Nice try.

CSB time.

Woke up, was working for a little while after I dropped the kids at daycare. Was cold. Noticed again later. Checked the thermostat. Sure enough, heat was not working. Tried a few things to no avail so I called the company that installed our A/C a few years back. $75 to come out. Fine.

Guy gets here, looks around. Nice enough older guy. Gets it to kick back on. Tells me the bearings in 2 of the motors are getting tight and you hear that rattling? He said the motors were going to have to eventually be replaced. The furnace probably kicked back on because it had cooled down and if it did this again, giving it a few hours to cool down would probably work again. To replace both motors, with labor, I was looking at about $1300.

Or....better yet, my furnace is 16 years old. Usual shelf life is about 20 years. Why am I going to sink $1300 into a 16 year old furnace. Quotes me $2300 for a new furnace. I told him I would have to talk about it with the wife, got his card, paid him his $75 and started grumbling.

Did a bit of research and found a place right down the street from me. All kinds of great reviews about how helpful and honest they are. I called, the guy said he could be there within an hour. Hooks his little wires up, tells me definitively the problem is a bad flame sensor and nothing else. The motors are fine. The furnace is fine. Cheap part and labor. Furnace is humming.

Fuck C&C Heating and Cooling. Never call them if you live in the Detroit area.

That sucks, but luckily you were smart enough to check around. I've been lucky with the contractors that have worked on my home, but all of them have come via referral. I recommend everyone get an HVAC guy, a plumber and an electrician by referral before you need it. I have all the numbers in my phone so I don't have to scramble if something major happens.

You need to call the first guy back, have him come over to look over things a little more, and while he is inside your house take a shit on the driver's seat in his work truck.

Call that first guy over bake a couple of cookies with ex lax and offer them up to him.

I make it a habit to not believe a word from household repair guys when they tell me any big ticket item needs to be replaced.

Our garage door opener crapped out on us a few years back. Had a guy come out and replace it. He told me that the rotating bar that basically lifts the door could go out any day. He quoted me something outrageous to replace it. That was about three years ago. Still working today.

Not a furnace expert but 2 motors sounds odd. The only one I know of is the blower motor. And if there are two, both of them going out at the same time is highly unlikely.

Even it was the motor(s) $1300 is ridiculous. Could probably buy one for under a $100 (Spina Electric in Warren) with trade-in of the old motor. Installation generally isn't that difficult

Better yet call the BBB and report him. Also if you're wife is on the social media have her bad mouth them like crazy.

The Pantry wrote:Not a furnace expert but 2 motors sounds odd. The only one I know of is the blower motor. And if there are two, both of them going out at the same time is highly unlikely.

Even it was the motor(s) $1300 is ridiculous. Could probably buy one for under a $100 (Spina Electric in Warren) with trade-in of the old motor. Installation generally isn't that difficult

I think it has 2 motors because it's a 2 stage. The second guy didn't really dispute that part of it. Just told me the blower motor was fine and there was a bit of rattling at start up which could mean the bearings are starting to go bad but by no means was it ready to be replaced.

Yeah, I thought about BBB. Really makes me wonder about our A/C unit they put in for us a couple summers ago. I knew our unit was well past its expiration date so it probably needed to happen anyway, but.....

I bet these assholes had a note in their file that they sold us the A/C with little hassle and tried to get one over on us. Fuckers.

On a typical furnace there is an inducer motor and a blower motor. To have someone tell you that both have gone out simultaneously sounds like a big crock of shit.

Watch Out Pylon! wrote:I make it a habit to not believe a single word from anyone having any conversation that even remotely could result in any semblance of a financial transaction.

fify

Motor went out this morning at 4am. No big deal. Have other heat sources. Just wanted to let everybody know.

xsanguine wrote:

fify

Pretty much true.