Last month our heat pump (which reverses it self in the summer to act as an air conditioner) decided that it wanted to blow hot air, even though the thermostat indicated that it should be blowing cold air.
So I called up my brother that is going to school for HVAC and he told me a few things that I should check. After talking to him I realized that this was over my head and that I should just suck it up and call the local HVAC company. So I called them and they got me on a waiting list and later that day a repair man arrived. He was very nice and quickly discovered that the heat pump was indeed in the heating mode. He went back and forth between the heat pump and the air exchange checking on things. After a while he came back in and said he reset the system and that it appears to be working properly now.
I asked him what was wrong, and he replied that the thermostat that I had was made by a company that makes great ceiling fans but not so great thermostats. He said that he had some thermostats in his truck and could give me a quote. Socked is an understatement for what happened next. When he returned from his truck, he said it would be $500 for the thermostat and installation. It did not take me long to spit out, “No thank you. I got my last one at Lowe’s for $70.” He smiled and said, “Sometime you really get what you pay for.” I then asked him how he reset the system, and he replied that it was complicated. I asked him if powering the unit off by pulling the fuse or switching the circuit breaker would reset the system. He said that doing so might do the trick, but he was not sure if it would work. I thanked him for his time, paid him for the diagnostic fee and he was on his way.
As soon as he left I went to Lowe’s web site and searched for the thermostat that he quoted me and found that I could by it for $79! That means that getting a thermostat at Lowe’s and installing it my self would cost 15.8% as much as what I was quoted by the repairman.
A few days later I talked to my brother and he just smiled when I told him the story. He said that companies like that make most of their money doing those type of repairs. As for the system “reset”, he said that there is no way to reset the system other than pulling the fuse or switching the circuit breaker. I asked him if I should got get a new thermostat and he said that he would wait to see if it happens again. So far it has only happened once since the repairman was here, and resetting the system by pulling the fuse fixed it. Almost seems like the repairman just wanted to make what he did sound complex.
One Comment
First of all you are paying for a technician that has the knowledge to facilitate the repair that you admittedley were over your head on - if your brother is such a practical resource for advice on the system, perhaps he could have recommended resetting the system prior to your phoning a service orginization who has to not only make compensation to a competent technician, pay a multitude of insurance premiums, licensing, vehicle, stock for the vehicle to facilitate a multitude of repairs - countless other overhead expenses and make a profit. Quit whining. And from a 28 year technician - lose the Hunter thermostat, because as that stat illustrates you do in fact get what you pay for.
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