[violinjen]

We bought our house over a year ago, and at that time everything was fine and passed all inspections. The whole house is electric and the heater and A/C are American Standard. Just this week, we hear a really loud sort of creaking or metallic sound throughout the air ducts when the unit turns on, almost like the unit is hesitating to turn on though it could be the noise is so loud that we don't actually hear it on. A repair dealer told us to check all of our duct work first because it may be a loose duct causing the problem. What should we look at or check and how do we fid it? Could it possibly be a leak or anything like that? How do we make sure it isn't the blower or if it is the blower like a loose belt or something can we fix it ourselves or get help?

[T-Top]

How old of a unit is it? If its old it may be a blower belt or blower wheel bearings. Turn your thermostat heat - cool switch to off, turn the fan switch to on - only the blower is on now. If it is making the noise it may be the blower try and locate the sound.

[violinjen]

This is actually what we would think you could consider a newer unit. It is a little over six years old. That is the age of our house. It actually stopped heating and would not turn on whatsoever at all last night and we had to call out an authorized repair dealer. They said the blower motor went bad. They also said that on this particular unit, the motor was awkward so they had to go and get one this morning since they did not have one on their van last night. They put it in this morning and still nothing would turn on. They then said that the little circuit type unit that controls the blower was out as well so they went and got that and put it in. They still couldn't get it to turn on. They they did some more examinations and found that whoever put in the original system did the wiring wrong. They called their boss and he told them how to get the system to turn on so that we can have heat and he himself is coming out on Monday to figure out what is up. So far, the unit has been running non-stop trying to bring our house back up to temperature so we haven't been able to hear if it is still making noises on start up and shut down. This is costing us way more than we would have expected, but at least we know the people working on it are reliable. They are BBB members, American Standard authorized and certified, and have several positive ratings among other consumers.

[hvac1000]

(They are BBB members, American Standard authorized and certified, and have several positive ratings among other consumers)

You buy membership in the BBB. Am std company will authorize anyone who wants to buy there equiptment. That is good that some consumers like them.

Usually there is only one item that fails at a time on any furnace. The motor is most probably the main problem here from your description of the noise. Seems like the service person did not know exactly what they were doing on your furnace or that person would not have to call his boss. I would have a serious talk with the boss when he comes to visit to see exactly what the problem was because you do not want to pay for parts and labor you did not need because his employee did not know exactly what he was doing.

To many years in this industry taught me many lessons. There are repair people and then there are parts replacers. If you replace enough parts it is bound to work but it costs major $$$$.

[violinjen]

We do agree; however, when the repair person showed us the relay (I think it was called that), it was definitely fried. The motor would not turn or budge for anything. He said something about if the relay goes out the motor can go out. I think. We are going to be talking to the boss on Monday though and the person who did the work is coming with him. He is coming to inspect the wiring on the system because supposedly something still is not right. We have not paid them yet. The boss said he did not want us to pay until he comes and checks the system out. This was the company that American Standard highly suggested that we use for the repair. There was only one other company in our area supposedly and we had a hard time getting in contact with them. We found another company, but they didn't seem to interested in coming to fix the problem so it was more or less the luck of the draw. If we find out that anything has been done that should not have been done, we will file a complaint with American Standard against the company,not that it will do any good. Unfortunately, we are first time homeowners and have not had to deal with a lot of things breaking in the house, so hopefully we will learn as we go and learn which companies are good and which companies are bad. Thanks for the advice though. That reinforces our resolve to talk to the boss and get to what was the actual cause of the problem.