New Air conditioning fails Aug 12 2008

My outside air conditioning unit experienced a failure on Aug 12 – 13, 2008. The unit was eight months old and still under warranty.

If the unit failed within three months, a full replacement would have been provided by Lennox. In this case, Lennox approved the replacement of the compressor rather than replacement of the unit.

However, as it turned out, more than just the compressor failed. A second part also failed.

Because of the second failure, I believe the overall failure was a system failure and not a compressor failure. I believe the heat and disruption caused by two parts failing compromised the balance between electrical and electronic components that is necessary to achieve the high seer rating I purchased with my unit.

The high seer rating and anticipated savings on electricity was a primary motive for selecting the unit I purchased. Less expensive equipment was available, but I felt it would pay off to buy a higher seer rating. Furthermore, I selected the higher seer rating so that it would provide savings over the anticipated long life of the unit.

I think my investment has been seriously compromised.

1. The unit failure was not a minor glitch. It took two licensed HVAC technicians with a full range of sophisticated tools approximately 16 man hours to make the repair.\

2. The failure of the second part was not diagnosed until after the compressor was replaced. This means Lennox did not have a full picture of the failure before deciding not to replace the whole unit.

3. To reach the seer rating that I purchased, I am certain that all electrical and electronic systems must be running in near-perfect order. I suspect that the disruption and heat generated by the failure [the tech used a water hose to cool the compressor after he got it to run on the first evening] adversely affected other electronic parts. If so, this would reduce the seer rating and/or make my equipment more prone to failure in the future.

4. The second part that was discovered to be faulty was replaced that evening by the tech. I am concerned that this part might not have been an exact duplicate of the factory part that came from Lennox.

-Since the electrical system has to be in perfect working order to deliver the seer rating I purchased, I am concerned that replacing factory parts with off-the-shelf generics could make my unit more susceptible to another failure.

-I base this concern on the fact that the tech first thought the unit failure was due to the capacitor. He began diagnosing the unit and tested the capacitor. He removed the capacitor, tested it, and found that it tested low. The replacement capacitor he got from the truck didn’t look anything like the factory capacitor that came with the unit. A few moments later, he determined that the capacitor was not the issue and he put the factory-supplied capacitor back in place.

5. My Lennox unit suffered a catastrophic failure that included the compressor plus at least one other part. I believe this type of failure event had to adversely affect every part in the system. The cause of the multiple failure is not known. Lennox did not know the extent of the failure prior to deciding to replace the compressor. My seer rating, my investment in the unit, and my future electric bills are directly tied to this failure of equipment. In addition, I am exposed to future failures due to the magnitude of the equipment failure. Also, I am retired and must rely on dollars earned at yesterday’s wages. Yet if my unit fails similarly in the future, I will have to pay tomorrow’s tech costs with yesterday’s dollars. I am very concerned that a situation like this could leave my entire air conditioning system useless or too expensive far beyond its expected life. In short, I am the only person assuming a risk, but the risk only exists because of the catastrophic failure of the equipment I purchased in good faith.

6. I have only one warranty period with my equipment. If that warranty is not enough to cover the whole unit during the warranty period, what good is the warranty?

My unit stopped cooling the house. I called the after-hours service and Richard called me back.

I told Richard that the air filter was clean.

He asked me if I could hear the compressor running. I was uncertain. The unit was running, but maybe it was just the fan.

He asked me to turn off the unit at the thermostat, reset the electric 240V breakers, turn on the unit from the thermostat, and then check if the outdoor copper pipe was cold.

I called Richard back after letting the outdoor unit run for ten minutes, and reported that the copper pipe was not cold.

Richard sent a licensed technician.

The technician arrived quickly. He could tell the compressor was not running and opened the outdoor unit. He removed the capacitor and tested it. The capacitor registered lower than expected so he installed another capacitor.

With the new capacitor, the unit still didn’t start so he put the original capacitor back in place.

A short time later, the technician was able to get the compressor to turn on but quickly it started to make a loud noise as if a part inside was broken.

After that the technician used a water hose to cool off the compressor to see if it would start again. He was able to start it again, but it ran less than a minute before the noise resumed so the tech shut it off.

The next day, two licensed technicians arrived around 2 PM with a new compressor. They worked until about 5 PM.

During this time, I asked the techs if the unit was integrated? What I meant was, how integrated were all the parts? In other words, since the unit produces such a high seer rating, the parts must all function within close tolerances of one another > therefore if one part fails, it would adversely affect other parts, especially when the compressor got very hot.

