PISSED OFF at Carrier

[mrestfla]

I had installed a new Carrier comfort series 2.5 ton heat pump system from a local rep hvac company. model#25HCB3, AHU#FX4D on 6/28/2010. yesterday the fan motor died. I had to pay $ dollars in fees and labor. is this going to happen every 2 years? I emailed Carrier my thoughts and how I should get my $ dollars back. anyone have any thoughts? I think the warranty is 5 years. thanks.

[JWB]

there are two warranties......LABOR and PARTS. This is usually illuminated on your sales sheet or invoice. Very rarely do people buy a LABOR warranty. Carrier doesn't pay us to fix it unless you buy it. In the WalmartWorld of price shopping things get really lean sometimes and contractors have to cover costs of operation. Money doesn't fall off trees into our offices, we bill customers. That is how it works. When you buy a car, you help build all those fancy dealerships we drive by......

Hell, Carrier and others sometimes bill us a processing fee for big warranty parts. Guess who ultimately pays that? You do.

Sorry your motor broke.

[beenthere]

You apparently have a part only warranty. Didn't your contractor offer you the extended labor warranty. If not, you should let him know that you would have bought it if he had offered it to you.

Its not Carrier screw up that you had to pay, its your contractor that didn't tell you about extended labor warranties.

[catmanacman]

Your contractor did not build the unit he just installed it,some contractors give a 2 year warranty some give a 1 yr and some give a30 day on installs

[martyinlincoln]

If the duct work is sized correctly and you keep the filter clean it shouldn't lose another motor. A tip... those 1" pleated filters that say "last up to 3 months" are usually in need of changing after 30-45 days.

[mrestfla]

You apparently have a part only warranty. Didn't your contractor offer you the extended labor warranty. If not, you should let him know that you would have bought it if he had offered it to you.

Its not Carrier screw up that you had to pay, its your contractor that didn't tell you about extended labor warranties.

I am sorry Beenthere, you are totally wrong! this is Carrier's product. they SCREWED UP!!!!
I had a 1 year labor warranty through the contractor. The contractors installer told me he had to replace a bunch of these motors. so the motors coming from Carrier are defective.

[martyinlincoln]

Have your installer check the system static pressure. Most furnaces state max external static pressure .5". If it's more than that then it's not the motors or Carriers fault .

[hvacrmedic]

I am sorry Beenthere, you are totally wrong! this is Carrier's product. they SCREWED UP!!!!
I had a 1 year labor warranty through the contractor. The contractors installer told me he had to replace a bunch of these motors. so the motors coming from Carrier are defective.

Carrier didn't build the motors, they bought them from Genteq (Emerson). If Carrier is responsible, then so is the installing contractor for the same reasons, and even the distributor that sold the unit to the contractor. Where do you draw the line? IMO the responsible party is the manufacturer of the shoddy part. OTOH, the part was warrantied. Labor costs are unfortunatly yours, since you own the equipment. As owner you took on that responsibility. Caveat Emptor.

[2old2rock]

Ask your installer to give you the TESP number, and let us know what that is

[energy star]

I am sorry Beenthere, you are totally wrong! this is Carrier's product. they SCREWED UP!!!!
I had a 1 year labor warranty through the contractor. The contractors installer told me he had to replace a bunch of these motors. so the motors coming from Carrier are defective.

If you had a one year labor warranty, and you installed the system on 6/28/10 as you state in your first post, is not the labor warranty elapsed? What year is it?

[vstech]

I had installed a new Carrier comfort series 2.5 ton heat pump system from a local rep hvac company. model#25HCB3, AHU#FX4D on 6/28/2010. yesterday the fan motor died. I had to pay $ dollars in fees and labor. is this going to happen every 2 years? I emailed Carrier my thoughts and how I should get my $ dollars back. anyone have any thoughts? I think the warranty is 5 years. thanks.

which motor died? the fan motor outside, or the blower motor inside?
I'm always leery of contractors that tell me "I've had many of these motors fail, xxoo company got a bad batch!" do you have any pictures of the installation? if it's the "fan" motor outside, has the system been cleaned in the 2+ years since the unit was installed? if it's the "blower" motor inside, what kind of filters are you using? what size and how many are on the house?
thanks for the info, I'd like to get to the bottom of the problem for ya.
also note, that capacitors made in china are often the problem with failed motors... and we have little recourse with this problem...

[Mr Bill]

I am sorry Beenthere, you are totally wrong! this is Carrier's product. they SCREWED UP!!!!

