need to replace the motor before you can check pressures.
residential guys usually will tell you how much it will cost upfront.
Hello All,
I just bought a house that was on the market for 2 years (repo). The Heater/AC (all in one outside unit) had rats nest in it and Heater work fine after clean them out. Now that it's getting hotter I called a service guy to look at the AC. AC is not cooling at all. Service guy came out and removed the Fan motor that is above the compessor. He showed me that the bearings are bad. Of course looking to save money I ask if it could be rebuild and his answer was no. The really strange thing about this is the guy removed this part and when I ask is this the only thing wrong he said he will need to replace this first before cont work on it.
First Q is what should I expect to pay to replace this part?
Is this normal for HVAC guys to replace one part at a time?
Should he give an est for the total job before cont?
Thanks for any help
Wade
need to replace the motor before you can check pressures.
residential guys usually will tell you how much it will cost upfront.
No price questions allowed, on this forum.
I would have checked the compressor windings, and checked to see if the compressor still worked. Put my guages on to see if it had any gas left in it also. Then quoted you a price for that repair.
But still would not be able to tell you if the motor, and cap would be all that it needed.
The service tech is correct.
That fan motor will have to be operational before checking further.
Its sorta like your car having 4 flat tires and you ask the tech if the shocks are ok.
He has to fix the tires first before he can get it to go down the road and see how smooth the ride is.
This sort of thing happens all the time in our industry.
When ever I find a unit that is froze up.
The natural thing for the homeowner to ask is..
"Why did it freeze up?"
There are alot of things that cause freeze up.
Not enough air passing through unit (i.e. Dirty Filter, dirty coil, blockage in duct, blower wheel dirty, duct incorrectly sized, etc etc), Not enough heat passing through unit (stat set too cold, blower motor quit due to bad relay, weak run capacitor, motor overheating, also compressor contactor sticking, stat wire shorted R to Y),
and toward the end of reasons for freeze up... low refrigerant.
The only way to properly diagnose a Freeze up is to let it thaw and get it running under normal circumstances.
I would recommend replacing the motor with motor run capacitor, chemically clean outside coil, and check refrigerant pressures.
A dirty coil can cause the motor to fail which causes the run capicitor to fail which causes high head pressure and can cause the system to lose refrigerant which can cause the compressor to overheat and shut down which if left overheating a whole bunch of times... the internal overload may either not reset or even get 'weak' and start tripping sooner than it should... there is also a chance of running a unit low of freon and/or running one without that fan motor can actually damage the compressor and it cannot pump correctly.
I'd go ahead and get a full spring maintenace done on the unit also. Being that the house was a Repo, I'd bet the evap coil is nasty and the blower wheel might be too.
Of course being the perfectionist I am...
I'd have the ductwork inspected and verify proper airflow through unit.
And perform a capacity check.
while the top was off the unit, I'd check the heat exchanger also.
So... back to your questions...
"First Q is what should I expect to pay to replace this part?"
Forum rules say we can't share pricing.
"Is this normal for HVAC guys to replace one part at a time?"
Yup
Should he give an est for the total job before cont?
He can only give you a price for what he knows is broke
at the moment.
That YCC model number you gave appears to be a Carrier model #. You sure it's Trane?
Thanks everyone.
Chillbilly,
Carrier and Trane have units with YCC in the model #.
http://www.trane.com/Residential/Pro...dUnits/Ycc.asp
Gotcha
Always thought YCC was an american standard rooftop unit, same as trane but thought trane numbers were different.