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Dave Elliott · Sep 28, 2007, 10:41 AM

Someone please help me. Two days ago my 10 year old Trane central air compressor unit started making loud noises. I shut it off and called a company to repair it. When they came the turned it on and although it was working perfectly fine they told me the only thing that could have made that kind of noise was the bearings going in the fan motor.

I let them replace the fan motor. My unit is a Trane and they replaced a 1/5 horse power motor with a 1/2 horse power motor which was what he called generic. Both ran at 1075 RPMs. After replacing the motor the tech guy said he needed to also replace the motor "contactor" but he didn't have the part. He said he would come back the next day and do that.

The unit ran perfectly fine that night. Cooled the house to the thermostat temp. of 76 degrees. I was not home yesterday when the tech came back to change the contactor. But when I got home a few hours later, the temp inside my home was at 81 degrees.
After 5 hours at 81 degrees I shut the unit off. I turned it back on this morning and it seemed to start cooling for about an hour then boom... back to 81 degrees. I called the tech and he said to look to see if the outside lines were frozen... They were. I turned the unit off immediately. The tech will be back tonight but I need to be prepared to talk to him about this. He said it sounds like the outside compressor unit is gone. Just a coisciedence that it happened right after he replaced the "contactor".

My question is pretty simple... is this really a coincedence or is there something this tech could have done to cause this? How do I handle this. He is talking replacing the whole unit?
I need advice.

Thanks,

D

corydec · Sep 28, 2007, 11:09 AM

Any good tech would have checked the freon .about the fan motor it may or may not work there is a chance it could over heat since it is twice as powerful as your last motor I would suggest putting a 1/4 horse 1075rpm .about changing out the condenser sounds like he is blowing smoke up your ,you know what.check your filter if it is clean you may be low on freon . If low on freon make sure you get the tech to look for a leak

acetc · Sep 28, 2007, 03:50 PM

If your lines ice up that means either you are low on refrigerant or not moving enough air across the indoor coil. Check your filter and make sure your indoor fan is not shutting off.
If your unit can cause the lines to ice up it is not a compressor problem, it sounds like you called the wrong guy to work on it. Good luck, Mike

Flying Blue Eagle · Sep 28, 2007, 04:02 PM

WHAT corydedc &ac etc told you was right on. I would have checked the (freon) first , when it freezes up like that ,it is a indicatiopn of low freon, without even putting the gaduges on the unit

Dave Elliott · Sep 28, 2007, 04:41 PM

All three of you were exactly right. Thank you so much. This guy came back and charged me another $120 for 3 lbs of freon! Total bill for replacing the fan motor and freon... $350 and it took 3 service calls!

Before I did my homework this guy was telling me I might have to replace the compressor!Thank you thank you thank you!

Flying Blue Eagle · Sep 28, 2007, 05:33 PM

DAVE: IF you were low on feron you have a leak somewhere,Ihope the service man done some checking, and found the leak and repaired it:::: IF not you will be right back in the same spot again.:: F.B.E.

Dave Elliott · Sep 28, 2007, 05:43 PM

Unfortunately... he did nothing to find the leak. Any suggestions as to how I might find it? He said 3 lbs wasn't very much and that it must be a really slow leak.

How would you handle this guy? Would you have him come back to find the leak? If so would you pay him? I'm trying to be fair... but am losing my patience.