Air Conditioner Problem

In last early evening I suddenly realized our central air conditioner was not sending cool air into our vents. I was walking around the house checking the other vents when I heard a loud screeching sound outside. I went out the backdoor where the noise was louder and saw that it was coming from our central air unit behind the house. I looked at it and saw the fan was starting and stopping and there was a definite malfunction sound. I went in the house and turned off the unit.

Later in the evening I turned the AC back on and nothing happened. I went outside to check the unit and heard a quiet buzzing. It sounded like the unit was trying to turn on but it wasn't going to happen.

I went online to the Zenner & Ritter website. They installed our new furnace and central air unit back in 2006. Since it was late in the evening I decided to use their chat function and immediately connected with a representative who took down my information. They offered emergency service but I said we could wait a day or so although we did have house guests coming this weekend. She arranged for someone to schedule a repair for the next day.

A little after 8 am this morning I got a phone call from Zenner & Ritter and they arranged for a service scheduled for this afternoon. AT around 11:30 am I got a phone call letting me know a service person would be coming by in about a half hour. I also received a text message that included a picture of the person coming to our house. The service repairman arrived at the house a little after twelve noon. 

He looked at the outside unit and then went down in the basement to see the main unit. I also showed him the water pump that had been replaced a couple of years ago by them and was now not working properly for the air conditioner. It worked OK for the furnace and water regularly went to the sink but recently water from the AC unit was going on the floor. He said he would take care of that too.

Well, things then got bad. The service repairman was very knowledgeable and carefully explained things but the bottom line is that we need to replace our entire heating and cooling system. That would be central air conditioning and heating furnace. It appears the problems we were having are all linked to a failure in the furnace that had a cascading effect on other parts throughout the system.

He could have replaced some parts to get the air conditioner working for about $700 but the furnace would probably not work again come the fall which is a lot more significant in Buffalo than not having air conditioning. Total cost for replacing the system would be around $4000 to $6000 depending on the what we would select. I thought we would be replacing maybe a couple of parts in the air conditioner but we were certainly not expecting this although the system is almost twenty years old and at it's life expectancy.

We had the guy close up the unit and we paid him nearly $100 for the service call. We will set up an appointment with a Zinner & Ritter sales person but also get estimates from at least two other HVAC companies. We have the money to spend on the house but it is getting estimates and dealing with these different companies that is the pain in the ass. I've already started looking at companies to call.

And we have house guest this weekend and people coming over on Sunday. I hope it's not too hot.

Tomorrow I will begin talking with other companies and getting estimates so I guess this is a multi-part story.