A/C, Fan, Heat....nothing works - http://www.hvacmechanic.com/ Forums
Original message
| jasonjeremiah
 |  "A/C, Fan, Heat....nothing works"
, posted Sun 29 Jun 15:05  
I'm hoping someone can give me a clue as to what's going on here. I don't have the model or make of our HVAC system because the lettering is worn off, but I do know that is only six years old. Last year when my wife and I first moved into the house, we noticed during the summer that the a/c was not cooling well. We called the number of the a/c installation company whose sticker was attached to the unit. They came out and said that the unit was 2 1/2 pounds low on freon. They told us if it started to blow out warm air again to call and they would come out and do a leak check. Everything worked fine until this summer, when the unit started to act up again. At first it had trouble even maintaining a 77 deg temp during the day but would cool well at night.
We called the same repair people who sent a guy out. He was only here about 20 minutes, said that the unit was 3 pounds low on freon, and charged us $211 for the freon and a $90 diagnostic fee. He did no leak check or any other sort of diagnostics. Within 2 days it was once again 80 degrees in the house. The difference though was that the unit was having trouble coming on during the day. The thermostat would kick on and the outside unit would run for 20 seconds and immediately shut off. The unit would work fine at night, though.
So, once again we called the same repair place. This time the technician at least climbed into the attic and attempted to diagnose what was going on. He claimed that something was wrong with the wiring and said something about the voltage going in was higher that was coming out. I'm not sure what he meant by that, but while he was working the thermostat went out. He then installed a new thermostat, charged us $340, and assured us that would fix our problems. Needless to say, it didn't.
Within 2 days the unit was struggling to cool. The outside unit stayed on the entire day yesterday and was still only able to maintain a 77 deg temp. It seemed that during the day the air coming out of the vents was cool but it was only a breath. There was hardly any air coming out at all. The later it got in the day, as the temp cooled outside, the air out of the vents was more forceful and eventually the temp in the house started going down. So I went to bed and woke this morning to find that nothing was working. The thermostat says that the a/c is on but nothing happens. I switched to heat then switched to just fan, but nothing comes on. So, now I'm at wits end. I called the repair people once again and reamed them a new one. I feel like I'm running a community college course to train a/c technicians. They'll come out once again, charge $300 more and claim they have it fixed. Does anyone have any ideas as to what may be going on. It seems like these people are making uneducated guesses and I'm paying $300 everytime for them to do it. I also believe that there was nothing wrong with the first thermostat. I think he was somehow messing around with the wiring and probably fried it. Someone, please help!
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Replies:
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| theduke03
| "Re(1):A/C, Fan, Heat....nothing works" , posted Sun 29 Jun 16:31
Stop paying them and call a reputable company. They are what we call "hackers". The last guy that charged the unit probably overcharged it which is exactly what hackers do since they don't measure temperatures when charging. Then they screwed up the wiring which obviously was correct if system used to work. If they don't know how to correctly troubleshoot and repair your system now then they never will.
"My dad was the most feared furnace fighter in Northern Indiana."
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| | jasonjeremiah
| "Re(2):A/C, Fan, Heat....nothing works" , posted Sun 29 Jun 17:26
Well, they're supposed to be a reputable company. They're probably the biggest HVAC service company in this area, as well as the nation. That's what's so frustrating. I know that they'll try to cover up any mistakes they've made to cover themselves. The person I spoke with on the phone tried to claim that we had declined a leak check, so they were not responsible for any malfunctions as a result. I assured her that we had never been offered a leak check, but that it also had nothing to do with the electrical problems.
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| | theduke03
| "Re(3):A/C, Fan, Heat....nothing works" , posted Sun 29 Jun 19:13
Sometimes big companies don't care about the little folks. This is because one customer to them is a drop in the bucket. What happened in your case is that the tech didn't want to do the leak test(it's a pain in the arse), so he told the office people that it was offered and declined.
I suggest talking to your peeps. Surely someone you know has had a good experience with another company. Try that one.
"My dad was the most feared furnace fighter in Northern Indiana."
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