Forum Discussion
Furnace woes....
A couple of weeks ago I woke up from a nap due to it being cold in my house. It turned out that my furnace hadn't kicked on. I went down to take a look, and I took an ignitor with me, as this furna...
Yep, it's in. It's working, and working well, but yeah, we got hosed. Not much of a choice, I guess. What makes matters worse is that I used to sell HVAC equipment, so I know how badly we're getting hosed. :(
Granted, there was some 18" heavy insulated flex, a reducing supply plenum, a boxed return plenum, a few sheet metal fittings, three supply registers and about six hours work for two guys. I guess somehow those things equate to well over $2000, as the furnace, in reality, costs well under $1500.
Then again, like any business, they have to make a profit, and if they only charged for things at their cost and only charged for the actual cost of their time they would make very little. So, I get it, but I just didn't expect it to be THAT high. I figured anywhere from $3000 to $3500, depending on how long it took and what materials they had to use. $4000 was a bit of a shock, but at least now I have heat. And, with the rebates that my folks may be eligible for, they may get a few hundred back, so it may end up being closer to what I thought in the end. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one.
They were nice guys and they did get it done pretty quickly. They also didn't mind me checking in on them a few times throughout the day. :p
There was an issue of it short cycling, but it turned out that the installers forgot to change the orientation of the condensate trap. It comes pre-installed for an upright installation, but this was a horizontal installation. So, about an hour after they left their head mechanic got here and had it fixed within twenty minutes. He could immediately see what was wrong and easily changed it.
My house, OTOH, was a mess. The basement floor is pretty much mud, due to it being a dirt floor and snow melting around the house, with some of the melt draining through the rock foundation. I had to come in the house a few times to quickly check the thermostat and the airflow from the registers when it was short cycling, so my mud tracks were on the floor. Ugh!
But, in the end, I have heat. :) :) :) Now, after getting roughly five hours of sleep in 47 hours, I'm a bit tired. I think I'll sleep very well tonight. :p
Well, that was quite the ordeal. One hopes you're all set for a long time now! The labour charges are usually pretty steep, indeed. Recently I had a plumber over, and on going over the invoice, I noticed a very healthy charge for "trip." That was in addition to parts and labour. So the travel time may be part of your bill too. We have no choice unless we all become Renaissance men, so we just bend over and think of England (or America, as the case may be). ;)
And think, now you have your own mud pit! Bonus! ;)
