My wife and I moved into a 30 year-old house a year ago. Everythingworked ok over the past year but I have never been please with theA/C. Well, as winter slowly approaches here in Louisiana I go to turnon my Gas heater and smell a small hint of gas. Again, my pregnantwife smells it too. So I shut everything down including the pilotlight and call someone to come and inspect it. I am clueless when itcomes to this equipment and service so I just picked someone out ofthe yellow pages that appeared professional. A man shows up andimmediately panics and says I have a cracked chamber. He says theevidence of this is to look at the flame where it is yellow? Isn'tmost fire yellow to some degree? I go down to my gas stove and seethe same type of flame. Of course I do plan to get a second opinion. Anyway, he has his boss come out and take a look to see what it wouldcost to basically replace everything and do some needed duct work. Here is what he proposed:Rheem 12 SEER (electric a/c and inside gas furnace part)redo and add some duct work throughout the houseredo some of the piping that goes from the outside unit to the insideunitraise the slab where my outside unit will be so it is to codeCost: $5600 (includes tax and everything)Ultimately, it does sound like quite a bit of work and everything heproposed makes sense. However, if you haven't already been able totell from my description (i.e. outside unit vs. inside unit) I amcompletely naive about this whole process. So if anyone out there canhelp me I sure would appreciate it.My concerns are this:How should I choose someone to do this type of work? I want it doneright but I can't really tell from the yellow pages who isprofessional and who isn't.Is Rheem the manufacturer I should go with? I have always heard thatTrane and American Standard was best. This guy that gave me thisquote even said that American Standard is probably a little betterthan Rheem but given my installation he said Rheem would be best. Again, I...

A new unit is probably adviseable . Today you should go get a Digitaldisplay Co alarm to see if gas Co, is leaking . You didnt mentionwhat model equipment , btu , effifency, ac size or seer

A/C & Heater Replacement??

Nov 22, 2003 43 Replies

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Stormin Mormonn 22 years ago

If you want to reduce your electric bill

1) Clean the coils, or have them cleaned. Condensor coils for outdoor unit, and evaporator coils for indoor air handler. 2) Use a rotary compressor instead of a recip 3) Shade trees, white curtains, attic fans, and all that good stuff to reduce heat load. 4) Shade for outdoor unit 5) Have unit serviced each year 6) Remit 48.50 for advice, please.

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Tekkie 22 years ago

Stormin Mormonn posted for all of us....

To the original poster you're getting hacked here, he gives the biz a bad name.

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Childfree Scott 22 years ago

I didn't think of that. Probably because I think of the blower motor as a separate piece, even though it's not. I wouldn't worry about the blower motor breaking. Blower motors are realtively cheap and easy to replace yourself. I've done it once.

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CBHvac 22 years ago

Well....thats NOT the point.... You hook a new evap coil, and condensor to a 20 year old unit, and you basically have a 20 year old system, get it?

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