More house maintenance woes

[Tgo01]

So we get our ac serviced every year or so and the past 3 or 4 times it's always been by the same guy and he always said everything looked good, sometimes he recommended adding some more coolant since the ac is getting old, ~15 years old now.

Today they sent out someone new and the first thing he said was our damper was broken because when he entered the area with the furnace he heard the thing banging back and forth against the duct over and over again. Our home has a ground floor and a finished basement and each floor has it's own thermostat so this damper apparently makes this all work; if just the basement ac is on it won't send air to the upstairs and vice versa. The guy said since it's broken though it's just sending cool air throughout the entire house no matter which thermostat has the ac on.

Since we rarely use the basement this means we are supposedly cooling/heating the basement whenever the upstairs thermostat is on, potentially costing us a lot of money.

Does this sound right or is this guy just trying to get us to buy a relatively expensive part? First he quoted us 350 dollars then when he brought the part back he noticed the new part (which he claims is the standard part for our type of unit now) won't fit because it's larger than the old part so he said the whole thing might need to be replaced which might cost another hundred dollars. He actually wouldn't give me a price quote on replacing the entire thing, he kind of scoffed when I asked him how much more it would cost then said maybe 30 or 40 dollars more than just the 350 dollar part. When I said as long as it's not hundreds of dollars more he then said "It might be." Well is it or isn't it? Shit.

He claimed it was banging back and forth over and over again and he's surprised we have never heard it. I guess it's possible we have just tuned the noise out if it's been going on for a while now. I have noticed the basement gets really cold sometimes so it kind of makes sense if the basement is relatively cool even without the ac on that it would get even colder with the ac blowing cold air down there as well.

I dunno. Just seems fishy this new guy noticed it right off the bat while the other guy never did. I suppose it's possible this just happened or it never happened when the other guy was around, or the other guy just didn't give a shit.

[Wesley]

I dunno. Usually I've found where there's smoke, there's fire. You were suspicious enough of it that you came here with it. Personally, I'd get a second opinion from another company in the area. Not like, mention that specific part or anything, but maybe have another company come out and give a quote, check things out in case anything's wrong, so long as the price isn't prohibitive. From your description, it does seem like the guy might be on the level, but it also seems that like you said, he might just be trying to suck a few hundred bucks out of you. Usually, people experienced in their field will have a ballpark estimate on the man-hours it'd take to get things done, well enough to give you a rough estimate rather than just say "It could be a few hundred extra". That last bit always seems to me to be "It's going to be a couple hundred extra. So just agree to the work and I'm going to write down whatever number I like since you agreed to maybe a bit more.".

Sounds fishy, from your description.

[AnticorRifling]

I'll confirm the story with my brother who is an HVAC guy, I think I'm seeing him tonight.

[Ker_Thwap]

It's 15 years old, it's needing more and more repair, it's leaking crap into the environment. Bite the bullet and get a brand new one, it will be cheaper to run.

Get three bids on the new project.

[Archigeek]

Why don't you just look at the damper yourself? It's not rocket science. The technician should have been able to show you how/where it's broken, but whether he/she did or not, you should be able to see it for yourself.

[Tgo01]

I'll confirm the story with my brother who is an HVAC guy, I think I'm seeing him tonight.

That would be awesome. Thank you.

It's 15 years old, it's needing more and more repair, it's leaking crap into the environment. Bite the bullet and get a brand new one, it will be cheaper to run.

Get three bids on the new project.

It's part of the duct work, doesn't have anything to do with the ac unit itself.

Why don't you just look at the damper yourself? It's not rocket science. The technician should have been able to show you how/where it's broken, but whether he/she did or not, you should be able to see it for yourself.

He did show me the part. It's not the part that opens and closes (according to him anyways), it's the motor/whatever that part is that makes it open and close. The flap is inside of the ducts and the part that needs replacing is a part that hangs down from the ducts.

[Soulance]

The bolt or whatever might have fallen off the damper arm. Check all the connections that attach to the damper and see. It's just a simple piece of metal attached to a metal stick and turned by a motor typically. Sure, the motor may need to be replaced, but you can dial up the thermostat and watch the motor to see if it turns. If it does, then it might just be something loose there. The damper does control airflow to various locations so it'd be good to keep it if you can. That's something you'd want to keep even if you got a new system.

[Soulance]

Ah, okay, sounds like the damper motor then. I can't see it being too crazy to replace cost-wise. Maybe find one one and do it yourself. They mostly just slide on the end of the piece sticking out somehow - by a u-bolt or the like, or just a screw that holds on to a flat part...

But, check it out yourself first, make sure it's still hooked up with wires and all and then turn up the heat or down on the AC or whatever and watch to see if the motor wheel moves...