Carrier 3 ton service costs

Got my 12 year old Carrier 3 ton (38ckb036330) repaired as the external unit /fan had stopped working. While initially pleased to get a technician to attend over the weekend, the unit is still not working though I ended up paying around $440. The technician replaced the round capacitor with an oval one ($166.50) and also recommended another capacitor `Kickstart TO-5' ($202.50) to `save the compressor'. He also filled 1 lb Freon gas ($28.50)
Within 5 minutes of his leaving the unit stopped functioning and on his return he now feels the motor for the fan is defective. Apparently its now turning in the wrong direction and replacing motor will be another $425!
A quick search on the internet of the costs makes me suspect the charges were excessive, while ofcourse the unit is still nonfunctional. Will the motor replacement solve the issue and are the parts cost reasonable? The technician seems to be trying out trial and error method to resolve the issue and I wil end up with new parts housed in an old unit. Is 12 years - end of life for these units and should I just go in for a new one?

 

Usually when a fan motor like this runs backwards the probem is a bad or miswired capacitor.

 

something wrong with that Tech. get another Tech. If the fan turns backward, he must connect the wires reversed. The price he charged is about right. these days, labor will kill you, the parts add them (capacitors and freon) together may be less than $75.
Here I do have a question. may be some one can answer. If the fan turns backward, shoud it still work ?(to some degree). It still cool the unit, isn't it ? The unit should not stop in 5 minutes..

 

Thanks for the inputs. Reversed the wires at the capacitor end and fan worked fine for a while, until the motor heated up and stopped. Tech says the motor is defective and will replace it today. Since the motor/fan was the original issue, wondering if the root cause has even been detected and if all the parts change was really required...

 

In most cases when we replace the fan, we also put a new capacitor in there anyway. But all together, you have to pay near $900, that is too much. around $600 should be a more reasonable number (if you ask someone do these all together at the same time, and that should include a cleaning job of the condenser unit) .

 

Why should it include cleaning the coil?

The cap that was replaced was a duel cap - not a fan cap,
the call was on a weekend as well. However I due agree that the OP needs to find another tech.

Added refrigerant - why? Was there a leak?

 

Based on my experience (replaced 3 fans during the last 12 years), they always give me that for free in order to get the job. In fact, their Ads. on the newspaper always give out free 10 points check up or free cleaning. In this case, once the fan is out, cleaning seems pretty easy, not sure if that was a good cleaning or not, but they did use some coil cleaner spray and also hose the unit inside out. What about Weekend(you mean charge more ?) , these days in my area(Texas) very few people charge extra for weekends. (may be because they have to compete for the work)

 

Did not update this thread as wanted to have atleast 24 hours of working unit, after fixing. The tech replaced the motor yesterday and reversed the cables to what he said was the original setting. However the fan was turning in the wrong direction again. Going by daddyjohn' earlier advice, had the new oval capacitor replaced - which did the trick. The fan now turned in the right direction blowing air out of the unit. Since the original motor was replaced for this same reason, had the old motor fitted back and the unit continued to worked just fine.
The fan motor also did not heat up as it did earlier and has been working since the past 24 hours. Possibly that was all that was needed - replacing the blown capacitor. Hopefully the `kickstart TO-5' will help with some extra lease of life for the compressor?
Glad I did not have to spend the additional $425 for a new motor.
Thanks to all for the suggestions and tips.

 

It won't unless your compressor has a problem starting.

Also refrigerant doesn't go bad or disappear; if the unit really needed another pound, the tech should have done a leak check.