< 12 3 4 > "He told us the capacitor would cost $300!!" Probably what he said was something like this: Just call another company if you don't trust them. Like I said if the compressor is bad you are smoked, that is probably what he was trying to tell you... Be grateful you have 2 units and don't have to rush into a decision and can get quotes. If it was a short sale it probably sat without power for the entire time. Chances are the power came on and it was turned on right away...that is bad for heat pumps/ac. The refrigerant pools and the internal heater doesn't have a chance to take effect. If the compressor pulls in liquid from the low pressure side you will damage it... Units need to be powered on for however much time they were powered off (at the CB panel) up to 24 hours. This is not commonly known. 1,698 posts, read 1,101,501 times The prices he quoted you are ridiculous and he's hoping yer clueless. I feel more informed now so thank you to the people who have responded.

That was a lot easier than figuring this all out by myself! So I guess there is no way that a starter and capacitor could have justifiably cost $600, huh?ac unit image Also, the repairman assumed that we were clueless because my husband has a foreign accent. how to buy a new ac unitAlso because we are clueless. ac unit will not shut offI suppose I've seen enough scammy repairmen/salesmen that I have developed some spidey sense about it. Also this guy was not terribly subtle, he was patronizing, and fairly insistent that we needed a new unit from the very beginning. We live in the Washington DC suburbs in MD so we use the air conditioner continuously for about 3 months.We live in the Washington DC suburbs in MD so we use the air conditioner continuously for about 3 months of the year.

2,039 posts, read 2,835,851 times Originally Posted by ZimarAnd the Compressor Saver starter kit also runs about $35-50. I have one right now that I took off our old unit that was replaced that I got on Ebay for $40 shipped. Installing both should not cost more than $150-200 at the max parts & labor. But it sounded like he was just a "parts re-placer" not a true service repairman. 17,170 posts, read 35,435,873 times Monthly costs to run an average HVAC business: Advertising Service vehicle (fuel, maintenance, repairs, commercial insurance) Labor Office personnel ( dispatcher ) Labor Manager (typically license holder) Bank fees (merchant accounts, finance accounts, service fees (dormant and usage)) Equipment needed to do the work (meters, gages, testing equipment, recovery equip, torch rig etc.) Website creation and maintenance fees. Licensing costs / uniforms / Safety equipment Taxes and Tax preparation fees. Rent for physical business location.

parts for making repairs Paper work: invoices and proposal forms. Communication costs: cell phones and land line. Warranty (non billable hours) 300 divided by 20 = $15 per cost listed. This is if the owner of the company wishes to provide this service AT COST. Without profit, company will fail. Originally Posted by loves2read I didn't say you would like it. I thought I would give you and everyone else who reads this a crash course in modern expenses of an HVAC company to show you why costs are what they are. I understand people rather prefer flashy gimmicks of free this and free that. That really amount to nothing more than hot air. Costs go up every year. Time continuum doesn't stop with Air Conditioning, and when people quote prices, they never tell you when they did it, they never tell you the company they used is still in business. I remember when I could buy gas for $0.59 a gallon. Looks like we're all getting ripped off right? I could have summed it up as...

"well that is the going rate." But no I chose to give you a rational example why, in terms anyone can understand. Medicine is good for you, and it doesn't taste good either. Certainly there are always those who think they can start a company and do it cheaper. There is a constant cycle of those who think they can escape the doldrums of winter when the call flow stops coming, but the bills do not. How am I going to pay for this??? Oh easy we'll go out of business and then next year spin the make an "HVAC business name wheel." How can you build any trust with a company if you have to change companies every time you need service? Of course you can always sign up for a home warranty, but then don't forget to figure in annual contract, denials due to a laundry list of exclusions, waiting around for the HVAC company to show up etc. Everything has a cost... it comes down to time, what seem like constant break downs, shoddy work and so on. This is all nothing new to me. You don't really want to hear the truth do you?

I can repair any air conditioning system. Any brand, any age, rebuilt from the base of the condenser up. I have done it many times, more times than I care to remember. This is frowned upon at ANY major air conditioning company. Because they want someone who sells and moves new equipment. (This doesn't mean that repairing an old unit is always worth it, by any means. After year 1 you bear all the risk (less than that if a different part breaks). Where as you wouldn't if you purchased a new unit due to new unit warranty. I am not a fortune teller. I usually put a hard limit at 20 year old unit... but it just depends on what I find. Every situation is different. You wonder why it is this way? Because of examples like this and the supposed cost of a part. Easier to just sell you a new unit, trash talk your existing one... don't even enter the part cost diatribe because people who don't know any better think everything is a rip off. (thanks for proving my point.) Someone who can fix anything is often shunned in this industry.