Most of us, for generally a modest fee, will have an air conditioning and heating company regularly service our air conditioners and heaters and perform annual testing. Many times the servicing technician will advise that one or more of the test measurements indicate some preventive maintenance or repair is recommended. Most of us not being AC specialists will generally authorize the technician to make the repairs. Depending on what services are included in the regular fee, these repairs generally cost extra. In the back of our minds we ask ourselves how critical is the repair as well is the repair really needed.
While most service contractors want to be ‘honest’ with their service advice, the contractor’s business depends on income to survive. Sometimes a service provider may err on the conservative side, somewhat motivated to obtain additional income, and recommend repairs that probably are not necessary.
So what can us consumers do to better determine if a repair is needed?
THE ANSWER IS…
All technicians will have a cell phone that takes pictures. Request the technician to take pictures of their test equipment measurements (this includes current or amp measurement of fans and compressors, capacitance for capacitors, pressures – pounds per square inch – for low and high side ‘freon’ content, pressure drop – typically in inches of mercury – across equipment, temperatures – normally in degrees Fahrenheit – into and out of equipment, ‘freon’ leak detector ‘sniffers’, etc.), then show those pictures to you along with what the normal measurement should be. This way you have some comfort as to the accuracy of the testing as well as need for a recommended repair. You could follow the technician around as they make their tests, but this usually is not practical or even advisable for safety reasons.
Another option, which is admittedly not that practical, is to have an independent unbiased testing service company perform the tests but is not the contractor making repairs or selling equipment. It is not uncharacteristic of most service companies who test and repair to generally find something wrong, there is more money to be made in a repair than in a test.
Viewing such photos is not an all inclusive procedure for determining whether recommended repairs are required, but certainly provides an added degree of comfort what is being recommended has a more honest basis in fact.
A recent example to illustrate this guidance…
I had an air conditioner service company (who also installed new units a year ago) perform their annual test measurements (a complementary service due to having purchased new units). A few things were found that were recommended to be ‘repaired’. I authorized one but declined all others (I have engineering experience with ACs and could easily make that judgment). One of the recommended repairs was to replace all three run capacitors on all three new one year old units. I thought a bit odd given only a year old and all three going bad at the same time. The technician advised the capacitance measurement on two of the units (the fans) was 4.6 (microfarads) and they should be 5 and the third one was 2.6 instead of 3. While marginally low, the recommendation was to replace all three. A typical cost (parts and labor) to replace one capacitor by a service company is anywhere between $200 to $400. So in my case, a potential $1200 repair fee for three capacitors. I am quite qualified to change out capacitors which I did. For most units, a capacitor can be purchased for under $20 and it takes about 15 minutes or so to do so. Needless to say, generally there is quite a profit margin on a service company providing this service.
Now the rest of the story. When I install new equipment, where I can, I try and test new equipment to confirm it is operating correctly. Equally, when I remove an old part, I often will test that part as well to confirm it is faulty. I tested all three new capacitors (45/5 microfarads and 30/3) and all three tested correctly. When I pulled the old capacitors and tested them…well, all three also tested the same properly working values, so the technician tests were either not read correctly, their measurement equipment is faulty or the technician may have been a little aggressive in desiring to sale extra services.
I have in the attached shown in picture format, the new and old capacitors and connected test equipment, which demonstrates why a consumer should inspect test measurements captured in a photo to confirm a technician’s test measurements and basis of recommendation. (All this assumes there is no mischief going on in the background, such test equipment being fiddled with to give intentional false readings…)