Any a you wise up to give advice on home warranties- specifically HVAC replacements?

Toadman005

Toadman005

Does NOT flipping love Orange.
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Daphne, AL
Long and short of it is my outside unit it caput. The home warranty co is offering to install a new unit, but I’d have to pay quite a bit for non-covered parts. The guy who’d be installing it I have no faith in whatsoever but…tbf what do I know about it? Nothing. But he’s only been in business 2 years and is poorly rated. Bad gut feeling. Or I could hire a highly rated reputable company who’d install an entire new unit with confidence, but, it’d be literally 10x as much and I’d be financing for a decade. So, that’d suck. 10x the money and peace of mind? Or go cheap but risk the results of an incorrect install, etc,?

Anyone ever been in a similar situation, abd if so, how’d it turn out?
 
Toadman005 said:
Long and short of it is my outside unit it caput. The home warranty co is offering to install a new unit, but I’d have to pay quite a bit for non-covered parts. The guy who’d be installing it I have no faith in whatsoever but…tbf what do I know about it? Nothing. But he’s only been in business 2 years and is poorly rated. Bad gut feeling. Or I could hire a highly rated reputable company who’d install an entire new unit with confidence, but, it’d be literally 10x as much and I’d be financing for a decade. So, that’d suck. 10x the money and peace of mind? Or go cheap but risk the results of an incorrect install, etc,?

Anyone ever been in a similar situation, abd if so, how’d it turn out?
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One thing to remember, and my girl says this all the time, buy QUALITY over quantity and you will save money in the long run. Think about if you want to be on the phone screaming at the cheap ass dude six months after he installed your unit because he did a shitty job vs just hunkering down and paying for a quality job with a company that will not only stand behind their work but will be there two years from now.

Good luck, man.
 
Toadman005 said:
Long and short of it is my outside unit it caput. The home warranty co is offering to install a new unit, but I’d have to pay quite a bit for non-covered parts. The guy who’d be installing it I have no faith in whatsoever but…tbf what do I know about it? Nothing. But he’s only been in business 2 years and is poorly rated. Bad gut feeling. Or I could hire a highly rated reputable company who’d install an entire new unit with confidence, but, it’d be literally 10x as much and I’d be financing for a decade. So, that’d suck. 10x the money and peace of mind? Or go cheap but risk the results of an incorrect install, etc,?

Anyone ever been in a similar situation, abd if so, how’d it turn out?
Click to expand...
Im confused. The home warranty company is offering you a brand new unit? If so, why would there be non-covered parts? Why would you have to have the bad rated guy install it? Or is the HW Company just going to pay for the install?
 
Toadman005 said:
Long and short of it is my outside unit it caput. The home warranty co is offering to install a new unit, but I’d have to pay quite a bit for non-covered parts. The guy who’d be installing it I have no faith in whatsoever but…tbf what do I know about it? Nothing. But he’s only been in business 2 years and is poorly rated. Bad gut feeling. Or I could hire a highly rated reputable company who’d install an entire new unit with confidence, but, it’d be literally 10x as much and I’d be financing for a decade. So, that’d suck. 10x the money and peace of mind? Or go cheap but risk the results of an incorrect install, etc,?

Anyone ever been in a similar situation, abd if so, how’d it turn out?
Click to expand...
So is the home warranty company just putting new parts on an old unit? Is that the deal
 
Hard2Bluff said:
Im confused. The home warranty company is offering you a brand new unit? If so, why would there be non-covered parts? Why would you have to have the bad rated guy install it? Or is the HW Company just going to pay for the install?
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He’s who they assigned as the contract. The parts not covered for an update/install from my 05 unit are what total $1800. My bigger concern is this guy using chop shop parts and doing it incorrectly and it failing again or worse ruining my healthy indoor unit. Bout to call the HW company to see it the unit is out of the box brand new, or rigged from salvaged, usable parts. If the later, deal off. Secondly want to see if they’ll cover the new unit but let me hire my own install guy, on my dime, or just if they have anyone else better qualified. Thirdly want assurances that if I hire a third party to inspect it in a week or month abd they find anything wrong, they fix and bill my HW company. If they refuse I’m done because even though they assure me any damage that would result via his incompetence would be covered, I bet that wouldn’t count non-covered parts which could total thousands, like I’m facing now. The reputable company would replace my entire system (3 ton) for 10k but that seems so expensive to me. Yes I could finance but things are hard enough already. But they’d offer far better customer service (24/7, 365) and a 10 year warranty.
 
Go back and read your warranty carefully to note any exclusions. Generally when a home warranty company agrees to replace (rather than repair) the only costs you would pick up would be the co-pay, any parts/labor required to get the system up to code, and any incremental cost related to an upgrade over the equivalent of your current system that you choose to have installed.

While warranties are not technically an insurance product, you can probably still file a complaint with your state’s department of insurance (or threaten to to get their attention) if you’re not happy with how it is playing out.
 
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Big 8 Rules said:
Go back and read your warranty to note any exclusions. Generally when a home warranty company agrees to replace (rather than repair) the only costs you would pick up would be the co-pay, any parts/labor required to get the system up to code, and any incremental cost related to an upgrade over the equivalent of your current system that you choose to have installed.
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Thank you, and tbf I believe the costs, as detailed, are getting it up to code, and incremental cost related to an upgrade. But I want to be sure, and assured quality by the installer.
 
Do you know what part is bad? If it's a capacitor (a common problem) that's a $40 part and easy to change yourself (just be aware there is lethal voltage for any electrical novice. It's a simple exchange, but again, potentially lethal if you screw up).

It may simply be in need of cleaning the coils to restore it's efficiency.

If there is a leak, or bad compressor, in a 05 unit, you probably need a new unit anyway. The SEER requirements in most states have changed to a 14 or higher, as well as new refrigerant updates (recently implemented to r-454b for new 2023 units) from the feds is now a concern. Your old unit is likely R-22 refrigerant, or older (now expensive). R22 was phased out in 2010 and went out of production in 2020. It was replaced with R-410a, which is now defunct because of "global warming", hence R-454b now.

Just some FYI, so you're up to date.
 
Toadman005 said:
Long and short of it is my outside unit it caput. The home warranty co is offering to install a new unit, but I’d have to pay quite a bit for non-covered parts. The guy who’d be installing it I have no faith in whatsoever but…tbf what do I know about it? Nothing. But he’s only been in business 2 years and is poorly rated. Bad gut feeling. Or I could hire a highly rated reputable company who’d install an entire new unit with confidence, but, it’d be literally 10x as much and I’d be financing for a decade. So, that’d suck. 10x the money and peace of mind? Or go cheap but risk the results of an incorrect install, etc,?

Anyone ever been in a similar situation, abd if so, how’d it turn out?
Click to expand...
Problem is there are so many reasons why a unit wont work. Capacitor, switch, compressor, etc. Just cause it doesnt work, doesnt mean it needs to be replaced.
 
I always go cheap becuase I never have lived at the same place for longer longer than 5 years or so, but I have also made some horrible financial decisions. But if this is you ten year or forever home you made a solid choice.
 
Toadman005 said:
I decided after a few consultations to bite the bullet and replace. Gonna ditch my HW. Thank you for weighing in, where’ve you been??
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Around. Seems like everytime I check in here nothing is going on. Figured many were paying for super thread/forum posting, which I will never do
 
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