"John" wrote in message
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"TURTLE" wrote in message
. ..

"John" wrote in message
...
Hello group.
Hopefully the HVAC guys are listening in.
My folks bought a house last summer which has a RUUD AC and electric
(non-heatpump) system. We noticed the house takes a LONG time to warm up
(central Texas, not really cold) so we called AHS. They sent whoever they
use, and the first guy said the sequencer was bad so he ordered one. That
didn't change anything. Then he said the thermostat inside was bad so he
changed that and told my folks it would really be better. The house still
takes over two hours to increase five degrees (1500 sq foot house 42 degrees
outside)
So mom called the company and they sent the dad of the first guy. He opened
it up and said "well, here is your problem, someone didn't wire it right. It
needs two circuits and they only wired in one"
Well she called me and told me this and I got on line and looked up the
model number:

UBHC17J14SHH and according to the on line documentation it says it is a
single circuit system. Does it sound like we are dealing with people who
don't know what they are doing? Should we call a RUUD dealer and pay for a
different service call? Could it possibly be missing something that is
actually part of the heating unit?
The heat coming from the vents is luke warm. I have never lived in a house
with electric heater type furnace so don't know what is correct but would
think the output would be greater than luke warm.
I know the AC guys don't like AHC (American Home Shield) but we got it cause
my folks are on a fixed income but at this point I am beginning to question
the guys who have been out there..Just wanted to run this all by some more
experienced folks and see if they think we should go thru an actual RUUD
dealer to have it looked at.
Thanks so much!
John


Hello group..
Thanks to all for the info, both positive and negative. First, the reason we
have AHS for my folks is they are on a fixed income. If they had a
catastrophic failure of something like an AC unit would seriously cripple
their finances. I have helped them with as much as I can possibly afford. I
do understand your points about second rate service from them. It didn't used
to be this way but sure has become evident in the last few years. This
service call is a perfect example given the first guy didn't see that one
breaker had nothing connected to it!
As some had noticed by the model number, it is a 14kv furnace. BUT, after
looking it over it has become evident that the problem lies in the fact it is
not hooked up properly. Upon removing the inspection panel my folks
discovered that one of the two built in breakers is not even hooked up. Either
the feed wire is not heavy enough to carry the entire load of both circuits so
the bozo installed just hooked up the larger of the two, or sometime down the
line someone got in there and messed with it. I was looking at the product
literature and from what I see, given the distance from the circuit panel it
would take either 4 or 6 guage wire to supply the furnace on a single circuit
on a 90 amp. Mom says there is one, 60 amp breaker to the unit so my guess is
they didn't run enough power to it.
The house is less than four years old. Only caviat is, the house was a bank
repo so we have no information on it's history and had to buy it as-is.. My
best guess it was a lower priced house but it does seem to be built solidly.
It has nice, double pane windows and all the doors are very good insulated
doors and they seal properly. In the attic, the insulation is a white fluffy
blown in matter and is about 12-14" thick in most places. Finding the rafters
to tranverse across the attic is tricky.
We have a message into the only local RUUD dealer in the Austin TX area but
have not heard back from him as of yet. We are bypassing AHS on this one,
plus the last guy said he is going to report to AHS that the unit is wired
incorrectly so they will probably disqualify the unit for future repairs. My
best guess is we are going to have to hire an electrican to run a new feed
into the furnace closet to supply the other strips. Funny too, even when we
had really cold weather last month (down into the low 20's which is not normal
for central Texas) the thing still kept the house at 73 even though it ran a
lot.
Thanks Turtle for posting that recall notice. I am going to check that
Saturday when I can get out to their house. I doubt there unit will fall in
that as their house was built much later than the dates on that recall but who
know's they may have had an old one sitting around.
Thanks again to all and hopefully we can get this straightened out properly
without breaking the bank.
John

This is Turtle.

Some of the Dated codes of the recalled furnaces was sold as late as 1998 and
the date codes was from the 1992 to the 1995 models.

Well to AHS. If they disqualify you. You demand your money back. If you bought a
insurance on your car and a month later they cancelled you. Would you want your
money back ?

Now just running a 10 KW electric strips on a 1,500 sq. ft. house. It may run a
lot but that is usely all FHA requires as heat on the FHA house in the Southern
areas. I don't think I would be spending a bunch of money on changing something
that does not seem to be a problem. I have install a bunch of FHA or general
builder houses with only 10KW on the 1,200 to the 1,600 sq. ft. homes after
looking at the heat load requirements and it not calling for more than 10KW of
heat.

Now 60 amp breaker will carry a 10 KW heat furnace.
Now 80 or 90 amp breaker will carry a 15 KW furnace.

TURTLE