Excessive price charge for 410A freon?
Upon learning that my unit had been running on Aux. heat for a month, I called for help. The repairman said that my refrigerant had leaked out due to two copper lines rubbing together from vibration and wearing a hole in one line. The bill showed that he used 15.3 lbs. of 410A at a cost of $589.00. This a 3 year old Goodman heat pump, 5 ton, model GSZ1300601with a ten year parts and labor warranty. I was told that freon was not a part and therefore wasn't covered. Was this a fair charge or a ripoff? Thats about $38 a pound. I think thats about what I've seen mentioned before. Don't forget there will always be mark-up. Just had my furnace repaired. $125 part I could buy online cost me $270. I wasn't going to wait 3-5 days and I didn't know for sure that was the problem anyway. I paid for expertise and experience as well as overhead, insurance and operating costs of the business. Parts are what the manufacturer put's in to the equipment....they don't supply refrigerant. 15.3 pounds of freon......sounds like an awful lot. It does sound like a lot of refrigerant for most systems. Not that this is the place to discuss price, but the price per pound is less than I charge. Was the leak repaired? No, refrigerant is typically not a warranty covered item. The unit seems to be working fine after the repair. But today, I searched for any signs of soldering or activity on the copper lines and could not find anything, nor could I find any lines that were rubbing together. In addition, shouldn't I have seen some trace of the oil that the technician said had leaked out? There were no wipe marks or any signs of a cleanup on the bottom of the unit that I could see. Maybe I'm just getting paranoid in my old age. It was my first time to use this service company. They had a couple positive reviews on Angie's List. Well...it's a little late now, but did you watch the work or ask the tech to explain the problem and show you the work? When I had the furnace fixed I went on the roof with the guy and asked him if it was ok I watched and asked questions. He said no, thats fine. I wasn't intrusive, just watched what he did and asked a few questions. Also complimented him about watching a professional work. You should be able to find out what the correct charge for your system is. For comparison, my 3.5 ton unit takes a little over 10 lb. (this includes the extra needed for the line set and the indoor TXV). So 15 lb seems plausible to me, and it probably took 3 or 4 hours to do the job, so $600 seems fair, especially so, if it includes labor. Maybe you didn't see evidence of brazing or oil spill because the tech was careful and cleaned up properly. I guess the only way one can really know is to watch the action. The ten year parts warranties seem to be the current marketing ploy. If you read the warranty it probably states that filters, refrigerant, consumables aren't covered. Also, the service company is probably not reimbursed by the manufacturer. 15.3 lbs. of 410A at a cost of $589.00. A 25lb tank of 410A costs about $125. That's $5/lb You got charge $38/lb. Yeah, I'd say that's ripoff. But hey, who am I to say that at 700% markup is unfair? Where is the competition in this business? You are not including labor in that and overhead. It was a fair price. Also this is an old thread.... please check dates before posting.
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