I hopped out of bed bright and early this morning with no regard for the fact that I only slept 4 hours last night. Today, the cats and I drove back from Nacogdoches to meet the A/C guy and get the summer from hell over with. I left town in tears and in a hurry last Friday. I was in tears simply due to the frustration at being told that it could be a full week before I got my new A/C compressor. I guess I should start at the beginning.
First of all, on June 26th, my air conditioner went out. I have a home warranty. So, I called 1st American, the home warranty company. They sent someone out on the 27th. He replaced a wire in the compressor and added some Freon. Then a few days later, it stopped cooling again, so I called them back. They sent another man from the same A/C company out. He also added Freon and said the problem was that my compressor was dirty even though I clean it twice a year. He showed me where some leaves had built up around the base and said that a chemical cleaning would cost $135 and the warranty company didn't cover that. I told him to clean it. He couldn't do that until the next day. So, on Saturday, he cleaned the compressor. While he was here on Friday, I expressed concern that Freon had been added twice in 3 days and that seemed excessive to me. I suggested that if it was necessary to add Freon that often, perhaps something should be done about the leak I apparently had. He said that the previous guy (from his own company) probably just said he added Freon and didn't really do it. That gave me a warm fuzzy.....
So, then I went out of town on the following Tuesday for the 4th of July. When I returned on July 5th, my house was hot, the A/C was running full blast and the coil which is located upstairs in a closet had leaked profusely through my kitchen ceiling. I called 1st American back and insisted that they send someone from a reputable company this time. That was on a Thursday. They finally got someone here on Sunday. (Maybe they were having trouble locating a "reputable" air conditioning company.) He said the coil needed to be replaced and left. The following Monday evening, Benito "the Magnificent" arrived. He tried to install the new coil in the closet upstairs but was unable to even get the old one out since he was alone and the furnace had to be removed in order to get to the A/C unit. So, the next day he came back and brought.... are you ready for this???? He brought his 16 year old son, Juan to help him. Benito and Juan, took the old unit out and replaced it with a new coil that is bigger and much better than the old one. It is a R410A system. That meant nothing to me a few weeks ago. Now it means a lot!
So, that worked like you cannot begin to imagine until last Wednesday night. I noticed a few days earlier that the new unit seemed to be working harder than just after Benito finished. But on Wednesday night as I slept the temperature in the house crept up and up and up until it was in the low 80's on Thursday morning. So, Thursday, I called 1st American yet again. I might not have been as nice as usual on that occasion. Someone from Lumart (Benito's company) was here within 3 hours. After a few hours, he finally figured out that now the compressor had gone out and needed to be replaced. I asked how long he thought it would take to get a new one. He said that given the circumstances he was certain they would put a rush on it and have it within a day or two.
On Friday at lunchtime, I still had not gotten a call back from anyone. So, I called Lumart, they said they had notified 1st American the day before and were waiting for a PO for the new compressor. I called 1st American and was told that they had the work order but were having trouble "locating a compressor like my old one". I asked how long this could take. That is when I started to cry. She told me that it could take a week. So, I hung up the phone, called my dad and he said to put the cats in the car and come to Nacogdoches.
Jingle and Shiner liked being at their Nana and Papa's house except on the one occasion in which Mom and Dad's giant cat, Regis came in the house to eat and I forgot that he was in the house and left the bedroom door open. Then Jingle came out of the bedroom and he and Regis had a very UGLY encounter. Regis may have thought Jingle was his supper, I'm not sure.... That wasn't all that pleasant. But beyond that, it was a nice little vacation for them. I called both Lumart and 1st American each day while I was there to check in on the progress. Monday Lumart called and said that 1st American had finally sent them a PO for the new unit and it was for an R22. It turns out the reason they were having so much trouble locating a new unit like my old one was that R22 systems are being phased out due to a new law that has to do with Freon. So, they were trying to get me the old outdated obsolete one so that it would be exactly like my old one. Well, my new coil in the house is the new updated R410A system which requires the updated compressor. So, Lumart asked that I call 1st American and tell them that they had gotten the wrong system. So, finally yesterday after a very long talk with a supervisor at 1st American and him talking to his boss and calling Lumart, 1st American got the correct system ordered.
Benito is currently working on installing it. The new compressor is beautiful! He says that I won't believe how much more efficient it is. As it is, since I haven't used much air conditioning this summer, my electric bill has been very reasonable. Of course, it has been hotter than hell in my house. The nice thing is that if you can stay hydrated tears and sweat cool your body quite nicely. Tomorrow, I will hopefully be bragging to you about how great life is when you have a totally new A/C unit both indoors and out! Have a great afternoon!
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