On June 30th, I had my compressor cleaned and had the A/C technician check-up, to see why my house that will be 4 yrs old in Nov. (I would have been in the house for a year in March), did not seem as if it was cooling with the thermostat set on 75 degrees. The technician did a leak check and did not find that there was a leak. He recommended that I add freon, because he said that it was low. I told him no, that I would wait until the home warranty technicians come and check the unit. He came back and told me that he added a little freon for me since, the temp was hot and he did not want to leave 3 women in a hot house (Added the freon without my permission or knowledge).
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Home warranty technician came today, stated and recommended the following:
Found Freon levels to be reading very high on gauge. Checked TXV for proper operation, all OK there. Found A/C unit undersized for this 1550 sf home. Only a 2 1/2 ton system, should be at least a 3 ton system. Compressor is not operating properly due to four years of overworking itself. Home warranty company denied claim due to undersized unit.
Inspected duct work in the attic. No mechanical failures found. Ductwork in good condition.
Then gave me an estimate of replacing the system to a 3 ton unit. Which I clearly can not afford, to pay this out of pocket. This is why I have a home warranty.
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What is the standard recommendation for a home my size. I was told by 2 other technicians that it is 1 ton per 600sf. The technician with the estimate said, 1 ton per 500sf. Also, he said that the system should still be under warranty because it is less than 5 yrs old, through the builder or manufacturer. I have contact the builder, becase the previous owners left that information, I contact the home warranty company and they are sending someone to do a 2nd opinion. Should I contact carrier, the manufacturer,as well? I am single and truly do not have the money, even if a payment plan was set-up.
Thank you for your assistance.

Only way for sure to find out the size needed is to do a scheduel J calculation,, anything else is just a guess, good--bad--or lucky guess

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lcpennington

On June 30th, I had my compressor cleaned and had the A/C technician check-up, to see why my house that will be 4 yrs old in Nov. (I would have been in the house for a year in March), did not seem as if it was cooling with the thermostat set on 75 degrees. The technician did a leak check and did not find that there was a leak. He recommended that I add freon, because he said that it was low. I told him no, that I would wait until the home warranty technicians come and check the unit. He came back and told me that he added a little freon for me since, the temp was hot and he did not want to leave 3 women in a hot house (Added the freon without my permission or knowledge).
----
Home warranty technician came today, stated and recommended the following:
Found Freon levels to be reading very high on guage. Checked TXV for proper operation, all ok there. Found A/C unit undersized for this 1550 sf home. Only a 2 1/2 ton system, should be at least a 3 ton system. Compressor is not operating properly due to four years of overworking itself. Home warranty company denied claim due to undersized unit.
Inspected duct work in the attic. No mechanical failures found. Ductwork in good condition.
Then gave me an estimate of replacing the system to a 3 ton unit. Which I clearly can not afford, to pay this out of pocket. This is why I have a home warranty.
----
What is the standard recommendation for a home my size. I was told by 2 other technicians that it is 1 ton per 600sf. The technician with the estimate said, 1 ton per 500sf. Also, he said that the system should still be under warranty because it is less than 5 yrs old, through the builder or manufacturer. I have contact the builder, becase the previous owners left that information, I contact the home warranty company and they are sending someone to do a 2nd opinion. Should I contact carrier, the manufacturer,as well? I am single and truly do not have the money, even if a payment plan was set-up.
Thank you for your assistance.

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(Added the freon without my permission or knowledge).

I hope you DID NOT pay him for this!! I really doubt if he new what he was doing!

Only a 2 1/2 ton system, should be at least a 3 ton system. Compressor is not operating properly due to four years of overworking itself. Home warranty company denied claim due to undersized unit.

It does not make a difference how long a unit runs since the A/C units are designed to run long times. How does he know what size unit you need? Did he do a complete manual J as required by NATE or other such heating and A/C originizations. It would take some time to do a manual J as he would have had to measure the entire house room by room with window sizes and other info. Seems like he is working for the Home Warrrenty people and has been told not grant any warranty work so he comes up with off the wall excuses as the size and the long run time to qualify to disallow your claim. The home warranty people should not have given the warranty on a new home if the unit was to small to start with. One more item. It seems the A/C unit cooled the house before it started to have problems so why should the unit have been a 3 ton to start with. You have to read between there lines to see there B.S. After being in the industry for so many years I have a built in Bull .ShXX detector. LOL

Should I contact carrier, the manufacturer,as well?

I do not believe that will help you since they do not do repair work but just built the units.

My feelings here are that you are being ripped off especially since the home warranty company is trying to have complete control over the situation. It is sad but in most cases the home warranty that someone paid for is worthless with proof of that scattered around sites like this one full of complaints about the home warranty people.

Click the link for a bit more info on quality contractors.

Is there a recommended tonage amount per square feet?