I live in a modest home in coastal South Carolina, the heat/humidity capital of the world. I've been in my home for 19 years. The original HVAC system was 15 years old when I moved in and lasted another 5. Current system was installed 14 years ago and has been nearly trouble-free. We have an annual maintenance agreement with the company that installed it, which changed hands 7-8 years ago. For at least 5 years they've been telling me that I should get a new system for reliability, energy savings, yadda yadda. My philosophy is if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Two weeks ago a new guy with the company came out to do the semi-annual maintenance visit. He says that the unit is fine, and proceeds to tell my wife (I wasn't there) that the company will tell us that we should replace the system, but not to pay any attention because it's working great and everything looks good. My wife tells me this that evening, and I think well that's interesting for him to say, and we joke that he won't be there for long.
Several days ago we noticed that the outside unit, when it came on, was blowing out cold air instead of warm, so I went inside and the air coming out of the ducts felt cool. So, I went back outside and was doing some work nearby (the unit was still running) and then I heard the compressor kick on. I realized that what I'd been hearing was only the condenser fan. I walked over to the unit and sure enough it was blowing out warm air now. Went back inside and the air coming out of the ducts felt cool, perhaps cooler than before -- I really couldn't tell any difference. I took notice that this is now the way it's operating now: condenser fan comes on anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes before the compressor comes on.
We had the company come out to check it. Surprise, it's a new guy. The other one no longer works there. He says that the compressor is bad, and that it's not worth putting a new one in a 14 year old unit and that (surprise) we should buy a new unit. He says we can operate this one until it goes out, but that it's on its way, and pushes my wife pretty hard. She told him we'd get back to them.
I know next to nothing about HVAC, so I'm hoping that someone here can tell me where to go next. I read on the net (so you know it's true) that somewhere around a third of the time a diagnosis of a bad compressor is not correct. I'm figuring that at the very least I need another HVAC company to come out and give me a diagnosis. Any thoughts beyond that would be greatly appreciated.
Two weeks ago a new guy with the company came out to do the semi-annual maintenance visit. He says that the unit is fine, and proceeds to tell my wife (I wasn't there) that the company will tell us that we should replace the system, but not to pay any attention because it's working great and everything looks good. My wife tells me this that evening, and I think well that's interesting for him to say, and we joke that he won't be there for long.
Several days ago we noticed that the outside unit, when it came on, was blowing out cold air instead of warm, so I went inside and the air coming out of the ducts felt cool. So, I went back outside and was doing some work nearby (the unit was still running) and then I heard the compressor kick on. I realized that what I'd been hearing was only the condenser fan. I walked over to the unit and sure enough it was blowing out warm air now. Went back inside and the air coming out of the ducts felt cool, perhaps cooler than before -- I really couldn't tell any difference. I took notice that this is now the way it's operating now: condenser fan comes on anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes before the compressor comes on.
We had the company come out to check it. Surprise, it's a new guy. The other one no longer works there. He says that the compressor is bad, and that it's not worth putting a new one in a 14 year old unit and that (surprise) we should buy a new unit. He says we can operate this one until it goes out, but that it's on its way, and pushes my wife pretty hard. She told him we'd get back to them.
I know next to nothing about HVAC, so I'm hoping that someone here can tell me where to go next. I read on the net (so you know it's true) that somewhere around a third of the time a diagnosis of a bad compressor is not correct. I'm figuring that at the very least I need another HVAC company to come out and give me a diagnosis. Any thoughts beyond that would be greatly appreciated.