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My mom's A/C stopped working..air was coming out but outside unit not making any noise. She called someone out to come fix it. Guy charged 170.00 to turn off booster/s that she uses in winter (?). Mom said he'll be coming out again in the winter to turn them back on. And of course she'll pay another 170.00.
She is older so I just want to make sure she isn't being scammed. I know nothing of these boosters but never remember paying 340.00 a year or so to have them turned on and off at my home.
Boosters? On an hvac compressor? Sounds like utter nonsense to me as well. What this sounds like to me, is that the house fan in the exchange (basement or attic) was running which was blowing the air, but the capacitor in the outside unit was shot, which is a VERY common part that does wear out from time to time and costs less than $100.
My previous house was new construction via 2011 from a national spec builder. Not the highest quality. The day we went under contract to sell it (fall 2015), the lower level ac went out. I noticed warmish air blowing through the vents. Went to the basement and could hear the fan blowing the air. Then went outside to find one of the two compressors not spinning and making a humming noise, like it had seized up. Literally cost me just $120 for a guy to come out, look at it, and say "yep, capacitor is done, have several on the truck, be right back". A capacitor is about the size of a D-cell battery and it's usually very easy to access from the panel on the compressor. He pulled the two little wires off the old one, put in the new one, hooked up the two little wires, flipped the switch, and it all fired back up without a problem.
The only thing I can think of that could be called a "Booster" is electric duct heat but there should be no reason to have to manually turn that off and on, the thermostat should handle that. In cool mode the heaters should be disabled and the outdoor condenser enabled. Sounds like bull to me!!
Thanks everyone. I'll have to talk to mom and get more detail but when she first told me about guy coming twice a year to do this and charge 170, it just didn't sound right.
It is a 20 year unit so maybe it being old has something to do with it to keep it going?
It's unreal how much people try to take advantage of senior. She got a paining quite for a ranch brick home. She just needed the trim done and the first guy, that was reported as being Christian, gave her a quote of 12,000. lol
My experience in Florida was that most "Christian" tradespeople learned their "Christianity" in prison.
If your mother is of an age and you can determine if this was a scam and your state has the laws set up, report the scammer for elder abuse. That could put a crimp in his style.
My mom's A/C stopped working..air was coming out but outside unit not making any noise. She called someone out to come fix it. Guy charged 170.00 to turn off booster/s that she uses in winter (?). Mom said he'll be coming out again in the winter to turn them back on. And of course she'll pay another 170.00.
She is older so I just want to make sure she isn't being scammed. I know nothing of these boosters but never remember paying 340.00 a year or so to have them turned on and off at my home.
Does this seem right? Thanks.
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The only boosters I know of are used when certain rooms remain cool or hot to push the air to the farthest point. They are called Duct Boosters and are questionable at best. That may have been one thing he did but maybe she has a dual fuel system and it wasn't flipping over to the a/c unit. He may also have been talking about the hard start capacitor but that wouldn't require turning off and on. Ask her the name of the company and the invoice number and see if you can call and get a good explanation of what was done for that $170 and why they need to come back. Perhaps he recommended coming back for a winter checkup to make sure everything runs smoothly and she doesn't have an issue when she needs heat and that may not be $170 but just a service checkup call price.
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