shibumi wrote:
Hi Folks,

Thanks for comments and suggestions...

Just an update - I heard from the guy that was talking about replacing
just the compressor - he apologized and said the compressor was a bit
more than he expected, so the cost to do that would $1900... That's
about $500 - $1000 more than I was anticipating... (He also said he
could do an American Standard 14 SEER system for $5350)

Also, I've had a couple companies out already (and a few more on the
way) to price out replacing the entire system and I'm looking at a few
dollars over $5000 for the Trane 1400XLi system (w/ dual speed air
handler).. That approx $5000 is after rebates from Trane and Progress
Energy.. ($600 and $150)

So roughly $3000 price difference NOW between replacing just the
compressor and replacing the whole system - that's kind of swinging me
toward the new system and the longer warranty.. rather than paying
$2000 with only a 1 year warranty...

Like I say, more folks on the way w/ quotes - so - hopefully I can beat
a few of them down a lil lower than the $5k.

Thanks again for any insight.


It seems that installer is very important. A correct installation might
be more important than the heat pump.

One of our heat pumps (a Trane XL1000) leaked freon for 5 summers since
we moved in 6 years ago (new construction). We called him back,
initially every couple of months for freon recharge. We finally had
enough, and demanded him to completely fix the problem, as builder's
warranty expires at 5 years. He finally replaced the compressor, which
we asked him to do and were refused.

Every time when he came, he gave a different reason for the freon leak,
from O-ring, bad connection, even blamed on us that we did not turn on
our thermostat low enough in summers when nobody home, and blamed the
electric company's power saver device and disabled it. Things get
better with each fix. But still leaks and he need to recharge at least
once a year. I suspect he fixed away the problem by reinstalling a new
compressor last spring, as we did not need a freon recharge. We are keep
our fingers crossed that AC will work this summer, as we have to pay by
ourselfs for the fix from now on.