally have serial numbers that are linked to a manufacture date. I have seen enough “home warranty” on my end to tell my realtor to deduct the cost of the home warranty off of the purchase price of my house instead of having the home warranty when the seller offered it as some magical elixir to close the deal.
My previous AC unit had the compressor go out in 2017 and was replaced. In 2019, that replaced compressor went out again. They aren’t going to replace it with a brand new part.
I would personally take the best “band aid” you can get from the home warranty and start saving for a new unit. I know I’m repeating myself, but I don’t know why you wouldn’t take advantage of extending the life of the existing unit with your home warranty while you can save up for a new unit.
Getting a reputable company in to get a proper quote can save money long term. HVAC is a system. Put shit components on that work as a part of a whole and they can damage other components in the system. What could have just needed to be a compressor or condenser replaced can turn into the whole thing needing replaced if the system is constantly working at its limits. Devil’s advocate and all.
Stone Cold Steve Austin, first quote sounds like 100% profit for the repairs, depending on the exact unit, size, location. New compressor might be 3k installed and new system 6k around here. If the new system comes with a 10yr warranty (please dear God you guys register your stuff), it's an easy choice in my eyes. @thread- not 100% fair, but I use 7/16 OSB as a commodity measure for the building material market. Is already falling in price. Expect 25% drop in 5 weeks, and it may well continue. Lead times for some products are getting ever so slightly better (vinyl, hardware), but metal ESPECIALLY aluminum is headed the other way. Andersen E Series (aluminum clad, wood core) windows have a 52 week lead time right now.
Had a somewhat similar situation, when finishing our basement we had to turn the water off to the whole house and drain all the lines. Apparently there was a hair crack on our dishwasher hose bib that when the water turned off allowed it to start leaking after 10 years of being fine. Bowing happened in front of the sink so thought it was coming from there and I “fixed it.” Cupping just got worse. Had to replace the dishwasher and pull up all of the hard wood in front of the sink and dishwasher. Took a few months but a lot of the wood flattened back out and we had just enough spare hard wood to fix it, so got super lucky otherwise we would have had to completely replace all of the hard wood. If you just changed the dishwasher out that’s prob where your problem is coming from imo. The water can travel and make it seem like your problem is somewhere else. Prob just a drip leak.
Every dishwasher I’ve seen has been pretty light, shouldn’t cause wood to bow from difference in weight for sure
As someone said before, you likely have the old refrigerant. Maybe they can recover all of what you have, but you may be looking at another grand if you have to replace a lot of it. May be worth looking at.
Lmao. That's wild. Makes me feel great about my lead times for vinyl windows (14 weeks) and a skylight (6 weeks)
Both of those are 100% profit prices. You don't even get a new blower for the airhandler, if I'm reading it correctly. Compressor is probably (not for sure) $1500-1800 materials and 2-3 hours of labor. This may be the going rate in your area, but we do systems, indoor and outdoor units included for what they want for the compressor replacement, or damn close.
Much better. Ask them about the blower in the airhandler. The "brain" on the blower motor is a CLASSIC warranty item. Have had 2 in six years replaced in one of ours. Also, don't get too hung up on SEER ratings. 14 is just fine, and likely performs just as well as 16 or more.
Are these R22 units they are replacing the old unit with? I mean r22 refrigerant was supposed to be stopped production in 2020. Am I reading this incorrectly? I would assume they would be replacing them with r410a. The price difference between r22 and r410a is huge bc they aren’t making any more of the r22. Edit; it looks like one of the quotes is to replace the current r22 condenser and leave the coil in place. For giggles ask them what they charge for the refrigerant as it says that’s extra. Last year they wanted to charge me I think $100 or $150 a pound. My unit needed 7 lbs I think. I would heavily recommend staying away from anything r22 related.
Haven’t bothered to check weight between old and new dishwasher. They seem about the same. Pulled washer out to middle of kitchen floor and ran it empty with a towel underneath. No water on towel and no water I could see/feel at the water source/drain. Fortunately my BIL is a plumber and is gonna check on Monday.
Pilot light on my water heater won’t stay lit. I have had problems with the emergency switch before so I replaced the switch and I watched a YouTube video and used the multimeter to determine that it isn’t the thermocouple. Any other ideas?
Couple weeks ago I had two toilets installed at my house. Last week noticed water around the base in the front of one of the toilets. Plumber came back out, not sure what he did since I wasn’t home but my GF said he mentioned tightening a bolt that was lose. I think she said he said the wax ring was fine. Anyways that was Tuesday, and now I notice water is leaking again when it’s flushed. Im wondering if there’s some kind of hairline crack in it but it seemed like there’s been times where it doesn’t leak. Maybe it’s just small enough where I don’t notice it. I’m going to call the plumber again Monday and see if I should just go buy a new toilet and return the original one and hope it was truly a crack. He said if it keeps leaking that’s probably the case. Anyone ever had this happen? Or is there another possibility? When they installed this one they replaced the flange as well.
I suppose a crack in the fixture itself isn't impossible, but I've never seen one break and not be very noticeable. There's several more likely explanations that wouldn't be fixed without pulling up the commode. We often use (2) wax rings to ensure a good seal, especially if the flange isn't high enough. Any plumber worth his salt would know (moreso than me) all of this. Shouldn't charge you unless something you supplied is at fault.
Yeah, I’m going to call Monday and see what they say. They didn’t charge me when they came out the second time, but I’m just wondering how much trial and error they’ll be willing to do/how much time I’ll waste if it ends up being a crack. Just seems weird that at times I don’t notice water. But again maybe it’s a small enough amount it doesn’t leak out every time. Company I used was recommended by a friend, great reviews online, etc. so hopefully they will come back out.
get rid of gas. recently moved to heat pumps for water heater and air handler. $6600 federal rebate, close to 5k in local incentives.
is it definitely going out, or is it just not l igniting and therefore making hot water? also if you are saying it has a pilot I’m assuming you’ve def confirmed it’s not an electric starter?
one thing that I had with both my furnace and my water heater is the flame sensor gets fouled and then it doesn’t think that the flame is lighting properly and so it turns off. Take the sensor out and hit it with sandpaper and it will work again, if it’s that.
This was it. Instead of the cleaning route, I bought a new one (thermocouple - only $10) and now the boiler knows that the pilot light is lit and doesn’t cut off the gas. Looking this up for my area since I think I’m going to need a new one within the next year or so anyway. I’m probably wasting money because of how old it is.
Wax ring wasn't set right, or they messed around with the toilet too much after setting it Or they didn't clean up after the old wax ring They need to pull the toilet, clean off all the wax off the toilet and the flange and use a new wax ring to set the toilet again Tightening the bolts isn't going to do anything
Again I wasn’t here when they came back the second time but I thought my GF said they said the wax ring was OK. Not sure if they pulled the toilet off or not (I thought she said they did). The toilet is weird in the sense that when I flush it, the new water enters from the front which is where the leak appears to be, so I guess there could be some kind of crack on the inside of it. The little water I can see seems to be clean/clear. I guess we’ll see what they say tomorrow, at this point I’ll pay them to put on a whole new toilet just so I’m done worrying about it lol
Ok, if they said the wax ring is fine, and inspected it by pulling the toilet, then the wax ring isn't fine. They are one shot use, once a toilet is set on it they are done. Toilet can't be removed and set on the same wax. If you think the water is coming from the tank, then you should be able to run your hand around under the tank and feel for wet. Do you lean back when you shit? Some people lean into the back of their toilet and cause the tank to rock slightly which can make it leak at the tank connections