Blower in my furnace died. had to replace whole furnace..$2300 :(

[JEDI]

the builders of my house used a no name furnace manufacturer.

the blower died, and the technitian that came to my house said it might take him a couple of days to find the part, if any.

then he tried to remove the blower and see if he can repair it. he couldnt remove it because one of the screws was hard to get to and at a weird angle. i tried aND I couldnt get it

so he suggested that i replace the whole furnace. a new blower costs $500. new furnace $2300. and if i said yes, he can do it the same day. i called up other HVAC companys, and they all said they cant send anyone right away. and that if my furnace needs replacing, it'll take the day after their tech comes to take a look.

so it's cold here in DC (20 degrees), no heat in the house, so i dont want my pipes to freeze. i took the offer to have it replaced by an American Standard model, 10 seers. What is a seer???

sigh...$2300

 

[acidvoodoo]

you think that's bad? a cabin i rented had a new furnace put in by the owner. EVeryday i was awoken by one of the installers knocking on the door to take a dump, bloody hell , take one before you start work why don't you

 

[Anubis]

yea that sucks. one of our water heaters went last year. luckily we have 2 so thats bein put off for a while

 

[amdskip]

Is it a natural gas furnace?

Seems very reasonable to me.

 

[Bluefront]

My blower motor failed a few years ago. So I pulled the motor out....it's easy. Took it to several local places. Found one for about $60 (1/3 hp). Was up and running in about three hours.

I can't imagine a motor impossible to remove....that's what these guys are supposed to do for a living.

 

[T2T III]

The prices that you posted seem quite reasonable. I was quote similar prices for some eventual work that my furnace might need - a few years down the road. The SEER refers to the efficiency rating. You might want to check the following link out for more details: How Stuff Works - A/C

 

[wyvrn]

 

[etech]

What kind of furnace are you talking about, oil, natural gas?

SEER usually refers to the efficency of the outside air compressor.

carrier
Energy Efficiency
A furnace?s efficiency rating, or AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency), tells you how efficiently the furnace uses fuel (gas or oil). In general, higher efficiency furnaces mean lower monthly operating costs for heating.

$2300 for just a furnace seems high but diffferent regions of the country have different prices. I got a new furnace nat. gas >80% efficient and a new outside compressor installed for not much more than that a few years ago. Furnaces are usually the cheaper part of the pair.

 

[dman]

Hmm, If it was just the blower, (excuse me for my ignorance) couldn't you just go out and buy a few space heaters, they aren't that expensive and would get you by for a few days until they could have repaired it?

Or would the pipes still freeze even then? I'd have to guess there's some tolerance for freezing... room for water to expand upwards?

I'm a southerner, so don't flame me-- I'm just curious.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: etech
What kind of furnace are you talking about, oil, natural gas?

SEER usually refers to the efficency of the outside air compressor.

carrier
Energy Efficiency
A furnace?s efficiency rating, or AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency), tells you how efficiently the furnace uses fuel (gas or oil). In general, higher efficiency furnaces mean lower monthly operating costs for heating.

$2300 for just a furnace seems high but diffferent regions of the country have different prices. I got a new furnace nat. gas >80% efficient and a new outside compressor installed for not much more than that a few years ago. Furnaces are usually the cheaper part of the pair.

gas...yup, just the furnace

 

[SnapIT]

Originally posted by: XFILE
the builders of my house used a no name furnace manufacturer.

the blower died, and the technitian that came to my house said it might take him a couple of days to find the part, if any.

then he tried to remove the blower and see if he can repair it. he couldnt remove it because one of the screws was hard to get to and at a weird angle. i tried aND I couldnt get it

so he suggested that i replace the whole furnace. a new blower costs $500. new furnace $2300. and if i said yes, he can do it the same day. i called up other HVAC companys, and they all said they cant send anyone right away. and that if my furnace needs replacing, it'll take the day after their tech comes to take a look.

so it's cold here in DC (20 degrees), no heat in the house, so i dont want my pipes to freeze. i took the offer to have it replaced by an American Standard model, 10 seers. What is a seer???

sigh...$2300

You don't replace the entire furnace just because one bolt cannot be loosened, that is loco....

My furnace is from 58, i replaced the blower last year, had to use cooling spray to get the bolts loose... If that doesn't work you just drill through the bolt...

