TRANE 19i Compressor Fails

[flafiretwo2]

About 8 months ago I posted about a Trane 19i that had several of the small compressors fail. After replacing the compressors several times ,Trane had a new "upgraded" 19i installed. The main change in the new 19i unit had something to do with piping that would keep lubricant/oil in the small compressor. This would prevent compressor failure. The new 19i ran perfectly for 7 months. Most days it would run on the small compressor and change to the larger one when the heat/cool load increased. Even on very cold days the use of aux. heat was at a minimum. Last week the A/H was blowing cold air during a call for heat. Service tech arrived and found the small compressor had failed on this new unit. The installer's service department and the factory wholesaler tech have done everything they should be doing. Trane should thank these friendly representatives who have labored with this problem ...although they haven't been told what to do next. Anyone know what is happening with this design ? When it runs the 19i is very quiet and I thought it was worth the extra cost. Now I wonder what is going to happen next....

[flafiretwo2]

Reps from the Trane distributor and the installer are coming out to see what may be going wrong with this system. The Trane people thought the 19i problems were solved with the piping change and are concerned that un updated unit has had aaa compressor failure.....

[BaldLoonie]

I've lost faith in the Climatuff recip. Trane may claim moving production south has improved reliability but I haven't seen anything come out of Mexico that I'd call reliable.

[jt47]

The most important thing to know now is what kind of failure did the compressor have. The former problems were caused by the lack of lube oil on long, cold weather run times. The compressor would seize. If your compressor has
failed electrically than this would be unrelated to the former problem Trane had with these units.

[Stamas]

Originally posted by BaldLoonie
I've lost faith in the Climatuff recip. Trane may claim moving production south has improved reliability but I haven't seen anything come out of Mexico that I'd call reliable.

The Trane of illegals crossing the border has been reliably consisitant.

[filterchanger]

how much time does trane allow or pay for, on these warranty compressors changes, i heard they only pay the contractors for 2 hours labor

[flafiretwo2]

The Trane rep and the installer tech arrived after noon today. The small 19i compressor was removed, failure appears to be mechanical - not electrical. The lub oil was clean/clear, so the Trane rep is shipping the 1 1/2 ton compressor off to Trane for examination. Time to remove compressor, install new, change dryer, test for leaks, pull vacuum on system, recharge and test = 4++ Hours. Hope Trane is paying for the full time spent here because this appears to be a design or product problem. Tech is concerned that it could happen again. At least I have the full parts and labor warranty.

[mark beiser]

I'm glad we don't get the weather conditions down here that the failures are occuring in.
We are only a 2 man shop, so in the big picture, we don't have a lot of them out there, but XL19i systems are still 1/3 or more of our total system sales...

[airconman]

seems to me that bulletin said 20 degrees was when the problem occured. They paid me 4 hours per unit. was supposed to be just a piping problem and I have not had any problems with ANY of them. Had to rassle one woman the didn't want me to take hers out. I know she likes her unit anyway. And no I didn't wrestle her we rassled.

[duct dr]

Trane actually had a recall on certain XL19i's saying that the "equalizing" tube between comp's was wrong. My company replaced all recalled units at no charge to the customers, and everyone is happy. The new units I've seen have the EQ tube in a different location. And i do remember them also saying that it was in extreme low temps that the failures happened.