ransley wrote:
On Oct 9, 7:22 pm, 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

Scaring people again I see. Its funny how my Lennox installer, a 50
man co. said "you dont need yearly maintenance" for heat as he knows
my systems environment. Nor did my certified Weil McLain boiler dealer-
installer. On the other hand I have a 4" air filter that keeps coils,
blower, and heat exchanger clean. Some units run with crappy, cheap,
poor fitting 1" filters in dusty condition do need yearly maintenance,
some coils mold up. After 1 year its a good idea, then it might be a 1
- 3 yr schedule depending on its present condition. If you listened to
every repair guy for all building-control-havc systems you have, you
would be wasting alot every year for them to have a look see, for a
buck. For AC, I have a yearly service contract, but everything else
has a schedule based on past performance and its not yearly, its based
on its need. And it doesnt Violate my warranty as bubba scares folks
into believing. Bubba will sell you a warranty, id pass.

I commend you for for having the good sense to get the best
air filter available to you. I wish more people were smart
enough to know which part of the HVAC system is important
to pay the most attention to. What brand filter are you using?
I have a customer who has an AprilAire Space-Gard 2200 that
does a very good job at keeping things clean. Unfortunately,
it's hard to get people to spend money on superior filtration
when they're shopping price for a new HVAC system.

TDD