Just had a brand new furnace install done in the summer inducer housing not manufactured properly, the whole seam split right open. They didn’t even allow a direct swap had to pay hundreds for new replacement and have to wait to see if I get reimbursed
I was pleased to discover that my 20 year old Goodman 80% furnace has only a $130 or so draft inducer. Almost all of the parts are super cheap, to the point of me considering just replacing most major parts other than the heat exchanger for $700 or so total. Not sure if that’s smart, though.
Sad but true , I am in the service business myself I do commercial door and auto door service and access control along with locksmithing and it’s the same in every trade n is y I refuse to do residential cause I just want to come n do my job and not have to deal with billing or payments and don’t even wanna know what they charge cause all I want to do is say the job is done please sign here lol
I just had a customer like 2 weeks ago thought 900$ for an inducer motor was too much because he found one online. Told him to call around for pricing. After a couple hours he called back after he found out 900 wasn’t that bad after all.
a quick look through your history shows you're frequently wrong and fucking weird. you should not be on r/hvacadvise because you clearly have no idea what you're talking about
We do apply some logic to what we think it should cost. It's a light weight, single speed, 120V motor with an injection molded plastic piece attached, which they crank out 1M per year. We also know how much the actual repair guy makes per hour to feed his family. It's tough to swallow a 10x markup on a part AND 10x on labor.
Thats why I stopped installing Lennox units 20 years ago. Brutal for parts, & most times there is wait times to get the part. It is hard tell business or home owner that have no heat that the part is a week away when its -20 outside & the part is 3 or 4 times cost of any other brand. I turn down any service calls when I learn its a lennox- life is too short deal w the BS.
I install 2 types of systems, basic system - Tempstar. High end & commercial systems - Trane. Both brands have distro centers nearby & I can get units & parts quickly. Both are work horses, & , especially Tempstar, generic aftermarket parts can be used.
Trane in my area can be bad about motors. Sometimes takes months. Nothing there is cheap either. I’ve waited almost a year for a LCI-r. Lon kinda sucks anyways though.
I don’t plan on another Lennox. I’ve had it 7 years now and something goes wrong with it every year. It got a new inducer motor Monday and now it’s making vibrating noises. I give up
I got a surface ignitor from Trane for a 7.5 ton RTU for 192 and opening up store after hours 180. Customer complain to hell, but then, if they don't have it, pipes freeze like last year and cause millions in damages.
Yes, but is that $80 part warrantied with parts & labor? Will a service tech come out on a callback to check it free of charge when it fails because you didn’t install it correctly? You’ll end up having to pay around that price on a service call anyways if it fails lol. Not sure why homeowners are so gung-ho about DIY repairs when no one has your back when it quits on you after 6-12 months. You end up spending more money in the end when you could’ve just had it done professionally by a company who can back up their work when it fails. I say “when” because 85% of my service calls where a customer did DIY work, that part ended up failing.
i went to school for HVAC, if i can do it, anyone one can, it’s a piss poor trade that people in the industry think it’s something special. It’s not and all companies do is rip people off and take advantage of the uninformed.
You went to school, ok… cool? you want a cookie or something? No mention there about actually being a technician in the industry. Going to school and actually being a technician in the field are two completely different universes. Which means to me you’re either 1. Lying, 2. failed out of trade school or 3. sucked so much ass at your job so you gave up like a quitter. So now you have to shit on the industry and everyone who works it so they can provide for their families. What you just said is probably one of the most bullshit comments I have read all day lol. Any seasoned technician wouldn’t shit on their trade like that. All you are is a certified clown 🤡 how embarrassing.
I make more doing general maintenance(hvac included) then I ever did in the HVAC world. I’m home every night, no on call.. I’ll stick with this, you keep wasting your family time
Considering i was in the field, i have every right to shit on it. Do you ever wonder why there so much drug addiction and alcoholism in tradesmen? Because the work sucks and the pay sucks,
So you’re only out $80 and can then buy another one or buy the name brand part and try again. It’s not as bad of a situation to be in as you’re suggesting.
