Quote:
Originally Posted by jrref
No worries.
My response was just to indicate the maintenance items that must be included yearly. If your HVAC company is not checking the capacitor for example, then you need to find another company. I agree, I never see a full list of maintenance items published but a reputable company will do all the maintenance items I listed. As far as response time, you are correct. They can't publish they will be at your home in 1 hr. for example. All they can state is you get "priority". When I asked about this the answer was you will get a slot before a customer that doesn't have a maintenance agreement.
I also want to further explain why its a bad idea to wait for the HVAC to break and then fix it. One item that fails over time, as I mentioned, is the capacitor. Heat is the main reason why they fail over time. So if your condensor unit is in the shade most of the day your capacitor may last longer than a unit thats baking in the sun most of the day. When the capacitor starts to degrade, the compressor and or the fan motor will start drawing more current than it should leading to overheating and potentially shortening the life of your unit. One of the ways to guard against this specific problem is to check the capacitor with a meter and replace it when it's reading out of tolerance. You can also check the current draw on the compressor and fan motor as well to see it the capacitor is degrading. This is just one of many items that need to be checked to try and prevent a failure. I agree, maintenance is probably one of the main money makers for these companies but here in Florida where A/C is a necessity, its something you have to do. Hope this helps.
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I agree that it could be a good idea to replace the capacitor if you know that it is about to fail. It would interesting to find out how many HVAC companies actually replace the capacitor during a routine maintenance visit, and how much they charge the customer. I doubt that Sunkool ever replaces the capacitor because checking it is not even on their tune-up list.
If others, who have an HVAC maintenance agreement, have had the capacitor replaced, please post and include the cost they paid for the capacitor.