I live in a condominium that has a Bryant heat pump / AC. I was told today that it the compressor is toast, due to a short to ground. The gentleman told me it was either an "act of god" or due to lightning. The unit itself if 17 months old, so the compressor it covered by Bryant's warranty. However, new refrigerant (I think he told me about 8 lbs worth), the labor, and a surge protector (quoted at $150) will be $550.00.

I moved into this condominium last summer and the AC really hasn't worked right from the beginning. There was a coolant leak from a loose valve, at least that's what I was told. This was repaired a month ago, and now this. Up until now, everything has been covered. And, the guy servicing the AC unit told me that $550 was a good deal, that normally this type of service would cost upwards of $900, but since they want to do business with our condo complex, they scale back the costs.

I'm wondering why they didn't put a surge protector on to begin with, but I'm guessing it was just to cut costs. Anyone care to comment on the necessity of a surge protector?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I know I asked a lot of questions. I don't really have $550 laying around to spend on this, especially if I'm getting ripped off. If that's a fair price, though, then I'd be OK with it (although that's still a shock to the bank account)

Mike

Around here $400 sounds about right for labor for installation of a new condenser or heat pump and the freon... but still, don't buy that line of bull from the service guy. Trust me: they're not giving owners in your condo complex 40% discounts.

I'd still get 2 or even 3 more bids. My rule of thumb for jobs I can't do myself is 3-4 bids, being sure to make the biggest company in town being one of them, a small fry company from a "neighborhood news" type paper, and 2 in between sized companies.

Rickj gave you his ideas about the bids and I work in the Texas area, the bids he said agree pretty close to what I would say. I also agree that you should get several bids. Make sure they all say about the same thing in regards to what they are going to do.
Now about the surge protector: we live in an area with lots of thunderstorms and I see very few burned compressors that I can say were caused by a power surge. More likely than not it could have been caused from over heating because of the running with a low freon charge.
I liked the first guys diaganosis that it was either an "act of god" or due to lightning" sounds to me like about the same thing.

Hi,
I would like to add that no one here in our local area, that I know of, and I've never heard of it, use a surge protector on a heat pump! We do know that whenever our power goes off, to turn off the heat pump, then wait for the power to come on again. There are times I haven't been home when this happens, but nothing has ever happened to the compressor because of it.
Compressors usually last around 10 - 20 years, and depending on the brand, here in my local area, usually cost around $900.
I agree with getting some other bids, and opinions. Best of luck.

Thanks to all of you for your help. I live in Jacksonville, FL, and it's beginning to heat up here. It's been in the low to mid 90s for the past few days and it will be through this weekend.

The compressor is covered by Bryant, so I've found all the Bryant dealers in the area. Since it's memorial day weekend, no one is around to take any calls, and everyone is out until Tuesday.

One more question, is it standard practice to cover a part with warranty, but not the labor? I had one year of labor coverage, which expired in January 06 even though I moved in last July. Their rationale was that the unit was installed in January of 2005, so it's one year from date of installation - not their problem that no one bought the unit until July.

Also, check out this attached picture. Check out the open break in the wire casing. Could this be the reason for the short? It looks like it has been there awhile, meaning that it may have been a faulty install? I'm not trying to get something for nothing here, but it just strikes me as strange that a compressor failed after a total of four months of air conditioning, and they automatically chalk it up to lightning. Makes me feel uneasy.

Thanks.

Thanks for all of your input, it's greatly appreciated

Typically the warrantee coverage for labor is much shorter than for parts.

I might guess you got something like a "1-X" Warrantee: 1 year on labor, X on parts.

I can't tell from the pic if the insulation on the wires inside is broken. If it's not, then it's not likely that there's a problem there (but any break in wiring casing should be addressed as soon as it's noticed).