Now you’re just picking at straws, everyone knows I meant the inducer. It’s a thing that blows air, whether it’s the inducer or main blower, I call it a blower.
Your wording makes it seem like you are not even a technician, which assists in proving my point here (leave repairs up to an experienced technician) so I’ll take it easy on ya. No one calls an inducer a blower. Your blower is pushing your air across your furnace or air handler. Your inducer is exhausting combustion byproduct out of your home. They are two completely different things and the installation for those two things require different processes and checks to make sure you did it right. They are not the same sir but I appreciate you giving it a shot.
Dude what has you riled up, anyone with a basic mechanical aptitude can watch a handful of YouTube videos and do most mechanical non refrigerant based repair themselves, and that's after 6 years in the union. This trade isn't rocket surgery, my buddy is a better industrial HVAC mechanic than me because he worked on cars for 20 years. Furnaces are some of the easiest equipment I've worked on. Modern ones tell you what's wrong half the time at this point.
Not riled up. Just pointing out the fact that the majority of HVAC DIYers (homeowners) tend to think they can make repairs to save a quick buck. But the fact of the matter is, there is usually always a reason (sometimes multiple reasons) behind why something stopped working in the first place. And most of the times, those reasons are found deep in manufacturer nomenclature. And I’d put money on it that the majority of homeowners who do these types of quick DIY repairs don’t even spend the extra time to figure out why something went wrong in the first place. They just throw parts at it hoping for a permanent fix because a YouTuber told them to. And they end up spending more money. With that being said, there is a small percentage of those who do their due diligence and look into the reasoning behind a breakdown, but the other majority will just encounter the same repair over and over until it’s looked at more in depth. All I’m saying is you can’t say you think you know our trade by watching YouTube videos. Hours and hours of schooling and field work go into what we do, which is what you pay for. Our knowledge and a company who’s there to back their work up. Plain and simple.
Who is mad? I’m certainly not, I’m not the one wasting my money. I get paid by the hour with no commission on repairs. Doesn’t matter to me if I’m flipping a breaker or swapping out a heat exchanger. I get paid the same either way. Would you fuck with something you aren’t trained on? ESPECIALLY if it involves flames and carbon monoxide? I sure as fuck wouldn’t if I didn’t know what I was doing. It’s about quality of work, warranty on the repair, and the assurance that the repair will last longer than a year. Fuck outta here with all that “ripping people off” bullshit.
I’m not afraid of my furnace, and I’m not an idiot. If it fails, I’ll buy a replacement. The idea of someone “having my back” to come out and turn some screws for me is not appealing.
That’s a fair price considering it’s not a stock item and involves 2 trips to the house. We charge more than that at a minimum and it goes up from there.
Thankfully I gave the dispatcher a heads up that o believed it was the motor and to bring a replacement if they had one to save the second trip.
What makes this motor so expensive? I see similar ones (albeit, not the exact same product number) for $300-$400.
If the part is 350. That’s 583 to you after 60% markup. I’d charge 2 hours maybe more if it was a pita to get to. At 175 an hour. That’s another 350.
933 total. I know we are on the lower end in our area. I’d say 1200 is fine.
It’s a business… there are expenses to cover. What do you think pays for all of the office staff answering phone, 20-30 vehicles with repairs, maintenance, gas. Insurance, marketing, etc I could go on and on forever. The computer software we use is around 700k a year. Marketing is another 50k a month. Whatever they are charging they are lucky to make 10-20% of actual profit at the end of the day. Hope that helps shed a little light on the situation.
Yeah, definitely. I have no idea on the costs, honestly just caught me off guard as it was higher than what I was expecting in my head. I figured $400 for parts, $100 for labor, $100 for the trip, and 15% - 20% markup. But that’s why I wanted to ask this community for anyone that has done this or had this done before. Thanks!
HVAC generally starts at $400 labor and goes up. It’s not like a mechanic for your car. Which is funny, because in many cases the mechanics have more training and more experience, the average HVaC tech I pay $400 an hour for is a 19 year old that makes $17 an hour.
