What are the Odds? Two Bad Caps at Once!

[Texas Splash]

Last night I noticed one part of the house felt warm. Sure enough, the air blowing out of the AC vents was warm. So I begin to do some preliminary diagnosing. Eventually I end up outside at the condenser unit where I see the fan works but I don't hear the compressor. My hope is that it's just the capacitor and not the actual compressor. Disappointing way to start the weekend, but at least our second AC unit is working which keeps the living room cool, so we can deal with it.

I start pulling the panels off the condenser unit in the dark around 10:00 pm to get the info on the suspect cap. Then behind me I hear the other condenser unit making a faint humming sound. Nothing operating, just the hum. What are the odds? The unit that was working fine and would be our little bit of cold air for a while has also stopped working with neither the fan nor compressor working.

We have a home warranty service that charges an $85 service fee. Now that I have two AC units not working, you can bet they would charge a separate service fee for each AC unit ($170 total), Oh, and since this happened on a Friday evening you can bet they wouldn't make it to see us until the middle of next week. Meanwhile we're in 100+ weather.

But there's a happy ending. I elected to not submit (two) warranty service requests. Instead, I ordered two caps for the units and received them from Amazon by the next afternoon. I had them replaced in about 10 minutes with cold air back in the house. The cost of those two caps? ...... $40 total.

Crisis averted - Saved $130.

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Well, if both caps were manufactured at the same time, installed at the same time, gone through all the same weather and electric glitches, maybe it's not a big coincidence.

 

[midlifecrisis]

I feel your pain. I once purchased a house (about 2 years old) that came with a Home Warranty I even tried to get the costs deducted, but nope it was going to come with a warranty. Sure enough, August rolls around, the wife I get back from vacation and when we walked through the door, I knew it wasn't good. The unit upstairs unit had the exact same problem. Well, I know you don't need any hints with heat and humidity. Needless to say, I called them against my better judgement and the first words out of their mouths, with a straight-faced voice was it will be about two weeks before we can get someone out there. Nope. B.S.

Filled with rage, I promptly called my normal service company, they came out and replaced the capacitor (which, yes, I could have done) but I was angry. So, I pulled the contract up and went through the process of filing a claim for reimbursement, and of course it was denied. So, a few documented phone calls, a couple of certified, RRR letters later, guess who went to the JP's office with paperwork in hand and filled a small claim? Yep, me. Had them served. They didn't show. Default judgement for $2,900 as I was able to show damages (hotel room actually used points earned for work travel, and meals.). $99.00 (at the time) annual HVAC service plan with priority service, 15% discount on parts and a total bill of just under $175 (can't recall exactly). They refused to pay until I filed a lien and their counsel finally got involved.

Easy money.

 

[kimkats]

Well done on fixing it on your own. That reinforces the "it is not worth the paper it is written on" to the max!

@midlifecrisis you are my hero for taking them and winning! OH YEAH!

 

[an1vrsy]

So now this thread will have me searching the interwebs for a hvac user forum so I can fix my a/c whenever it breaks. Thanks a lot…

 

[Mdragger88]

A word of advice- get 2 more to keep as extras so next time there’s no down time.
Lots of parts houses sell to the public & they are usually a little cheaper too (around $10)
Glad you’re back in business!