September 2016 bookings at Shawnee County Jail Best of Topeka 2016: View all the winners' stories, photos, videos and more here Best of Topeka magazine United Way Annual MeetingDo you have an old HVAC unit that is not running as efficiently as you'd like? Perhaps your current HVAC unit is broken and you are unsure if it could be repaired, or if the costs of repairing or replacing the unit would be covered by a typical homeowners insurance policy? Well, it all depends on the source of the damage to your HVAC unit. There are times when having a typical homeowner’s insurance policy can help to cover the cost to repair an HVAC unit, particularly when Mother Nature is to blame. If the unit in question was destroyed by one of the named perils in your policy, it will likely be covered. However, if the problem stems from normal wear-and-tear, your policy probably will not cover repair or replacement costs. Cases when your broken HVAC unit will be covered Living in Northeast Florida, it can be difficult to live without heat in the winter or, worse, without A/C in the summer.

It’s a good thing, then, that if the damage to your HVAC unit was caused by a natural disaster, fire, or some other catastrophe, repairing or replacing your HVAC unit is usually covered by your typical homeowners insurance policy, which hopefully you have. ton ac unit do you needOther unforeseen circumstances are also likely to be covered—like frozen or burst pipes and falling objects.window ac unit with thermostat Cases when your broken HVAC unit will not be coveredac unit water However, there are many cases when your policy simply does not cover repair costs. For example, basic homeowner’s insurance will not cover damage due to an earthquake. Furthermore, basic maintenance will not be covered. If your HVAC unit simply stopped working for a known reason, then you are most likely going to have to pay for repairs out of pocket—although, depending on the damages, it may be more cost-effective to buy a whole new HVAC unit.

You can still try to submit a claim, but it is more than likely that you will get denied. There are other ways to cover the cost of repairing a broken HVAC unit. When it comes to air conditioning repair, you can purchase additional major appliance insurance. This is a special kind of insurance that will cover your major appliances, including your HVAC unit, when they break down and need to be repaired. Contact your insurance company about purchasing this additional coverage. Snyder Heating and Air Conditioning can help with your busted HVAC unit! Keep in mind that, typically, the newer and more efficient your HVAC unit is, the cheaper your coverage will likely be, plus the length of your warranty should be longer. The older and less efficient the unit, the harder and more costly it is to repair, plus it may take longer for a professional to find and fix your problem. A modern HVAC unit will not only cut down on your repair costs, but will also save you money due to it’s performance, and the fact that it will use less energy that an older unit.

If you are having issues with your HVAC unit, the team of professionals at in Jacksonville, Florida have the knowledge and professional experience, as well as dedication to excellent customer service, to ensure that your HVAC unit repair job is done to your complete satisfaction. Let Snyder help you get your HVAC unit up & running before it really starts to get hot here on the First Coast!Dan Gallagher’s Bryant air conditioning unit doesn’t work right. Who is responsible for fixing it? Question: I replaced my central air conditioning in May with a new Bryant unit after the thermal expansion valve on our previous unit failed. I registered all equipment through Bryant’s website to activate a 5-year parts/labor and 10-year parts warranty. In August, on the first truly hot day of the year, I returned from work to find the inside temperature was 85 degrees. In checking the outside of the unit, I noticed severe icing of the coolant lines. I promptly called the installer.

He arrived a short time later and diagnosed a thermal expansion valve, explaining that a replacement would be performed the following morning, and that there are a rash of these failures affecting new Bryant products. We limped the system through the night, awaiting the repair. I contacted Bryant through their customer care center the next morning and eventually talked to a senior representative. I asked if the thermal expansion valve was a known issue and what to expect. The representative forwarded my concerns to a manager in the Indianapolis area and told me to expect a return call. I also contacted the installer and explained my concerns at the invasive nature of a thermal expansion valve replacement. I’m worried about the contamination risk to the system and that it might shorten the unit’s life. A technician returned to replace the valve as scheduled. He recharged and activated the system. Within five minutes, the new valve also failed. The tech spent the next hour-plus attempting to restart the system, to no avail.

After several phone calls to his management, they decided to attempt replacement of the indoor coil. The unit is now running. But this morning, my wife called me at work to say there’s a thin film of fluid and dust covering the laundry room floor. I contacted the installer and they apologized for the mess, offering to come and clean up at my convenience. I’m going to take care of this on my own. I’m highly concerned that subjecting my new system to multiple invasive repairs will shorten its life. Having the same failure multiple times in a short time period also raises reliability concerns around the system. On one hand, I would like the Bryant equipment removed and replaced with something from another vendor – but I know that’s going to be a huge hill to climb. I am also very happy with my installer, who has been nothing but responsive and helpful – they are just dealing with bad parts. I would like Bryant to offer an explanation for the failure and to extend my 5/10 warranty to 10/10 as a show of confidence in the product they installed.

I would also like a commitment for a complete system replacement in the event of another valve or coil failure. I am spending too much time dealing with my “new” peace of mind. — Dan Gallagher, Brownsburg, Ind. Answer: Your new air conditioning unit should have worked. But when your case crossed my desk, I wasn’t too worried. Bryant is known for offering quality products and standing behind them. Lisa Townley, Bryant’s brand manager, said it best in a recent news release: “Bryant is a company with a long history of providing customers with reliable, worry-free comfort.” If your account is to be believed, your installer replaced your old AC with a new one that was just as flawed. The least Bryant could do is to apologize, if not also to stand behind its now-fixed unit. The thermal expansion valve, or TXV, is a component in air conditioning systems that controls the amount of refrigerant flow into the evaporator. It’s a critical component, and your concerns about the unit are warranted.

It looks as if you received a lemon. I was curious to hear Bryant’s side of the story, given some of the reports of TXV failures on the units that you found when you tried to resolve this. I contacted the company several times to see if it could address your complaint. It didn’t respond to me directly, but an operations manager at the Indianapolis Bryant distributor got in touch with you by phone. He mentioned that the failures you experienced were an issue, but were more common in smaller tonnage units. Bryant’s distributor agreed to extend its new installation priority service through the next cooling season. They also made a commitment to replace the system if they can’t “precisely” identify and eliminate the problems with your current unit. (Alas, no warranty extension to 10 years, though.) It is unclear if my intervention or if your own persistent calls to the distributor made the difference, but it doesn’t really matter. The issues appear to be resolved, at least for now.