The 95 yr old across the stree had her blower motor go out.

The people she called are qouting $2250 for a replacement motor install

Is this fair? Crazy? they robbing her blind?

It is it is a bad price, any recs for a company in Dallas?

Are you sure the blower motor is bad? This usually last longer than everything else on a heater/AC system.

Also,'places like Granger probably have a replacement part available.

This, paid $300 for a replacement at grainger (which was Highway robbery fwiw). Easy plug and play swap.

I told her I was happy to pick up a motor and do it myself but she won't let me.

It an ECM motor? If so the motor alone could get up to $800-900. I could see it costing up to $1500, but $2250 seems high. (If it's an ECM motor it'll also be harder to track down)

txag2008 said:

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It an ECM motor? If so the motor alone could get up to $800-900. I could see it costing up to $1500, but $2250 seems high. (If it's an ECM motor it'll also be harder to track down)

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Yep. You CAN swap boards but again, parts are the thing. I had an exam motor replaced 7 years ago on a Lenox and it ran me about 1300 if I recall.

It is this motor (or at least this is the motor they were going to order from Oklahoma)

hc43ae117

https://www.carrierenterprise.com/product/1411645327509/factory-authorized-parts-hc43ae117-blower-motor-12-hp-115v-79-fla-1075-rpm-4-speed-hc43ae117

About 10 screws and 4 wires.

If that's the right one, that's a $350 motor. Sounds like someone taking advantage of a old lady and a hot house.

That is what I thought.
I have another shop coming over tomorrow Luckily I had a portable ac in my garage. So I have been able to keep her cool...just sucks that I have to go over there 3-4 hours to drain it.

This right here is how industries get a bad name, because folks who work in it earn it!

At most even with a $350 part this should be $1,000. Parts 700 labor 300. I understand the need to make money, but I don't see the rationale in this. If your second opinion agrees with the blower motor, explain to your neighbor what is going on. Ask her to let you do this for her because you can't allow someone to take advantage of her.

Order the part and throw that motor in. I had one do the same thing and it's seriously 20-30 minutes from opening the box to back inside.

I didn't even get into how horrible they were to deal with.

She had a company she trusted and had used for decades. I guess the owner died and the kids weren't able to keep it going so they sold the name to some other company.

We called Saturday. They sent someone out, he diagnosed the problem and said they would call on Sunday with a status about part availability and an estimate.

Sunday - nothing no call.
Monday morning she calls, they say they will call back. Nothing
I found out and called them. They said they would call back with a status. Nothing. Never called back

I called back again. Get told that they had been waiting on authorization to do the repair. Authorization they had never asked on a quote they never provided. So I asked what the qoute was they said $690. Fine do it.

Then about 20mins later the tech shows up at her house and says "yeah about that, it is going to be $2250 for the blower replacement or we can replace the furnace for $4-8k depending on which route we go.

Spoke to the owner and he was basically "we probably should have called you back earlier but what you gonna do? We stubbed our toe. So those are your options, $2250 for a motor, $4000 for a cheap furnance or $8000 for a better furnance. They shouldnt have quoted you $690 price"

Did you tell him to EAD? That business won't last long.

I had him give me formal quotes. I doubt we will use them, but if she decides to go with someone else and he tries to come after her for the service fee, I will post his qoute and and the qoute we go with on every review site I can with the story of how they tried to scam a 95 yr old

I know that a generic blower motor from a parts house cost about 90 bucks as of last week if you have a commercial account.

Our 1999 Carrier system was a 5ton heat pump, attic unit whose blower fan went out twice until system replaced in 2021

These are darn hard to find, so demand vs supply and cramped spaces can make for extra time $$$ added.
I just found our blower fan Spring 2021 repair invoice, Aggieland Texas:
$1450 2021
$1260 2012

If her system is ~20 years old, then a new system would be wise
IF she has the money
IF she calls some other business more on top o things

If she's broke, then it's window heat pump units = UGH

dead zip 01 said:

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I know that a generic blower motor from a parts house cost about 90 bucks as of last week if you have a commercial account.

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ECM motors are substantially more. ~$400 for the motor on my rheem condensor. Quoted $700 for the install.

If you are a DIY'er and in the Dallas area you can go to Open to Public to buy HVAC parts without being a license HVAC tech. The people are very knowledgeable. I had to swap out a 5 ton Trane air handler ECM motor in one of my properties. They had the Trane OEM ECM motor for $1100 and a generic EZ16 rescue motor for $500 (Trane stopped selling the motor and ECM part separately and you must buy a combined unit, thus the high price). Their prices are competitive.

https://otp-hvac.com/

My ac unit went out last week. Tech came out and said dual inline capacitor was bad. Charged $200 for new capacitor plus $90 labor. After he left I looked up the part online for my type of unit and they cost $31.09. They really get you on the parts markup.

Keep a couple on hand. I have a couple as I have a rental condo and just had to use one yesterday on my home unit. Already ordered another to stay stocked up.

My air handler also has a small capacitor and I've replaced that. Something to consider when the motor is diagnosed as "bad".

I just had an air handler blower capacitor replaced. $266 all in ($115 for the parts and $150 for labor). I diagnosed the issue and talked to the tech when he called that he was on his way. I guess it took him longer to get the thing installed than I had estimated. As stated above - the capacitor, if you know which one it is, is typically only $20-50 bucks.

Is the air handler in the attic or in a closet ?

This is usually a $1000 - $1,500 but if it's in the attic she is probably paying an additional summer upcharge on the job

So to close this out.
Short term: We replaced the portable ac with a window unit a friend had. Now I don't have to go over every 4 hours to drain the portable AC

Long term: One of the guys down the street is builder. He called "his guy". The new guy looked it over and agreed that the motor was shot and but then also looked at the condenser, noticed some oil and hooked up his gauges. So it had a leak.

Long story short she is getting an entire new system for a price that is in the range of what the first guy was going to charge to her to replace the furnace only.


Oh and she is getting it installed tomorrow.

I get that this is probably a special deal since the builder does so much work with the second vendor but I am more pissed about the communication and shotty diagnosis that the first vendor. She would have spent $2250 -8000 to fix or replace the furnace to only turn around a few weeks later to replace the condenser