How long does it take for professionals to diagnose a problem with your a/c unit?

[hellokitty]

I am curious what the typical amt of time it is, for professional HVAC ppl to figure out what is wrong with a malfunctioning a/c unit. Our a/c broke last night. They came out and THREE hours later, they still do not know what is wrong. DH was here the entire time following them around and another guy came out (I think the owner) to check it out and couldn't figure it out either. I was not happy. When I asked him, he said that our unit is ancient. In other words, he thinks we should replace the unit. I am pissed that 3 hrs later, they still can't figure out what's wrong and basically it sounds like he just thinks we should get a new unit. My DH and these guys have been joking around, and I ended up telling the guy that I was not happy that after 3 hrs that they are charging that they still don't know what is wrong with the unit, and we are being charged for those hrs of them just going back and forth. I do not think that they did anything to our unit to make it worse, but they are professionals and I feel that 3 hrs and still no answers as to what is actually wrong with our unit is not ok. DH got mad at me that I was rude to the guy, I still think 3 hrs and no answers is not ok. Is that normal???

[KLD313]

I used to run an a/c company. It depends, it could take that long depending on what they did. I will say it takes longer to diagnose when the homeowner follows them around watching them. It's a hard question to answer without knowing what happened to your unit. Was it freezing up? That takes awhile because they leak check and it can take a long time to find a tiny leak. I would think in three hours they would have some conclusive answer. There are only so many parts to a unit, the fan, the compressor, boards, contactor, capacitor. They should have ruled out any electrical issues also.

[o_mom]

It took a couple of hours for ours to diagnose, same with the second opinion. However, we were NOT charged by the hour - it was a flat service call fee (which was waived with repair, second opinion was free).

There was some downtime while they tested the pressure on the compressor because that takes time for it to get up to pressure and then they have to leave it there for a certain time (at least that was my understanding).

[happymom]

Agree with PP that it will take longer if homeowner is following around. DH is appliance tech, and he really doesn't like when people do that- even when they're super nice people- which I'm sure your DH is!

But anyways, were they actually charging you by the hour? I'm sure they were frustrated too that it took so long. Sounds like they are just not familiar with the unit since its an older model.

ETA: Is this a window/wall unit or central air?

[hellokitty]

They still could not figure out what was wrong with it. Something was wrong with the fan blade, but they said that even if they replaced it, it still might not work. They suspected a wiring issue, but were reluctant to spend an hr (say we were not getting enough voltage to the unit) taking it apart. Yet, 3 hrs later, they still had no answers. I did not know that DH following him around would cause issues, he was kind of helping with turning things on, while the guy was at the other end watching the unit, etc.. He ended up calling another guy to come, who has like 20+ yrs of experience and he said he did not know what is wrong with it either. In the end, they left, and probably won't be back, b/c I was just not happy. I thought that by 3 hrs, they must be close to figuring it out. Instead, he was going to try to do a temporary fix to get us through the night and come back after calling tech support. However, that temporary fix lasted for 5 min and then it went kaput again. By then I was just getting really annoyed, and when I asked him what the plan was, he said that our unit was ancient and he didn't know what was wrong with it. I felt like he should have told us that during hour one, instead of hour three. After that time and $, we are back to sq one, we are leaving for vacation for a WEEK tomorrow, so that means we get to come home on next Friday w/o a/c for 3 days, assuming that tomorrow I can find someone to come out and give us an estimate. I don't want to go back to those ppl, I know that they are pissed at me for being unhappy with them, so it's just not going to work out having them replace a unit. The timing couldn't be worse than this, seriously. If this had happened at the beginning of the wk, it could have been dealt with, not it won't be dealt with and then we will come home to this disaster and then have to deal with then, it's going to suck.

[KLD313]

I wouldn't necessarily worry about them knowing you were pissed at them. We had plenty of people pissed at us for various reasons. It's hot and people get miserable, a/c techs understand that because they deal with it all the time. Ive found that most people will happily live without heat for a few days but when they have no air they can't deal with it. Crazy, but true, I saw it for 10 plus years.

If the unit is that old they may not even be able to get compatible parts for it and it doesn't sound like it's worth it to fix it. If you want to deal with the same company you could certainly ask for some kind of credit toward replacing the unit.

[hellokitty]

I wouldn't necessarily worry about them knowing you were pissed at them. We had plenty of people pissed at us for various reasons. It's hot and people get miserable, a/c techs understand that because they deal with it all the time. Ive found that most people will happily live without heat for a few days but when they have no air they can't deal with it. Crazy, but true, I saw it for 10 plus years.

If the unit is that old they may not even be able to get compatible parts for it and it doesn't sound like it's worth it to fix it. If you want to deal with the same company you could certainly ask for some kind of credit toward replacing the unit.

Thanks.

[HannaAddict]

It sounds reasonable to me, especially with an old unit. Hard to repair or replace things these days. It can take awhile to diagnose and sounds like it might just be biting the dust and there is no definitive fix. Sorry.