Talk about The Lord working in what we call mysterious ways. Well sit down, I have a story to tell you. Thursday I changed 4 Central Air Conditioning Filters, 3 upstairs and 1 downstairs. Later that evening my wife called me to tell me that the thermostat upstairs decreased by one degree and the thermostat downstairs didnt move at all. I told her to turn off the central air and turn it back on in the morning. I had read that if your filters are dirty, then your coils may be dirty also. It has something to do with the central air units working hard to cool off the house due to the cools being clogged. Well the wife called me the next day (Out of town working) to inform me that the thermostats temperature didnt move one degree and if youve ever experience heat in Houston youll know what I mean. So I told my wife to call around to have someone come out and inspect. Heres where it gets interesting. The two companies that came out said that one AC unit is on its last leg and the other one was dead. I must mention that I have two Trane XR 12 units, one is a three ton and the other is a four ton. Both companies provided quotes ranging anywhere from $12,000 to $20,000. So you know whats going through my mind. Wife at home with kids, huge house, gated community.....BINGO! JACKPOT! So since Im in sales I did what my customers would do to me. SHOP ARROUND! After shopping around today I received quotes ranging from $5,400 to $8,000. These units were either Carrier, Trane, Goodman or Amana. So around 1:30pm today another company came by to conduct an inspection and upon his inspection he discovered a fried/cooked wire that prevented the unit from cooling downstairs. He asked me when was the last time I had the unit cleaned and I told him never, since the house was built in 2004. Well after he replaced the wire, the house started cooling. He did recommend that I get the coils clean because if they are dirty or clogged it will restrict airflow thus creating more work on the condensers. He informed me that Trane is a very reputable brand and its odd that Im having problems, but when I told him that the other companies informed my wife that one is dead and the other is on its last leg......he knew something was fishy. Well this will save me thousands of dollars. I was really impressed with the way he inspected the equipment, we walked me through everything and thoroughly explained. After all, I wasnt going to take his word for it. What was more impressive is that everything he showed me match up with the manufacturers specs. I felt like he could right a book labeled AC for Dummies. He explained to me that there are a lot of cons going on out there and folks will prey on you to swindle you. He also told me about a investigation the MSNBC conducted on AC Repair Companies. Below is the link Ive pasted and I truly believe that everyone needs to view this. It could mean either paying $20,000 or $1,300. I would like to her anyones response who has had a similar response. I said earlier that God movies in mysterious ways.....he does, because if it were hot as hades I would have had no choice but to pay $$$$$$$$ for something I didnt need. But since it was cool today with a breeze blowing off the lake, I wasnt pressed to have it replaced ASAP.....I had time to shop around. nbcnews/video/dateline/48739617
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 20:54:33 +0000