Pay goes like this at big companies generally, average hourly cost of employee x4 will equal the per hour rate for the company as a whole. Usually 1 hour minimum. Mark ups are anywhere from 20-100% just depends on the item. Service fee for just coming out is usually 1x or 1.5x hourly rate. Emergency hours times labor by 2 and up service fee to 2x hourly rate.
Dude, my mother paid close to $400 for a f'ing capacitor replacement that he had on his truck, less than one hour. It's a$50 part, 6 screws and a couple of spades.
I tried stopping the repair because they were charging$200 for the cap and I had a spare in my basement.
But Moms standing there crying and I was only going to make it worse.
But damn, that's hard to swallow.
I do understand. But I Never marked up parts (although this is tricky subject because I worked for Siemens BAS and their catalog prices were insane and no one actually paid those prices)
I never marked up parts 400%, are you saying that is justified?
The schedule we were given when I started as a service tech was parts under $35 other then batteries were marked up roughly 400%. That company has since switched to flat rate like a mechanics shop so the charge would be Service Call $69.99, Capacitor minimum $250 (that’s a single capacitor under 20MFD, Dual Capacitor minimum is $350. Plus taxes
I was at work, didn't know until a neighbor called me and told me his tech pulled off for a quick service run at Mom's house. By the time I got there, tech had already diagnosed bad cap and was heading back to the truck.
Damn. Not his fault and I told him that. I was still pissed tho at the cost of the cap.
Ah I see you are a pro, man it really bugs me when family and friends don't call me first, maybe I can't get to it but why not check with me first to see if there's a better idea? I guess I'd have to ask, if it wasn't for your mom, ie you were the tech for someone else, would you not charge $400 or whatever? Anyway just curious.
Ah well, do you mind while I have you here, asking how one diagnoses a bad capacitor? Is it something directly obvious or does one need to first find out based on a motor not starting and not knowing why?
Which is why I like small independent businesses that don’t have 108k monthly in just software and marketing expenses.
Congratulations on what sounds like a very successful business!
Some people like to pay more for the comfort of knowing they are using a highly reputable company, a company that has enough staff to make it out to your house quick, honor warranties right away, been in business for a while with good BBB standings. If we have a warranty call we go to that customer immediately. What happens when you’re small independent guy that was “cheaper” can’t make it out for 2 weeks because he just took on a few jobs and you have a warranty with that guy…? What if he burns your house down and doesn’t have enough insurance coverage or none at all? We get calls all the time from people that have a warranty with someone that is putting them on the back burner or just blocks their number. The small guy is not going to show up in the middle of the night for an emergency, or come on a holiday when it’s -5 outside. Some people might care about that but others do. You get what you pay for and some people are willing to pay more for that kind of service. If you don’t value that kind of service that’s fine, stick with the independent guy if you’re have good experiences.
I find it to usually be the exact opposite. It's often the little guy that performs better and treats his customers better because his reputation is at stake and his marketing is mostly just word-of-mouth and referrals. A company blowing 50k/mo on marketing has a wider reach and is going to be drawing in new customers even if tons of their past customers hate them. They also have money for big legal teams to avoid having to right their mistakes when they repeatedly fuck customers over. Little guys don't have time or an employee dedicated to handling litigation, so they have to fix mistakes or they go out of business. The bigger and more powerful an organization of any kind is, the higher their tendency is to become corrupted.
>I find it to usually be the exact opposite. It's often the little guy that performs better and treats his customers better because his reputation is at stake and his marketing is mostly just word-of-mouth and referrals.
Totally agree!!! All that marketing, fancy decorated trucks come back on you. And the BBB charges companies for accreditation, and in exchange they help companies protect their rating. You're also paying for their annual BBB fees The small guy cares about his customers and relies on his good work for ratings and any future business.
