"Ellen Ridenbaucher" wrote in message
...
G'day everyone,
I recently had my air conditioner serviced. It had been working fine, the
company just got around to me for my annual service. This is a
residential
home, approx. 2,300 sq. ft.
Size of the home means nothing, but anyway...read on..
The young chap who serviced the system, presented me with an invoice for
$793.00. He said I was 20lbs. low on refrigerant.
So you have a commercial chiller on the home?
There is not a resi unit on the market that takes 20lbs..
I attempted to look through some newsgroups related to heating and cooling
in hopes to find an answer on how much refrigerant an air conditioner
holds.
This seems to be the best NG, with the least flames.
While NO ONE here or in any other NG can tell you how much your unit holds,
since no one here can read the data plate on the outer unit, or figure
superheat for you....and there are NO rules of thumb on this..none, you can
get an idea by looking on the outside unit, and reading the plate. It will
have the INITIAL charge in pounds, or oz, and remember, 16oz is a pound.
It may have more, or less than the stated unit charge due to many variables.
NO ONE can tell you EXACTLY how much the unit holds, unless the charge it
removed (recovered) and weighed, so do not be suprised if you get alot of
"we dont knows" if you call around asking about that.
SEER ratings, tonnage, lineset length, evap coil design all add to the
charge factor, along with metering devices to a point, therefore, the charge
for each unit varies. You can have 10 different makes of 5 ton units,
various makes, and SEERs and the charge for each unit out of the box will be
different.
Hope someone may be able to give me a ballpark figure on the refrigerant.
You have not given near enough information even to look up the factory
shipping charge.
However, 20lbs is too much...one could take a wild ass guess and say, since
even the older Intertherms 12 SEER units that were tanks only took between 4
and 10lbs depending on the tonnage, and many of your newer units are up to
13lbs, but not 20..
Questions to think about.
Did the "tech" use a scale and did you see him put the jug of refrigerant on
it to weigh in the charge?
Did the "tech " come in and take temp and humidity readings before charging
this?
Did the "tech" clean your indoor coil, outside coil and blower before
charging the system?
Did the "tech" take ANY temp readings at all?
IF this post is for real, and not a troll, as I suspect (altho, I am sure
that there are tens of thousands of people this summer that have fell for
some hacks bull**** like has been described in your post) then you have
several options.
1- Do not pay anything yet.
2- Contact the owner of the AC company, and have HIM come out and properly
check your unit, and have him show you how it holds 20lbs, LOW...meaning,
the total system charge would have to be MUCH more since you stated it was
cooling ok before..
3-If you actually are in Southern CA, and have a chiller on the home, as
some did, then pay the bill and go on..LOL..20lbs would be a start on most
smaller chiller setups...
4-Insist that the superheat or subcool be checked. If the company has no
clue what that is, refuse to pay the bill and go on to another company that
DOES know what it is.
5-Current R-22 prices in my area averages $2 pound for the refrigerant
wholesale. Figuring you paid a $75 service fee, you paid roughly $36 a pound
for refrigerant...And that would be ONLY if your system ACTUALLY took that
much.
We consider it a cost of business, and only charge if the weight used
exceeds 3lbs and then, its only $5 a pound for every pound OVER the initial
3.
6-If you are in the state of NC, then you can contact the state licence
board, or contact me directly, and we will send you a form that will get the
fine folks out in Raliegh rollin on this and the guy that gouged you will
soon find that his actions have landed him in jail with a felony charge.
7-Contacting the BBB wont do anything, so dont even bother with it.
If they cant prove to you that they weighed in the charge, that your unit
takes that much, and they didnt find the leak then you can offer to pay him
a reasonable service call fee, like $50 and find another company that knows
what they are doing as its obvious the only thing that this one you describe
here knows how to do is steal.
Should you find that your unit really only holds 4lbs, depending on your
area you may have legal recourse and you SHOULD press charges against this
guy.
If you are in central NC, at no cost we could send a tech out and he could
tell you EXACTLY what your ssystem holds...I HATE scam artists more than
anything.
Good luck and if it was a troll post, pretty damn good one.
God bless,
Ellie
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