I received an email from an agent that was out of town on the weekend with a receipt from an HVAC company attached. The report on the receipt described an HVAC system that has multiple issues and was shut down by the tech until the system is replaced.
Before I read the whole email , I received a call from the client who I had inspected the home for a month earlier. They had only been in the home a few days. The Client is an elderly lady with MS and has to have the temperature cool due to nerve damage. They had the AC set on 63 degrees during a stretch of mid 90 degree weather, and the compressor iced up. That's when they had the tech come out.
This was his findings: "No Cool Found system frozen up at evaporator coil, lineset and outside. Checked all components at Condensor and found capacitor below manufactures specification, contactor pitted and burnt and compressor whindings failed, brought client out to Condensor and showed her my meter on the whindings. While inspecting furnace I found blower motor bearings going out, blower wheel with a lot of dirt build up, control board with some burn marks and heat exchanger with a lot of heat stress, rust spots and signs of cracks. Took pictures with inspection camera and showed client. Client understands that we are required to red tag system, shut gas off and power off to system and that for their safety not to operate. Sat down with client and discussed options. Clients just purchased the home and moved in 2 days ago. They want to talk to their realtor to find out what options they have prior to determining what direction they go. Client will contact me on Monday to let me know what they are going to do. System is 20 years old."
This didn't make much sense to me, as I ran the system without any of these problems during the inspection on the occupied residence, and the tenant that followed my through the whole inspection did not report any problems as well. I let the client know I could go out and take a look.I arrive at the home and it was 80 degrees inside with the occupants a bit miserable from the heat, and stressed out about the situation.
I went through the items listed, item by item, and was not finding the same results as the tech.The capacitor was working fine, the contactors were not abnormally pitted or burnt for that matter. The client said he showed her something on the compressor with a meter,but she didn't know what it was. The blower motor was clean and running smoothly and very clean, not a single burn mark on the circuit board, and I found no stress cracks or rust mark in the unit, I even used a better endoscope camera than the tech to view the heat exchanger.His would not record the pictures and the client said what he was pointing out was fuzzy and unclear. It was not certified by another tech as well, as stated on the notice.
At this point the client and I decided to go ahead and turn the system back on and see if anything still worked or if it would make a bunch of noise and blow up...it started up and ran just fine. There was a little noise from the compressor, rattling from a fin guard due to the tech losing a screw when he took it apart, but we were able to tighten it back up. I am not an HVAC tech, so I referred my client to another client of mine that owns an HVAC company in town and I feel is an honest guy that will confirm what needs to be done with the system. Until then, I let them know that running the system real low for extended periods will likely cause the lines to ice up and is hard on the system. The client let me know that they had the same problem at their previous residences as well..
My elderly mother in law had her AC go out this summer and I went over and found a bad capacitor, I ordered a replacement for $13 and she was able to stay cool the rest of the summer. I told her I was just glad she did not call a random HVAC company, just because I see this type of thing happen way too often.
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