Hey all, so last year at the height of the summer our condenser sprung a leak and according to the HCVC guy it was pretty bad which required replacing the Condenser. In the Heat of the moment, pun intended, we just went with it and spent 1800 for the unit and labor; 1.5 ton unit, house size is roughly 1500 SF. The A coil and lines, according to him were fine. So we went a head and did it. Fast forward 1 year the AC craps out again so we call him and he tells us that the A coil sprung a leak and to replace it and the lines was going to be $1800. I called my cousin who is a Tin Knocker for a HVAC company and he yells at me saying that I should have called him initially and not go with a guy that installs a 1.5 unit in a house this size. He comes over looks at it and strongly suggest that we replace the entire unit consisting of Condenser, Furnace, Lines and electrical line and even the breaker at the box. Plus thermostat. I proceed to tell him how much the guy charged me for last years work plus what he is proposing to fix the new leak. He yells at me again and tells me to just replace the unit and that he will do it. He loves to yell, NYers yell a lot. Well he came in yesterday at 8am with a new condenser, new furnace, A coil, lines, thermostat. 3.5 ton unit, 60,000 BTU furnace, 95% AFUE. Everything came out to $2700 and two subway sandwiches. He wouldn't take any money for the job; he got all of the parts at cost by asking his boss to order it from his supplier. with all the savings we upgraded to a Nest Thermostat. Man that thing is sweet. House is nice and cool so all of his yelling was worth it. Im sure we will take him and his fam out to dinner one of these nights. LOL Franklin
Chvymn99, Just installed it today and I have been playing with the app. Its a great unit, my cousin the same guy that installed the new furnace has one and he loves it. Easily controlled through my Android phone and the web and that to me and my wife is very appealing since our schedules are very hectic and vary a great deal. I like its ease of use, one of the great features is that it has the ability to remember the settings and create an auto schedule based on that within 7 days of use. Honeywell has a similar unit that is slated to hit the market, Lowes and HD next month, currently it can be purchased online. Its the Honeywell Lyric. Look into that one if you are in the market for a smart thermostat, that one has more features than the Nest, the looks is similar, round ins shape but the display is different. The Lyric retails for $280, $30 more than the Nest. Both are pricey but its a cool little gadget. I am also replacing my smoke and carbon monoxide alarms with the Nest Protect. Look into both, and see what works for ya. below is a good review/overview
There was s many things wrong with what the first guy did on the install I don't even know where to start........... Glad your relative was able to get you straightened out though and put it in for free! I don't know all the details but 3.5 tons is a lot of AC for a 1500 sq ft house though. To put in perspective my house is close to 2400 sq ft (not counting the basement which is cooled) and I have a 3.5 ton ac unit.
Wow what a deal. It seems to me that your new unit is way over sized for your house though. My home is 2,400 sf and I have a 3 ton. Hopefully you have a variable speed blower to dehumidify as much as possible. I just had my hvac system replaced. $7865.00
Katwill, you did well with your cousin's knowledge and ability. As far as the sizing of the new equipment vs. the sizing of the old equipment, there are many things to be taken into consideration before one can say its too big or too small. Whenever I do work for family or friends, there is little charge (if any) and more frequently, no charge. Don't know if you had a high-efficiency furnace already...if not, you'll see a difference in fuel usage. Oh yeah, if you are burning LP, fill up the tank now; not later on-don't give the price a chance to go back up, you know?
I have 4 of them in my house (one for each zone) Not really worth it for the cost ($300) if you don't rely on heating with the boiler/furnace. It will negate most of the features of it. It is supposed to auto schedule but none of mine have done it correctly. Also it is supposed to figure how long the building takes to get to temp, but it doesn't work out if you are adding heat with a stove. It's also supposed to do this factoring in the weather, but the weather info it gets from online is WAY off. At times it was -20* and the Nest was saying it was 30*. I'm not sure it's source. Because of it having a mind of it's own I'd come home to the boiler running full bore when they were supposed to be set to 65*. It decided people were home and it should be 75* for some reason?! Or several times, people were home, but the stove died out and it's 60* because the boiler never kicked on. I ended up disabling all the scheduling stuff and using it like a normal $20 thermostat. About the only nice thing I've found is being able to see the temps and adjust them. If I'm not home I can see how the stove or if away for a while I can turn the heat on before getting home.
Sounds good. How easy is it to connect to router and all? All I'm wanting to do is control it from when I'm not home or too lazy to get off the chair........ Pretty much all for the AC not really concerned with the heat side.
Its pretty simple to install and configure. Total install time was less than 10 minutes, as far as adding it to the router, it took as long as it takes me to put in the password using the rotary feature. It reminded me of dialing a rotary phone 25 years ago . lol.
I agree with certified, I have a 2,000 sq ft house and have a 3 tonne A-unit. It just sounded off from the get go. I'm glad you had someone to help you out after that robbery last summer.
