I had a new 16 eer air conditioning/furnace installed..
At instalation all reading were fine. At the 6 month checkup I was told that the compressor was working at twice the recommended capacity and the flow was, intake and outake was .9 and this was also almost twice the listed .5 for the system. The system was also sweating and the insulation was damp in the unit. When they sold me the system no one mentioned that the ductwork was not set up for the 16 eer system and was not done properly in the first place. Based on the tech's readfings the temperatures between the vents and the returns is suspose to be 20 degrees and it varied widely in each room from the 20 to as low as 10. Now they want to replace all my ductwork at a cost of
$6000. My house has 2 returns and 17 ducts. Does this make sense and do I need to replace the ductwork? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't have $6000. Thank You!

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Originally Posted by fdkma0817

I had a new 16 eer air conditioning/furnace installed ..
At instalation all reading were fine. At the 6 month checkup I was told that the compressor was working at twice the recommended capacity and the flow was, intake and outake was .9 and this was also almost twice the listed .5 for the system. The system was also sweating and the insulation was damp in the unit. When they sold me the system no one mentioned that the ductwork was not set up for the 16 eer system and was not done properly in the first place. Based on the tech's readfings the temperatures between the vents and the returns is suspose to be 20 degrees and it varied widely in each room from the 20 to as low as 10. Now they want to replace all my ductwork at a cost of
$6000. My house has 2 returns and 17 ducts. Does this make sense and do I need to replace the ductwork? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't have $6000. Thank You!

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Something is wrong with this picture. You were told. (At installation all reading were fine), If they were fine then they should be fine now!! In my opinion the original selling company covered up the fact that your duct system was not compatible with the new equipment OR they just want to sell you something else like new duct work.

This happens in the HVAC industry all the time. There are company's that want to make a sale but later find out that what they just sold new is not compatible one way or the other with existing parts of the original system and then the major financial headache starts. Can they convince you to pay more money for there mistake OR Does the HVAC company itself admit to the mistake they made and fix your situation at no charge? There have been many court cases over these type of situations but the following is a guide line for you to think about.

Get everything in writing!! Verbal means NOTHING!!
When they write down that the system will not work correctly because of the old duct work they hang themselves because they should have known better from the start and that is when you have them committed to saying this this in writing.
Make sure the owner of the company signs off on this statement and that can be done easily since they want to sell you new duct work.

Ask for a estimate which includes the work to be performed, the cost of such work and the reason for the duct replacement. Mention that you would like the owner of the company to sign this as a measure of good faith so you will feel that by doing this your system will be OK.

When you have that new duct estimate signed along with your original estimate for your new equipment that was just installed and copy of your check or other proof of payment for that new equipment you just bought last year.

Now go find the meanest most nasty lawyer you can find in your area. Give him copy's of all the paperwork mentioned and let him go to work. You just might get your duct for free or some other deal since it was the original installer of the equipment who is at fault. Good Luck.