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Posted by Bubba on August 19, 2006, 8:03 am
wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I have a 11 year old Goodman gas furnace (model gmp125-5) with a 3 ton
>central air unit (southern Pennsylvania).
>The a/c quit working a few weeks ago. I had a serviceman come out and
>he said the control board had burn spots on it. He put in a new
>control board, turned on the system, it ran for about 1 minute and then
>burnt up the replacement board.
>I was told that the thermostat (basic round dial one) could be causing
>a short so I put in a digital programmable thermostat. They put in a
>second control board. The tech was going to turn on the a/c again and
>I said let's just turn the blower fan from auto to on first and see how
>that works. We did that and the control board burnt out again after
>1/2 minute or so. He tested the wires from the thermostat to the
>control board and there was no short in them.
>
>The control boards are $170 each and my repair bill so far is close to
>$500. I've called several hvac shops in the area and the general
>concensus is that troubleshooting a short in the system could be quite
>costly and considering the system is 11 years old, it would be better
>to replace it.
>Thoughts/Comments?
>
>My second question is this: How much should it cost (ballpark) for a
>new natural gas furnace and central air system? My house is ~2600 sq
>ft, 2 floors. I had an Amana supplier come out and do a engineering
>analysis. She said the 3 ton a/c unit is too small for my house and
>that I should have a 4 ton unit.
>She gave me quotes on new systems and I'm in shock at the price quotes,
>which range from $6500 for a system with the cheapest parts (13 seer
>a/c with 5 yr compressor warranty, 80% gas furnace) all the way to
>$11,000 for a 16 seer a/c with lifetime compressor/10 yr parts and a
>96% gas furnace with variable speed blower and lifetime heat exchanger.
>
>I was hoping I could get a efficient system for $5000-$6000 installed.
>Are the high-efficiency furnace and a/c units really that much more
>expensive and/or more involved to install - or is this place charging a
>premium to install the high-end components?
>
>Thanks ahead of time for any guidance you can offer!!!
You have just gotten a lot of bad circuit boards. Goodman put out a
huge batch of bad boards. Have your seemingly highly trained
professional technician keep replacing boards. When the repair bill
gets up to $11,000 then you can tell him to stop and go ahead and put
in that new super- duper system. After all, it just wouldnt be
practical to do more than $11,000 in repairs if you can get a new
system for that amount.
Dont forget to install a new digital programmable thermostat. Its
almost always the thermostat.
I do hope you asked your Amana chick if she was indeed an engineer?
After all, you cant do an engineering analysis unless you are
"board-certified". I think she is wrong about the 4 ton system. Im
sure you need a 5 ton system. Bigger is always better and the bigger
systems last longer.
Bubba
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