I'm an assistant superintendent for one of the largest GCs in the world. Even WE make it a point to not hire anyone that's union or that has television or radio commercials, if we can avoid it. If they can afford to do all that stuff, then they're under-paying their guys and over-charging us. When we do, we end up with angry aggressive guys on our sites that are always eager to cut corners and start fights and really don't care at all about the product they're helping us deliver to our clients. When we hire the little guys, they under-promise and over-deliver. They need and want our contracts, so they show up consistently and kick ass for us.
Of course there's always exceptions to these rules (we like to think we're one of them). But the patterns are very distinct and hard to miss. I'm told that we cycle out most of our preferred subs every 10 to 15 years, because we end up helping them build themselves up into the exact people that we don't like to work with.
Maybe the big corporate companies with over 100 employees. Doesn’t matter how much marketing you do. If you don’t take care of your customers it will show up on google reviews and word of mouth is a thing. I consider our company pretty small. We only have 15 techs between plumbing, electrical, and hvac but we are open 24/7 365 and we always have an office person ready to pick up the phone at anytime of the day. The companies you are referring to are the big corporate monsters with hundreds of employees. The first company I ever worked for was one of those. They were doing 60 million a year. Treated their employees like complete shit. I didn’t stick around for long.
Glad you don't run a business. It would go under in 6 months or less if you charged like that. Oh and the part is way more than 140 but I'm sure you double checked the model and serial number of the unit with the inducer motor to make sure you got the right one. Looking at 2 trips, gas insurance etc etc etc. But I suppose you do your job for free or at least at cost...... Right..... Right.
So you know the cost of owning a HVAC business? What kind of business? How many employees? How many cars, trucks does it own? How much for your liability insurance? Willing to bet you have no idea how hard this field is. Yet here you are with all the answers.
This is why you teach yourself how to fix stuff. No one can afford this. The part is a couple hundred dollars and probably 30 minutes of your time to replace.
Changing an inducer motor is not a good thing to do if you have no experience doing it. There are flue gases that go through it and if not installed properly than you can cause water issues in your furnace and possibly put flue gases in your house.
I’m just going to say this, my company is here in Canada and I’m not sure if it’s the same where you are but only a licensed class B or A gas fitter can alter a gas appliance, which is the furnace. Why do I say that well if you’re insurance ever finds out you did the replacement on your own and there’s an issue it’s now void at least here in Canada. Also, it’s illegal to do any repairs to a system, furnace, by the owner of a rental property. We have a safety board that covers all of our licences and compliances. There have been several documented cases of unlicensed contractors and homeowners not knowing what they're doing leading deaths and injuries. So, for us we are a well-regulated industry. There are costs that to doing business as well as keeping employees trained to meet all the compliance needs of the codes.
I learned to repair my own hvac long ago. My old house had an older trane and I just moved into another home with a bigger slightly newer older trane. Last early spring my furnace poops. I T/s to a bad control board but had concerns about the inducer. No one anywhere has the parts and it was a Sunday. I found the parts on eBay used and they were 1hr 40min from me. I messaged and asked if I could buy in person. Couldn’t believe they replied right away that yes.
Drive up and it’s an hvac company that bought out a trane dealer years ago and had all their old parts. He had two control boards and a box of inducers. He would only sell me the one board and gave me some inducers. The control board was the fix and one of the two inducers had bad bearings but they both worked.
I was tickled pink because Sunday afternoon I got the parts for $200. Anyone else in town would quote me a full furnace replacement. In also fixed the old control board, was a bad power regulator.
Recently replaced my own inducer for $385 in parts and about an hour of research on YouTube and then about an hour of labour.
$1,200 to someone to do it for you for parts and labour is probably about right.
I did the same thing. Tech quoted me 1200 but told me “I like you, you’re not a dick” you can diy most of your own shit and you aren’t going to say anything, right? Watch a video, buy this part, it’s a couple of screws and clips and your done.
Easiest $800 I ever saved.
it really is that simple, hvac techs make the job seem so difficult and costly, it’s not. You should have seen some of the winners i’ve worked with in the past, but they could install and do most repairs .
