Are you a fan of service contract HVAC?

My son bought a house that was 1 year
old. People who built house got
transferred. All high end NG appliances.
During our cold snap he discover furnace
would shut off before bedrooms upstairs
were warm.

Son called around and learned how
expensive service calls are in
Plainfield. So he contacted the company
that installed the HVAC and signed up for
service contract no service calls.

What the service technician discovered
was the NG gas pressure was too high.
Technician lowered press 0.5 inches.
The furnace was shutting off high
temperature limit.

My son decided to sign up for service
contract so he got priority treatment and
reduced price on parts.

Service contracts may not be for
everyone. And not everyone can repair
todays high efficiency furnaces, high
efficiency water heaters and, AC.
George

(quoted from post at 07:37:19 03/03/21) My son bought a house that was 1 year
old. People who built house got
transferred. All high end NG appliances.
During our cold snap he discover furnace
would shut off before bedrooms upstairs
were warm.

Son called around and learned how
expensive service calls are in
Plainfield. So he contacted the company
that installed the HVAC and signed up for
service contract no service calls.

What the service technician discovered
was the NG gas pressure was too high.
Technician lowered press 0.5 inches.
The furnace was shutting off high
temperature limit.

My son decided to sign up for service
contract so he got priority treatment and
reduced price on parts.

Service contracts may not be for
everyone. And not everyone can repair
todays high efficiency furnaces, high
efficiency water heaters and, AC.
George

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Yes, I like the idea of having a service contract. 17 years ago I had a new heat pump system installed, and have maintained a contract with the company that did the work. Over time, this business has evolved from a father and son operation to a much bigger business. My problem now is the guys that come out to my house to do the maintenance are so commission incentivized that I have lost confidence that they are working in good faith. Last fall the kid that came out charged me $377 to replace an $11 contactor that I have here in the house and don't believe is worn out. I would expect to pay that kind of money if I called on Christmas morning, but not when they were already here for the preventative maintenance.

Not a fan myself although it can be good for some people if it's done properly. At the price I see advertised around here it won't be. Biggest thing it does is cleaning and that takes a little time. It gives the tech's something to do when it's slow but they aren't going make a trip, spend an hour and a half cleaning and only charge you for the trip. If they check the refrigerant pressure each time they come out they will be adding more because they lose a little every time they hook up the gages.

Someone mentioned getting dinged for a contactor they thought was still good. It's actually one of the few preventative maintenance parts you can catch. A tech can hear it chatter on startup and know it needs changed even if the contacts don't look burnt. I never even charged labor for changing one. The service call covered simple stuff like that. Everyone does different though.

(quoted from post at 08:49:05 03/03/21) Not a fan myself although it can be good for some people if it's done properly. At the price I see advertised around here it won't be. Biggest thing it does is cleaning and that takes a little time. It gives the tech's something to do when it's slow but they aren't going make a trip, spend an hour and a half cleaning and only charge you for the trip. If they check the refrigerant pressure each time they come out they will be adding more because they lose a little every time they hook up the gages.

Someone mentioned getting dinged for a contactor they thought was still good.[b:dbe05ae3c7] It's actually one of the few preventative maintenance parts you can catch. A tech can hear it chatter on startup and know it needs changed even if the contacts don't look burnt.[/b:dbe05ae3c7] I never even charged labor for changing one. The service call covered simple stuff like that. Everyone does different though.

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Thanks for that info. To clarify, I wouldn't know a good contactor from a bad one. He told me it was bad, would take 20 minutes to fix, and he was done in 20 minutes. I'm not paying him a thousand dollars an hour again.

I used to do troubleshooting myself on our simple oil burner hot air system but since we installed a rather complex geothermal system, the contract has paid for itself. So has the geothermal system. Highly recommended.

My story:
We have a duplex apartment with 6 college students - a 10 year old Rheem 90% HVAC system. I have a service contract because:
We used to be snowbirds and I was 1500 miles away if something needed to be "fixed".
In an all-out "outage" the service contract gets your phone call answered - rather than a busy signal.
A discount on high priced parts.
Should something "bad" happen, my contract shows I care about safety.
The measurements give me an indication of equipment condition (motor amperage,eg).

I sit and watch and talk with the tech

I consider the service contract to be my "preventive maintenance" for the HVAC.

When I built the new house here at the farm 5 years ago, I signed up for a service contract and have stuck with it ever since. I have a high eff forced air gas furnace plus a heat pump/AC combo - high end Daiken stuff. Only issue I've had was a couple days after the winter furnace service this past December, I started getting some fan shut down errors on the thermostat screen. They got to it the next day and it was just a loose piece of fiberglass insulation in the fan box coming loose and blocking the fan intake. Didn't get charged anything for call as they should have found that during the service visit. Mine is $160 per year for two visits for AC/summer check and furnace/heat pump winter check.

(quoted from post at 09:08:12 03/03/21)

(quoted from post at 08:49:05 03/03/21) Not a fan myself although it can be good for some people if it's done properly. At the price I see advertised around here it won't be. Biggest thing it does is cleaning and that takes a little time. It gives the tech's something to do when it's slow but they aren't going make a trip, spend an hour and a half cleaning and only charge you for the trip. If they check the refrigerant pressure each time they come out they will be adding more because they lose a little every time they hook up the gages.

