On Tuesday, April 2, 2019 at 5:03:15 PM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

Could be as simple as a short in the thermostat wires, maybe from some rodent.
Whatever it is, if you have reasonable DIY skills you can probably fix it
for not much, maybe $25 for a relay, worst case I guess it could be a
control board. With a HVAC tech, you're pretty much at their mercy
and they can hose you right proper if they want to.




Yea, thay can really hose you.

A couple of years ago on a Saturday the AC quit. Called the man and was
told it would be a minimum of $ 100 for him to come out. Ok with that.

He got here and replaced a bad motor capacitor in about 15 minuits. I
was tlaking with him, and he was open and frindly. Gave me osme
pointers about it. He then asked me what I though the capacitor would
cost. I told him they paid less than probably $ 25 for it and the
markup was about double , so $ 50. He said the company had a fixed rate
of $ 300 for the capacitor repair.

Yeah. The local (but highly rated) HVAC repair charged me 85 to show up, and $250 for the cap. It was $12 at the local supply, but they wouldn't sell to me as I'm not a contractor.

On the other hand, some years back the other company in town, who'd put my heat pump in in that house, did sell me a special breaker for my air handler. It was the middle of a cold snap, they were swamped and couldn't get to me for days, and they'd had a bunch of bad breakers on that unit so they were pretty sure what it was, and they gave it to me at cost. It was one of the easiest repairs I've done, in terms of taking the old one out and reconnecting the new. But it was also one of the most physically difficult, because I had to half squat in my attic threaded between wires, tubes, etc., with no room to move and every muscle cramping. I'd have called these guys first but they've since gone under.