On 11/01/2012 04:02 PM, HeyBub wrote:
badgolferman wrote:
A couple weeks ago I went on vacation to my mother's winter house in
Naples, FL. Their house has two A/C systems, one for the master
bedroom suite and one for the rest of the house. The bedroom system
worked fine, but the main system didn't seem to be blowing air out. I
found the air handlers in the garage attached to the ceiling. The
condenser units were outside of the garage. The main condenser had
ice built up on the insulated freon line. I went inside and turned
off the system and let it defrost over the next few hours.

I called my mother and let her know what was happening. She had me
call the HVAC contractor which had installed the system 8 years ago.
The technician showed up that evening and diagnosed it as a blown fan
motor. Cost of repair $1200 for a universal motor. Yes, it was out
of warranty. This was a Trane system, although I don't know the
model.

Considering the system is barely used 6 months out of the year, this
seems rather poor longevity for a blower motor. It also seems rather
expensive.

Any thoughts?

Two.

Icing is usually indicative of low freon. If completely iced over, the
blower motor can't move any air. Get the freon situation fixed first and see
if all is well.

Second, a blower motor should cost in the neighborhood of $300, even for the
high-priced spread (Grainger's). If your hand fits a wrench, you should be
able to replace it in a couple of hours.



If the blower fails to start but the compressor is running, the lines
will ice up without necessarily indicating low charge. Had that happen
to me last summer - condensate drain clogged up, overflowed, took out
the air handler control board, woke up to find the compressor chugging
away but no airflow.

Replaced control board and all is well. Cost less than $1200 too but I
ended up making work for myself; the furnace is older than dirt and I
adapted a newer Honeywell "universal furnace control" which required the
addition of a flame sensor rather than buying the separate (and more
expensive, and less convenient to use) "fan control board" and "ignitor
control board" which were the parts that superseded the parts that
superseded the original parts. It's all working well now though.

The not-so-funny thing is that I'd actually blown out the drain lines
just a couple months earlier when cleaning the A-coil. Not exactly sure
how it got plugged again so quickly?

nate

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