Adding refrigerant to an air conditioner

By kurthartmann on 12/06/2017 in

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What The News Press Had To Say About Us

TELL MEL ____________________________________________________- tellmel@newspress.com _____________________________________________________- Second opinion needed for AC fix _____________________________________________________ I don't usually do two air conditioning columns in a week, but Monday's column touched a nerve. So I thought I'd pass along some of the stories I've heard from AC company owners who have called. The first story comes courtesy of Kurt Hartmann of Community Cooling in Fort Myers. Hartmann gives free second opinions on other companies repair or replacement estimates. Recently, a woman who lives in a North Fort Myers mobile home park called him after another AC company had come to look at her unit. Several weeks earlier the woman had installed a thermostat and the AC worked fine. But when the weather turned cold, and she tried to get it to heat, the unit wouldn't work. She called a company, which will remain nameless. The technician removed the cover on the thermostat, examined it, and then went to look at the unit. His diagnosis: She needed a new relay and transformer. Total $2,300. Fortunately, the homeowner decided to brave the cold for a day and get a second opinion. Her unit was only six years old and she couldn't believe it needed such an expensive repair. When Hartmann's guy arrived, he too popped the cover off the thermostat. There he saw a switch with two positions for the heat - gas and electric. This thermostat had the switch in the position for gas, but she, like most people in Southwest Florida has an electric unit. When the thermostat was switched to the electric mode, the heater "worked like a champ" Hartmann said.