When my central ac fan is turned on there is no air flow and I can hear a metallic tinkling sound. I had a HVAC company come out to look at it and they said the motor is bad. They say I have an old Amana unit and it may be hard to find parts for it and highly recommend a totally new AC system. I explained to them that we plan on selling our house within a year, so I would rather just fix the motor. They said it would be at least $800 if they can find the parts.

1) Is $800 a reasonable price for this kind of repair?

2) Is the fan (or should I say motor), very specific to the system, or can it be replaced by a different model or brand with similar specs?

There are many aftermarket motors out there that will work for your unit. If they are only replacing motor (insist they change the capicator as well at this time) then yes that price is much more than I would charge. Call around to 2-3 other service companies and get a price to compare.

I agree, $800.00 is too much just to replace the motor and capacitor. Unfortunately, there are to many companies that prefer to sell new equipment instead of repairing equipment that's still in good condition. There's more $$$ in selling a new system.

I'd say that price is way off, universal mounting brackets and motors are made to fit almost all applications. I would say, around 200 bucks, installed.

I would advise you to use a different contractor for your repairs no matter what they say from this point on , they have shown their true colors by telling you that the motor and other Amana parts are hard to find and then quoting a price of $800.00 dollars. Amana is still in business and they do make a good piece of equipment.
This type of situation gives the A/C business a bad name.
HVACSERVICETECH_7 and ESQUIRE1 are giving the correct advice to follow.

Thanks to all for the help, particularly acetc. With acetc's help, I checked with Amana distributor, who was quite surprised to have an end consumer calling them. After twisting their arm, they finally referred me to a couple of contractor's.

I chose "Lindsey's" based on internet reputation, and they sent a technician out. After 5 minutes in the attic, he came down and told me the belt was worn, but it would be very easy for him to find a replacement since an old belt carton with the info he needed was laying right there. He put the old fan belt back on and said he would be back with a new one. He didn't even charge me at this time. And I finally had AC back on.

As you can imagine I was hot under the collar, pun intended, at the previous HVAC company named "Air-tech" that had tried to cheat me. I immediately got word out to my neighbors not to use this company, since I had seen one of their trucks stopped down the street.

The Lindsey's technician returned after a few days and put the new belt on and charged me $99 including the belt.

I then called Air-tech and demanded a refund of the $119 I paid them for their service visit. After talking to a couple of their people I was promised a refund. A few weeks later, still with no refund, I get an estimate in the mail from them for $7,281! Incredible!! Well after bugging them with several more phone calls over the past 2 months, I finally got a refund this week.

So I hope this helps someone else out there. Big thanks for everyone's advice, since it may have saved me a ton of money.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lotus7

Thanks to all for the help, particularly acetc. With acetc's help, I checked with Amana distributor, who was quite surprised to have an end consumer calling them. After twisting their arm, they finally referred me to a couple of contractor's.

I chose "Lindsey's" based on internet reputation, and they sent a technician out. After 5 minutes in the attic, he came down and told me the belt was worn, but it would be very easy for him to find a replacement since an old belt carton with the info he needed was laying right there. He put the old fan belt back on and said he would be back with a new one. He didn't even charge me at this time. And I finally had AC back on.

As you can imagine I was hot under the collar, pun intended, at the previous HVAC company named "Air-tech" that had tried to cheat me. I immediately got word out to my neighbors not to use this company, since I had seen one of their trucks stopped down the street.

The Lindsey's technician returned after a few days and put the new belt on and charged me $99 including the belt.

I then called Air-tech and demanded a refund of the $119 I paid them for their service visit. After talking to a couple of their people I was promised a refund. A few weeks later, still with no refund, I get an estimate in the mail from them for $7,281!! Incredible!!! Well after bugging them with several more phone calls over the past 2 months, I finally got a refund this week.

So I hope this helps someone else out there. Big thanks for everyone's advice, since it may have saved me a ton of money.

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Its people like that that give people like us a bad name. I wish I had their # or web address so I could call for a price on a motor.