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We've been in our home for 10 months. We've had the A/C units serviced twice already. We also found out that the previous owners had serviced them right before we bought the house. So basically three times in one year.
We had no A/C on the main floor last week. The guy said that both units have freon leaks and will continue to freeze up and require service.
Then we remembered we had a 1-year home warranty. We called Homeshield and they sent out Accent Heating & Cooling to check it out. The guy also said that both coils have leaks.
They just called me back and said that my out-of-pocket to have the coils replaced in both units is $1380! I just about choked. She told me that was a bargain because without the home warranty it would be twice that. then she said she could get it down to $1000.
I know nothing about HVAC. Is this reasonable?
It doesn't help that I just watched the Dateline about A/C repair companies scamming people.
I ran into something similar with mine a couple of years ago, it seems like the charge was around $650. The cost was to cover the freon charge and disposal -the home warranty didn't cover this.
We've been in our home for 10 months. We've had the A/C units serviced twice already. We also found out that the previous owners had serviced them right before we bought the house. So basically three times in one year.
We had no A/C on the main floor last week. The guy said that both units have freon leaks and will continue to freeze up and require service.
Then we remembered we had a 1-year home warranty. We called Homeshield and they sent out Accent Heating & Cooling to check it out. The guy also said that both coils have leaks.
They just called me back and said that my out-of-pocket to have the coils replaced in both units is $1380! I just about choked. She told me that was a bargain because without the home warranty it would be twice that. then she said she could get it down to $1000.
I know nothing about HVAC. Is this reasonable?
It doesn't help that I just watched the Dateline about A/C repair companies scamming people.
1-Read your home warranty thoroughly to make sure that $1,000. is reasonable for the repair. Usually, there is a page or brochure enclose that lists typical repair & replacement costs.
2-Get a free repair estimate from an A/C company (for comparison).
3-Get a few quotes for a new A/C. (Your current one make not be energy efficient and it may be worthwhile to buy a new one if it is really old.)
4-Contact your utility company to check for energy efficiency rebates that might offset the cost of a new A/C.
5-Quickly compare all options and decide what you are going to do: you are running out of time.
I thought those Home Warranty places would fix it or replace it for a flat fee. Is there some sort of small print??
We had to have our heat pump replaced through a Home Warranty service. The trade fee alone is $100 ... for anyone to come out and look at anything that's gone wrong.
Once they determined the Heat pump needed to be replaced, they offered a unit of similar size and output that they would supply. For sure, it wasn't high-efficiency unit that qualified for Federal Tax Credits. It was just "whatever" cheap unit the HVAC company could get that was comparable in size/output to the existing unit. We, of course, were offered an "upgrade" (for a price I cannot even remember, but it was outrageous!) Plus, the warranty service ONLY covered the unit. It did not cover costs for permits, electrical upgrades to accomodate the new unit, duct work connections, and the list goes on...
We objected to some of the charges they said we were required to pay... We were still out of pocket about $900 by the time it was all said and done.
I called the warranty company. They said the charges are for code updates, disposal, and permits. $1400...seriously?
And the house is only 5 years old.
Now that it is all of a sudden hot, the AC repair companies will charge top premium dollars to do anything because they have more work than they can handle. $1380 is a pretty good deal to have this done to two units if they are in fact replacing the coils, charging the system back up, and insuring there are no leaks.
Hate to tell you this, but the people you bought the house from probably knew this problem was there. It can be temporarily be fixed by doing a $150 charge but it usually has to be repeated each year. This sort of thing happens because it wasn't installed right in the first place. These things should go 20 years with no leak issues.
AC maintenance contracts/service is an absolute waste of money. As you have discovered it didn't get you anything at all.
I agree that the previous owners knew about it. The guy said he charged it right before they vacated. Unfortunately inspections don't go down to that level of detail.
FWIW we had the same problem with our ten year old Trane unit at our old house. They did tell us that to replace the coil would have been at least $600. We opted for them to just put in some more freon for around $100 and it lasted for at least two years. We sold our home and had it inspected prior by their HVAC contractor. They did NOT find anything wrong with it! Go figure!! Go for the cheap route now and get a few pounds put into it. Don't be surprised though if some won't do it as I think it is borderline illegal to put it into a known leaky AC unit. Good luck!
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