"cshenk" wrote

Waiting patiently and hoping for good news!

The AC guy just left. As soon as he saw the unit, he said, "I can tell you
what the problem is, it is out of freon." I said, "Oh, good, then you can
just fill it up!" He said, "No, that's not good, because I can fill it up
but it will just leak out again."

He could not tell me how long it would take to leak out again. He could tell
me that a new system, with new ductwork is going to run something like $7K
to 9K.

I told him we would have to take our chances and hope the freon would last
for a while.

He sold me on a $150 per year maintenance plan for both heating and cooling,
with one check in the spring that includes coil cleaning every year. Then a
check of the furnace etc. for winter. With this maintenance plan, we got a
small discount on freon.

Here is what the invoice looks like:

Qty and Service Non HSP HSP

Diagnostic: $99.00 $47.00
HSP agreement $0 $149.00
Gas surcharge $10.00 $0
1 lb R-22 (1st pound) $ 91.00 $77.00
4 Additional lbs R-22 $108.00 $88.00
2 Cleaning coils $162.00 $0
Total $470.00 $361.00

So we paid $361 and this includes a heating check next fall.

Under Work Performed:

Performed service. cool check on system checked volts, amps, coils, motors,
filter, T-stat, Electrical, Refrigerant, Capacitors, superheat, temperature
drop, Diagnostic system, very low refrigerant. Added 5.04 lbs of R.-22.
Diagnose no other problems at this time.

Technician recommends: System upgrade due to age and efficiency. Very highly
recommend replacing system. Leak search test $35 per 1/4 hour."

Hmmm. Anybody know what the leak search results mean? Did I just pay $361
for a week of cool air?

By the way, the unit is beautiful now, he did a great job cleaning it inside
and out. It looks new.

What say you experts?