Need Advice Is United Air Temp robbing us???

Hi all !

Our 2nd zone heat pump unit (for upstairs) has been giving us problems so we called in United Air temp to take care of it, and here is what's been going on.

During their first visit last week, upstairs A/C unit was blowing warm air, so they found out that the capacitor was out. Replaced it and along with the diagnostic fee, they charged us $190. I asked why the bill was so high, he said, the diagnostic fee was $98 and the capacitor itself was $92 and he said the part wasn't even the most expensive one.

After replacing the capacitor, they also noticed that the fan blades in the outdoor A/C unit was broken, so ordered the new fan blades and installed it during their second visit for $200. Really?? are they really this expensive? They didn't even charge us the labor fee this time,, so they said..

The unit was still making ALOT of noise even after the blades were replaced, so now they said, we need to get the comprossor replaced. The compressor is under warranty, but they are quoting us $1500 to do the labor !
Does the labor really cost this much to replace a compressor?

Even though they are keep telling me that they have the lowest price in the region, I can't help but to think if they are truely giving us the "lowest" price ! I did little search online, and what I've found is with the part under warranty, the labor shouldn't run more than $500,,,,
Any thoughts????

 

Certainly at any point you can get a second opinion. At this point you're at about $2,000 if you go with them for the compressor replacement. I would get some other companies to come in and assess the system and see what they say.

This thread has some recommendations of places. I recommend Climatic - they just replaced our heat pump and I was very happy with their customer service and the work done.

 

Ok, turns out our compressor is not the problem, but the fan motor was causing the whole headache. The quote we received from the United Air Temp was $495 which includes parts and labor. Does this sound reasonable? The fan blades were already replaced, so it's only the fan motor and the labor.

 

Get a second opinion from professionals.

 

If you are at all handy with a wrench you can replace the fan motor yourself, I think the trick is finding one you can buy w/o being an HVAC company. I equate it to being as difficult as replacing an attic fan motor or a dish disposal. It's just a motor after all, the only thing it does is spin. Just be sure to kill the power to the unit and pull out the fuses in the panel next to the pump. Don't do anything you aren't comfortable doing.

I had my fan motor go out on my Goodman heat pump, and I pulled the SN off the unit and called Goodman and asked for the Manufactured date, which put me inside their warranty period even though I wasn't the purchaser and I was able to finagle a free motor.

ME Flow quoted me i believe $300 to replace the motor.

 

The capacitor for our furnace was $7. Sounds very high at $92, but not sure if it's camparing apples to apples.

 

yeah most HVAC places will take you to the cleaners.... shop around, search online, etc. It's crazy they leapt to the conclusion it was the compressor that easily. And no, $500 for a fan motor is excessive. You could probably switch it out yourself for ~100... I got my inside blower motor at Grainger .. but there are other local places as well.

 

We have a United Air Temp service contract which is fine and includes emergency call out for no fee. However, some of their engineers are essentially there to make a sale. We kept getting the same guy repeatedly and he always tried scare tactics to upsell new features or fix ones "that would break soon".

We eventually ran into a problem with the heat pump and compressor. United quoted $10,000 to fix it. When it's 90 degrees outside you are tempted to just get it done, but we looked around and got it the problem assessed and fixed for half the price.

This was 3 years ago and we've had no problems with the service. Can't remember the name, but yes do shop around. United is there to sell - to the extent that we have told them not to send around "salesy engineers" in future, and, surprisingly, they obliged.