There are literally thousands of mfg. products a year that fail, because of a part they used in their product manufactured by someone else, this is the way it is and has been for decades. My guess is if Carrier had enough failures due to a faulty part they would have a recall or compensate you for the labor, I know this happens, Ruud did it with their boards back in the early 90's. All the Pro's here stress to the home owners all the time to buy the best parts and labor warranty, there really cheap compared to a repair, I bet what you paid for labor, you could have bought a 10 year P&L warranty. In my opinion, your service tech was wrong mentioning he has replaced a bunch of these motors, how do you know he is telling the truth, did he have documentation? If your SUV flips and gets totaled because of a faulty tire, do you blame GM or Goodyear?

[beenthere]

I am sorry Beenthere, you are totally wrong! this is Carrier's product. they SCREWED UP!!!!
I had a 1 year labor warranty through the contractor. The contractors installer told me he had to replace a bunch of these motors. so the motors coming from Carrier are defective.

And Carrier gave you a "5 Year Limited Part Warranty". Limited to the part only. They stood behind the motor.

If your contractor had to replace a lot of those motors. Sounds like maybe they are doing something wrong.

Now would be a good time to have the systems static/TESP checked, before that new motor goes out again in another 2 years.

[SoFlaDave]

Too many people assume that buying an air conditioner is like buying a car and that if something under warranty breaks, they just get the dealer to fix it free of charge.

For the sake of drilling into everyone that might read this heads, ALWAYS GET AN EXTENDED WARRANTY. They are available for every manufacturer, so if your contractor doesn't mention it ask for . If they can't get you one find another contractor.

[mrestfla]

yes, the labor warranty elapsed. I am pissed off because a fan motor that should last 10 years failed after 2. I bought a Carrier system, paid more so these things wouldn't happen. homeowners expect better products when buying from quality manufacturers. shouldn't they? the blower fan motor inside the garage failed, not from the exterior heat pump. I haven't had the system cleaned, why would this lead to a bad motor? BTW, I live in Florida. I will call the HVAC contractor back for the TESP test. I hope they won't charge me. also, I would like to thank everyone for your help.

[Shophound]

A fan motor could fail after two years if it has to work against crappy ductwork (ECM) or is coupled with a POS capacitor (PSC).

Most blower motors used in residential HVAC rely on air moving over the motor to keep it cool. If the ductwork is restrictive, or the owner uses highly restrictive filters, thr motor can run hot and potentially fail. Heat kills more motors than most anything else.

[beenthere]

yes, the labor warranty elapsed. I am pissed off because a fan motor that should last 10 years failed after 2. I bought a Carrier system, paid more so these things wouldn't happen. homeowners expect better products when buying from quality manufacturers. shouldn't they? the blower fan motor inside the garage failed, not from the exterior heat pump. I haven't had the system cleaned, why would this lead to a bad motor? BTW, I live in Florida. I will call the HVAC contractor back for the TESP test. I hope they won't charge me. also, I would like to thank everyone for your help.

Doesn't matter who the manufacturer is, they all pretty much give the same Limited part warranty. Which means they don't pay labor for the parts replacement. They just provide the part. Which most of the time, they didn't make the part themselves. They bought it from a vender, who won't pay them any labor if it fails either.


The DC motors tend to go out quick if they can't move enough air. Weather the problem is caused by bad duct work, or dirty air filters, or dirty evap coils.

[Mr Bill]

Most blower motors used in residential HVAC rely on air moving over the motor to keep it cool. If the ductwork is restrictive, or the owner uses highly restrictive filters, thr motor can run hot and potentially fail. Heat kills more motors than most anything else.

Some contractors don't address the duct system, sometimes because of limited HO funds, or just don't know to, so the sell the higher end systems with the ECM's as forgiving to a bad duct system. I know this is happening, I sat with my Ruud tech support guy at lunch last week, and he said most all the failures they are seeing in their systems now days, are airflow related.

[mrestfla]

I know this, the house was built in 1995. when I bought the house in Feb/2010 the original system was still working. a Carrier system. the air handler was fine so the blower motor was fine. the heat pump could not cool the air in the summer. so I had the system replaced. the original blower motor lasted 15 years. a brand new blower motor lasted 2 years. something is definately wrong with this picture!

[beenthere]

So is the new system larger then the old system? Are you positive that the old air handler had the original blower motor in it, no way it was replaced before you bought the house.