This is unbelievable. It’s so unbelievable that I asked the homeowner if she was making it up. Well… I didn’t put it that way. I asked if she was exaggerating. She insisted she wasn’t. I’m not actually that surprised. We are talking about the infamous Heroic Heating & Air after all. They’re the biggest and baddest contractor in the whole dang town. I follow behind their rascally repairmen on a regular basis.
In this case Heroic’s repairman told the homeowner she needed to replace both the furnace and the air conditioner. The furnace is twenty years old. It could go another ten without too much trouble. The air conditioner is only four years old. It could go another twenty! The SF Bay Area has fairly mild weather, so our HVAC systems last longer than most.
His unbelievable reason for his unbelievable recommendation? The fan motors (pictured below) leaked a little oil. Leaking oil happens. If it gets bad enough and causes the motor to fail, you just replace the motor. Buying a new furnace because of a little oil leak makes as much sense as buying a new car because of a little oil leak. The homeowner suspected as much and gave me a call.
Click the first picture to open the gallery and see the descriptions.
The motors are fine. The air conditioner was not fine in that it had too much refrigerant. Ach Tune Air should’ve taken care of that when they installed it. Heroic should’ve done the same during the tune-up. Ah yes… I almost forgot. The reason Heroic was there to begin with was to perform their so-called tune-up. They failed to tune the refrigerant. They also failed to tighten loose caps and catch a weak capacitor.
If you’ve read this blog before then you’re not that surprised either. The words “tune-up special” have become synonymous with “ham-fisted sales pitch”. Heroic’s multimillionaire mogul and his many minions have been making that pitch for decades. Both his current and former companies are famous for their un-believable antics. As Ned Nederlander would say, they’re so famous that they’re in famous.