Someone mentioned getting dinged for a contactor they thought was still good.[b:602bb269d9] It's actually one of the few preventative maintenance parts you can catch. A tech can hear it chatter on startup and know it needs changed even if the contacts don't look burnt.[/b:602bb269d9] I never even charged labor for changing one. The service call covered simple stuff like that. Everyone does different though.

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Thanks for that info. To clarify, I wouldn't know a good contactor from a bad one. He told me it was bad, would take 20 minutes to fix, and he was done in 20 minutes. I'm not paying him a thousand dollars an hour again.

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hat really burns me is a charge for $45 per pound for R-410 that I can buy anytime anywhere for $5 or 6 per pound , and then add a service call charge on top of that robbery. Two different service companies, same ridiculous charges!

Actually refrigerant charges are meant
to take care of the refrigerant and the
equipment required to put it in and
remove it. That would include the
manifold, hoses, recovery unit, micron
gauge, vacuum pump, etc.

I agree $45 a pound for R-410 is a
little too steep but your figure isn't
realistic either. Supply house charged
me $300 for the 20 lb jug sitting on my
shelf. Granted it's been there a couple
years but I don't think it has came down
that much. All I do now since retirement
is take care of units for family members
and friends pretty much at cost so I
don't bother to keep up with others
charges.

Jessie,
My old central has R22 and I have a 30# bottle. AC is 22 years old. All
I've done is clean condensor and replaced the motor contactor. Haven't
added any Freon.

I always thought you have to you add freon, you have a leak.

When you are under service contract you don't pay for service call.

The more complicated HVAC becomes the more problems. So for some a
service contracts is pay now instead of pay later for service call.

I'm a believer in Keep it Simple"stupid".

I've installed base board heat in all my rentals and 2 other homes.
Insulation, good windows and doors, it easy to heat and cool.
I have a brick home. I put 25,000 brick on it.
25,000 brick is 100,000 pounds plus the weight of the motar. 2 pounds
of brick is equal to one pound of water. So 100,000 # brick can store
as much heat energy as 50,000 pounds of water. It takes some time to
raise or lower 50,000 pounds of water. It may be hard to believe that
thermal mass really cuts down on AC and heating costs.
george

With five rental properties, it's tempting to sign up for service contracts. Tenants don't report problems with the furnace until it's really cold, and then it's a pain to get an HVAC guy to come out quickly. Not to mention I'm usually in Florida the month of January. That said, the reason I don't is the monthly cost of service contracts for five houses would significantly cut into our profit. A plan from Consumers Energy that would cover the furnace and water heater is 20 bucks a month, or $240/year. Times five houses is $1200/year. I had to fix the furnace at one of our rental houses twice this winter. First time was a flame sensor I had to clean up with sandpaper, the second time I had to reset the high limit switch (they thought the house would warm up faster with the thermostat set to 85). I can put up with a little aggravation for $1200/year.

Mark,
I hear you. Furnaces only break down when it a holliday, weekend, 2 in the morning, or sub zero. I had gas and oil furnaces. Big pain in the ankle. I would stock pile parts.

There is a cheap solution. In 1980 I bought the house next door that caught on fire and it had two 3/4 acre lots next to my property. I was going to demolish the house and prevent someone building an appartment commplex next to my house. Instead some old fart built a pole barn next to my house.

That's when I was researching how to build a beter insulated house. I removed the roof, gutted the inside, cleaned up the mess and decided I could put trusses on the house and totally rebuild it. I used electric baseboard heat. No breakdowns in over 40 years. No calls at night, my furnace doesn't work. Tenants are happy with their electric bills.. Especially tenants who had lived in places that $400-500 gas bills.

Since then, all my 8 rental properties have electric heat. Even a commercial garage has a 7.5 kw forced air heater.

My 2000 ft brick house has baseboard. $157/mo fixed electric bill. Last year it was $158/mo. That includes electricity for attached 2 garage, thermostat is set at 55. My electricity also pumps water, goes to new pole barn, old work shop, one car garage, and a few security lights.

People can say they save money with high efficiency furnaces and heat pumps. No one talks about service calls and repairs.

If I were in charge of saving the planet, I would require building better houses that uses less energy.
geo.

On saving the planet.

One volcano does more harm to the ozone layer than all the things combined that man has done.

Haven't heard anything about the Ozone Layer for many years.

Agree that the planet is doing just fine. But I have a service contract so that when I call I go to the top of the list (or close - the other service contract holders are there as well). I can get service anytime, day or night. In fact I woke up to a dead AC on the 4th of July one year and by 10 am I had AC again, all because I had the service contract.

> Haven't heard anything about the Ozone Layer for many years.

That's because the worst ozone-depleting chemicals have been banned for decades, and the ozone layer is on the mend.

(quoted from post at 22:21:57 03/03/21) Actually refrigerant charges are meant
to take care of the refrigerant and the
equipment required to put it in and
remove it. That would include the
manifold, hoses, recovery unit, micron
gauge, vacuum pump, etc.

I agree $45 a pound for R-410 is a
little too steep but your figure isn't
realistic either. Supply house charged
me $300 for the 20 lb jug sitting on my
shelf. Granted it's been there a couple
years but I don't think it has came down
that much. All I do now since retirement
is take care of units for family members
and friends pretty much at cost so I
don't bother to keep up with others
charges.

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5# for $105 and some as high as 25# for $149. Just Google, my friend , for current prices. As far as taking care of equipment, $100 service charge. Plus, my gauges & vacuum pump have been fine for 25 + years & if that cost is spread over hundreds of service calls, it is pennies, so no, I'm not unrealistic or greedy.