I wanted to know if a catastrophic failure of one part would diminish the capacity of other parts which would lead to a lesser seer rating and/or a system prone to future failures?

The tech answered that individual parts could be replaced without affecting the whole unit.

A few minutes later, the tech who answered my question came into the house. He informed me that I was right. The techs had discovered that another part failed in addition to the compressor.

At that point the techs left to go get the replacement part.

I am not a licensed HVAC technician. But I do know that electrical systems are exactly that: they are systems. And I do know that over-voltages and over-heating can damage multiple parts or degrade their performance.

The report that a second part failed, raised additional concerns that my unit was forever compromised by the catastrophic failure.

As a measure of proof that my concern bears out, neither licensed technician anticipated the failure of the second part, nor did they have a replacement on-board the truck, just in case.

One technician returned within the hour with the part. He replaced the part.

I had another concern at this point that the part might not be an exact replacement of the factory original that is necessary to reach the seer rating I purchased. The reason I say this is from observing the initial work done by the tech who first came out. When the tech first opened the unit, he decided to replace the capacitor, but the parts he used were not the same as what came with the unit.

Overall what concerns me is that this catastrophic failure has seriously diminished my investment in a highly-efficient heat-pump unit. Furthermore the failure included more than one part. The failure created heat that might send higher amperages to other parts and cause them to under-perform as time goes on.

Because of these concerns, and because the unit is only eight months old, I called Richard the next day and asked if he would replace the entire outdoor unit. I offered to pay labor to do this. I told Richard that my wife and I were retired and we invested in this unit to reduce our electric bills and our worry into the future.

I think this is fair since our earning years are behind us and any future expense hiring licensed technician will be billed at higher rates than the dollars we earned in the past.

Furthermore, I saw that this failure took nearly 14 man hours to repair. This was no minor glitch. This was a major repair that probably puts me at risk of facing the same repair later.

Richard offered to let me talk to the Lennox representative. I told him that nobody trusts what companies say today and he didn’t deny the fact. I told him also that I don’t have a contract nor a relationship with Lennox. My contract exists with Custom Comfort.

Richard offered to call Lennox on my behalf.

I think this is fair since Richard has a contract with Lennox plus Richard was a Lennox representative prior to buying Custom Comfort with the past couple years.

I am not trying to take advantage of anyone. Nor am I being an old fuddy duddy. I am genuinely convinced that my unit requires close tolerances of all electronic and electric components to deliver the efficiency seer-rating that I purchased. I believe that a catastrophic failure and overheating of the electrical components compromises the future of my investment, possibly rendering my investment worthless and/or expensive to maintain.

This situation boils down to a single fact: I am the only party assuming risk. 1. I am risking that my efficiency seer rating has been lowered and thus my electric bills will be higher throughout the lifetime of the unit. 2. I am risking that the failure of two or more parts and the overheating of the entire system will weaken the system and make it more prone to expensive failure after the warranty period expires.

These two factors occurring within the warranty period clearly mean that my entire unit should be exchanged for a new factory unit. I offered to pay for labor to mitigate the eight months of service already received.

My only stipulation is that I do get a wholely new unit and not somebody else’s failed unit recycled back over the top of me.

Within a year, the same failure occurred again.
In 2021 the entire unit failed completely .... a mere 13 year lifespan

Gene Haynes

The failure of the second part could not be ascertained until after the compressor was replaced and measurements were made.

This indicates that no test was available to check exactly which parts could have been damaged by erratic voltages & amperages including damage caused by the overheated compressor.

The fact that the techs didn’t bring the second part shows that neither they nor Lennox was able to see the full damage prior to making the decision to replace the compressor rather than swap out units.

The fact that licensed technicians didn’t bring the second part shows that they had not experienced a similar failure before > which implies my new unit experienced a unique failure event.

The fact that two parts failed also shows that the cause of the failure cannot be determined. The cause might be yet a third part within the system that is not working exactly as it should.

Furthermore, I have no guarantee that my unit is performing near or at the seer rating that I purchased.

Can you determine the cause of the failure?
Can you guarantee that my unit is the same as a new unit > which is implied by the warranty.
Can you guarantee that a third part was not damaged or was not the cause of the failure?
After the compressor was replaced, the techs tested and found that the efficiency was still compromised > this led them to discover the second part > this implies that all parts are needed for the unit to run at the efficiency rating that I purchased.
They would give full replacement if the failure occurred within 90 days.
They would give full replacement in a similar circumstance if the event happened to Lennox’s CEO.

If my warranty is not good now, when will it ever be good?