I'm fairly handy, I've installed new thermostats and checked and refilled the Freon for my HVACs in the past and had a late uncle that was an HVAC guy. However, fast forward to today, I have a Carrier Infinity 2 stage AC system that was installed in the house in 2015 and it has more than it's fair share of electronics. Have never had a problem since the install but the outside unit completely stopped working about a month ago, so since it was under warranty (10 years) I put in a service call with the company that installed it, they responded and said the capacitor had gone bad, they installed a new one for $250 (labor and service call cost) and the unit was back up and running.
A few weeks later we notice that it wasn't running and the inside controller was showing fault 179 outdoor unit communication fault with the same fault occurring about 25 times. We call the company back out, they pull everything apart on the outside and inside unit and test all the connections and can't find anything wrong and diagnose it as a bad circuit board on the outside unit. As they are telling me what the diagnosis is and that they have the circuit board in stock and can install it the next day the system reboots and starts working. They then explain that it is probably the circuit board for the outdoor unit going bad and since it's under warranty the only change would be for the labor. I tell them to go ahead and replace it, they do so the next day and the cost for the service call the previous day and the replacement of the circuit board is $500.
We go on vacation the next day and when we get back two weeks later we walk into a hot house and the controller is showing the same error code 179 outdoor unit communication fault occurring 50 times. We call the tech back out and now they say that our power could be "dirty" and recommend installing a a surge protector on the outside power feed.....another $300 for the service call and surge protector install. 3 hours later the outdoor unit shuts off and the indoor controller show the same error message 179. For the past several days it will cut in and out, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and it's now up to about 75 instances of this same 179 fault.
It's at this point I finally start to think the contractor is milking me since I've paid $800 with no movement on resolving the problem. I call a friend of a friend who is an HVAC guy in another state, he's too far away to do anything for me except offer advice and he says he doesn't work on Carrier Infinity units since they are too complicated. Given the fact pattern of the house being built in 1999 his guess is that when they replaced the unit in 2015 they used the old wiring to the outdoor unit and it's further degraded over time and a new wire needs to be run and the company I had doing the service calls on the 179 comm fault simply tried troubleshooting the easiest fixes not the most probable fixes because fishing a new wire to the outdoor unit is a pain......and so they could bill me for as much as possible.
So my question is am I being too mistrusting of the contractor I've been using? It would seem to me that Occum's Razor would apply, the simplest explanation being the most probable, and its the wire to the outside unit that needs to be replaced and that I should dump my contractor and move to another that services Infinity systems to confirm my diagnoses and replace the wire. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.
A few weeks later we notice that it wasn't running and the inside controller was showing fault 179 outdoor unit communication fault with the same fault occurring about 25 times. We call the company back out, they pull everything apart on the outside and inside unit and test all the connections and can't find anything wrong and diagnose it as a bad circuit board on the outside unit. As they are telling me what the diagnosis is and that they have the circuit board in stock and can install it the next day the system reboots and starts working. They then explain that it is probably the circuit board for the outdoor unit going bad and since it's under warranty the only change would be for the labor. I tell them to go ahead and replace it, they do so the next day and the cost for the service call the previous day and the replacement of the circuit board is $500.
We go on vacation the next day and when we get back two weeks later we walk into a hot house and the controller is showing the same error code 179 outdoor unit communication fault occurring 50 times. We call the tech back out and now they say that our power could be "dirty" and recommend installing a a surge protector on the outside power feed.....another $300 for the service call and surge protector install. 3 hours later the outdoor unit shuts off and the indoor controller show the same error message 179. For the past several days it will cut in and out, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and it's now up to about 75 instances of this same 179 fault.
It's at this point I finally start to think the contractor is milking me since I've paid $800 with no movement on resolving the problem. I call a friend of a friend who is an HVAC guy in another state, he's too far away to do anything for me except offer advice and he says he doesn't work on Carrier Infinity units since they are too complicated. Given the fact pattern of the house being built in 1999 his guess is that when they replaced the unit in 2015 they used the old wiring to the outdoor unit and it's further degraded over time and a new wire needs to be run and the company I had doing the service calls on the 179 comm fault simply tried troubleshooting the easiest fixes not the most probable fixes because fishing a new wire to the outdoor unit is a pain......and so they could bill me for as much as possible.
So my question is am I being too mistrusting of the contractor I've been using? It would seem to me that Occum's Razor would apply, the simplest explanation being the most probable, and its the wire to the outside unit that needs to be replaced and that I should dump my contractor and move to another that services Infinity systems to confirm my diagnoses and replace the wire. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.
