On Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:22:37 -0400, Bubba
wrote:

On Thu, 9 Oct 2008 13:30:37 -0700 (PDT), Dottie
wrote:

My new Trane will be a year old next month and is running fine. I did
not take the extended warranty which would have required me to have
the dealer come out once a year and check fluid levels. My question
is: Is it necessary to do this? I mean, if the a/c stops cooling I
know to call them ... but can lack of a certain level of freon or
whatever the new ones use now, cause damage? I want to take care of
it but not waste money. Thanks.

Dottie,
As a hvac professional, let me describe it to you this way..........
Your system is a workiing moving mechanical device that is affected by
dust, temperature, pressure, wear, refrigerant, voltage imbalance,
etc, etc. If you read your owners manual it will tell you most likely
that not only is regular maintenance recommended but probably
required. I would recommend it. Do you have to? No, you dont have to
do anything. Properly serviced (stressing PROPERLY) your unit will
most likely give you years of trouble free service and always
operating at its peak efficiency.
If you did NOT purchase a 5 or 10 yr parts AND LABOR warranty, you can
still do it now.I HIGHLY recommend it on any hvac equipment. Just call
your dealer. Hell, even I can sell you one. You pay the regular price
but you lose the time already elapsed since you had it installed. You
may be suprised when you see the repair bill on an out of warranty
motor or major componet. You have your car serviced regularly, dont
you?
Bubba


My furnace (a Tempstar medium efficiency unit) warranty does not
require the selling dealer to service it at all (thank goodness,
because the dealer went T.U. 1 1/2 years after I bought it) - but the
warranty is not much good either. The DC inductor motor/fan got noisy
at 2 years. Still under warranty. Because the dealer is no longer in
business, I would have had to pay full price for the OEM part, AND
installation, then the repairing dealer would "talk to" Tempstar and I
may or may not get anywhere from 0 to $600 back, sometime in the next
ten years. Not only that, the required part was not in stock anywhere
in Canada - and they were uncertain if one could be found in the USA.
A replacement FASCO motor/fan was available out of the US for about
$175 - so I pulled the fan unit myself and brazed the fan wheel to the
hub (it was loose, as evidenced by "fretting" and rust stains coming
out of the poorly crimped joint). It has been perfectly quiet, and
running with no problems for close to 2 years now. If I find a spare
at a reasonable price I will buy it. If not, it's working fine now.

As for the AC, mine is over 35 years old now and has never been
touched. (no freon added). I did have it checked once about 15 years
ago. If and when it fails, replacement will be cheaper than repair. I
doubt half the parts are still available for it.
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