this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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HVAC, most maintenance check ups are scams. Very little in residential air conditioner/heat pumps needs any up keep. All the motors are sealed and you're better off not putting gauges on a system unless there's an actual issue.
Change the air filter every three months, and in the spring shut off the outside unit, and hose off the coil fins of any debris trying not to spray anything electrical looking. Wait a couple hours and turn it back on. YouTube probably has videos.
I would add water softeners to this. Just installed one for a mate and bloody hell they're so low maintenance. Step one, add salt. That's it.
I know of three other people that are locked in to maintenance contracts for the next three years
Can I pester you with a question? Feel free to tell me to get bent because I know your time is worth money and this is just the internet. We have a new Trane system that was flawless when it was first put in, but over the past five months the blower has started making louder and louder vibration noises. Almost like it's slightly off balance. If it was an older system I wouldn't think twice, but it was dead quiet at first, just the sound of moving air pretty much.
Part of me wants to open up the cabinet and just see if there's some sort of vibration pad that's gotten loose, but I also don't want to to void a warranty, or something. It seems so trivial a thing. We live in the boonies and a service call is pretty onerous for a tech. I thought maybe there could be balancing weights, like a car wheel or a lawnmower blade, but your comment about motors being sealed is making me think twice.
Opening up the panel to the blower area won't void the warranty. ( not that I would tell anyone you opened it, because disreputable companies will make a stink even though its legal.)
It's possible a mounting bolt came loose (simple fix). There isn't anything to balance on any of the blowers I've ever worked on. So that leaves a bearing going bad in the motor. Or the set-up being out of balance and it destroyed the bearing. Either way, you should put in a call to a company that is authorized to do warranty work on Trane. If your not sure call their 1-800 number and ask them to recommend someone in your area.
Now, if they recommend only replacing the motor I would ABSOLUTELY make them show you the blower running after they replace the motor. So you can see for yourself that the blower isn't out of balance. I've known way to many lazy mechanics that would just replace the motor, because replacing the whole cage is a royal PITA.
Thank you. It's a new construction and the builder seems to generally pick really good subs, and I'm pretty sure whoever installed it did the entire house, so they should be familiar with it. I'll give them a call.
Edit: Update to this. I cut the circuit breaker and opened the unit and something was clearly wrong with the blower motor. Mountings and bushings etc all looked fine, but rotating the blower manually was rocky. It seems like a bad bearing or something but I'm no expert. The tech came out and confirmed in about 15 minutes the blower motor needs warranty replacement. Unit is less than 8 months old, he said it's rare but he's seen it before. I kind of want to do a teardown but not enough to buy it. Tech said it was OK to run, and I did that up until yesterday when it sounded so bad I was afraid it was going to grenade the whole box and stopped using AC. Temps close to 100F so hopefully he gets to it soon. I'll be sure to have him run it before he leaves. Thanks again.