 

[BooneRebel]

Originally posted by: XFILE
the builders of my house used a no name furnace manufacturer.

the blower died, and the technitian that came to my house said it might take him a couple of days to find the part, if any.

then he tried to remove the blower and see if he can repair it. he couldnt remove it because one of the screws was hard to get to and at a weird angle. i tried aND I couldnt get it

so he suggested that i replace the whole furnace. a new blower costs $500. new furnace $2300. and if i said yes, he can do it the same day. i called up other HVAC companys, and they all said they cant send anyone right away. and that if my furnace needs replacing, it'll take the day after their tech comes to take a look.

so it's cold here in DC (20 degrees), no heat in the house, so i dont want my pipes to freeze. i took the offer to have it replaced by an American Standard model, 10 seers. What is a seer???

sigh...$2300

Realize that you are taking the recommendation from the guy that gets paid to replace the furnace. *Of course* he will recommend that action. Kind of like going to an automechanic for a tuneup and him telling you "Well, I can't get to that last spark plug, so we're going to have to replace the engine." The price doesn't sound too bad and it helps with the value of your home, but I can't help but think that replacing the blower itself is all you would have had to do. Even if you have to pull the furnace to get to the blower, that doesn't mean that it was no longer usable. More than likely your repairman has kept the furnace, will replace the blower on his own, and then reuse or resell it on another job.

 

[SnapIT]

Originally posted by: BooneRebel

Originally posted by: XFILE
the builders of my house used a no name furnace manufacturer.

the blower died, and the technitian that came to my house said it might take him a couple of days to find the part, if any.

then he tried to remove the blower and see if he can repair it. he couldnt remove it because one of the screws was hard to get to and at a weird angle. i tried aND I couldnt get it

so he suggested that i replace the whole furnace. a new blower costs $500. new furnace $2300. and if i said yes, he can do it the same day. i called up other HVAC companys, and they all said they cant send anyone right away. and that if my furnace needs replacing, it'll take the day after their tech comes to take a look.

so it's cold here in DC (20 degrees), no heat in the house, so i dont want my pipes to freeze. i took the offer to have it replaced by an American Standard model, 10 seers. What is a seer???

sigh...$2300

Realize that you are taking the recommendation from the guy that gets paid to replace the furnace. *Of course* he will recommend that action. Kind of like going to an automechanic for a tuneup and him telling you "Well, I can't get to that last spark plug, so we're going to have to replace the engine." The price doesn't sound too bad and it helps with the value of your home, but I can't help but think that replacing the blower itself is all you would have had to do. Even if you have to pull the furnace to get to the blower, that doesn't mean that it was no longer usable. More than likely your repairman has kept the furnace, will replace the blower on his own, and then reuse or resell it on another job.

I agree, sounds like a rip-off job...

 

[Analog]

that sux

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Even if it was the most obscure brand, any part on the blower could have been repaired. Bad bearings could have been replaced. Electric motor could have been replaced or even have been rewound ( probably not an option since its cold)

 

[SuperSix]

J00 g0t t4k3n

 

What is the name of this so called "no name furnace" ?

(unless the repair tech remove the name tag, you should find it on the outside or inside the access door)

 

[BooneRebel]

Do you still have the old furnace? Just a thought, but if he hasn't hauled it off yet you might want to hang onto it.

 

[SeaSerpent]

What a rip-off....replace the whole furnace cause he cant get a bolt out?? wtf, are you dence??? Get someone else out there to fix it!!

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

your utility company may have an incentive program if you upgrade to a high efficiency unit.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: Roger
What is the name of this so called "no name furnace" ?

(unless the repair tech remove the name tag, you should find it on the outside or inside the access door)

RPJ

 

[Quixfire]

Xfile, I have a dumb question. This screw which is hard to reach, could you drill a hole in the opposing panel and access it with a extension?

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: XFILE

Originally posted by: Roger
What is the name of this so called "no name furnace" ?

(unless the repair tech remove the name tag, you should find it on the outside or inside the access door)

RPJ

I'm looking on yahoo, and the RPJ seems to be a particular design type. Not an manufactures name.

KK

 

[Armitage]

Hate to say this, but if you paid $2300 cuz they couldn't get a screw out, you got screwed.
You didn't, by any chance, get a second opinion? This scenario is just screaming for one.
I could do alot of disassembly to reach that screw for $2300

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Bluefront
My blower motor failed a few years ago. So I pulled the motor out....it's easy. Took it to several local places. Found one for about $60 (1/3 hp). Was up and running in about three hours.

I can't imagine a motor impossible to remove....that's what these guys are supposed to do for a living.

Same here, I was able to get a motor at a shop that makes motors for $20. I went and did it myself after a similar situation where the Heating tech said he "can't " remove and replace the blower motor either (My Unit is a Trane, well known brand). I said thank you very much and paid him the $80 "diagnostic and house call fee". I then took out the blower which took all of 10 minutes and searched around for a motor which I found that place mentioned above.