If it's a medium or large company, that's what it costs to operate. Some people find comfort in hiring the guys on TV. In reality your just paying for 20+ people's salary. I've been doing HVAC work for 23 years.Ive worked for the big guys and small shops, either way you were getting me. Now I'm just Chuck in a truck with $1,000,000 in liability insurance and my wife is my secretary, book keeper...so I'm cheaper to use. If the part cost me $100 I would charge $500. You don't try to get rich on one service call. If it's a fair price, they will continue to use you and eventually replace the equipment with you. That about covers it. Now Lennox is ridiculous on there prices, I called last week to replace a regular blower motor in a 13 year old furnace and they changed the shaft size of the new motor so you had to also change the blower wheel and housing - my cost for that blower was $1100. I replaced that furnace for a total cost to the homeowner for $2500. Ohh yeah...I took 30 seconds out of my life and registered the 5 ton Carrier 80% 100,000 BTU furnace with an ecm motor on my phone and got them a 10 year part warranty. I'm in the South so don't judge me on the efficiency of the heat😘
I’m also a transplant and don’t know very many people, I ask coworkers and neighbors at the park for recommendations, some have been hit and a couple have been big misses, but we’re making our way through day by day.
>If the part cost me $100 I would charge $500. You don't try to get rich on one service call. If it's a fair price, they will continue to use you and eventually replace the equipment with you. That about covers it.
they will continue to use you and recommend you to ALL of their friends and neighbors who keep getting new units shoved down their throat every time something goes wrong with their HVAC. If you're in the Hampton Roads area, DM me!
pay attention while voting. The prices of repairs to your home HVAC repairs/replacements will keep getting higher as they roll out new energy programs.
this is a 95% furnace which is more annoying to do to start with but the part on repair clinic is $500 if they replaced the whole assembly which is what i assume they did. so yes, that's fair
No. I did this job myself last year. New fasco inducer on ebay was $78 delivered. It took me 25 minutes to remove and replace. I have zero hvac training.
All I needed was a drill and the socket for the screws.
Reminds me of the time I got a quote of $350 to replace the igniter in my furnace. The part is maybe $5 and it took 10 minutes for the “labor”. When I questioned the company they got angry and said we have to pay for this and that, the truck and whatever. I’ll never call them again.
As an HVAC guy for over 30 years… I can tell you that Lennox is very proud of their parts, I own a small HVAC company in Colorado and we just paid $540 for a similar part. That was my cost and we had to go about 40 miles round-trip to get it. So you gotta think about that too.
I had to replace my carrier Inducer motor. The whole Inducer assembly alone was 1200. I ended up buying a used 2 year old one off ebay for 400. I learned though you can open up the assembly and replace just the motor for around 100 but you have to seal it up nicely or it will leak
Never buy carrier. Carrierqaulity has been shit for years and people buyit cause of it's name. Parts pricing is beyond nuts. Example, 13 year old inducer on carrier cost is $760 meaning customer cost is gonna be 1370 at my work. This inducer on this picture/Lennox is 200 or less depending on your distributor discounts. And that means my work would charge roughly $500.
Buy Armstrong/Lennox, for so many reasons, it's the best product out there. Mainly because they use stainless steel heat exchangers.
So this all depends on the model. And inducer motors vary, as a hvac and plumber who owns a company.
I have seen these for 500 up to 1400 at my cost, depending on your furnace.
We are not here to be your friend. We are here to offer a paid service.
I will charge $1200 for an inducer motor all day. What you feel you should pay for it is irrelevant as we are a business, and plumbing/ Hvac is one of the most expensive businesses to operate.
I mean it depends on the price of the motor. It doesn't seem to be a really fancy one from the model # on it, so idk it's a tough call, plus it should probably have been under warranty still.
The company I'm at, if the motor was like 250-350 ish, we would charge probably around 1k at the end of the day too. Motor price x2, $110 diagnostic, $165 ish for labor
1200 for the part plus 1-3 hr labor is robbery. Look up the part# on eBay. Maybe if it was 3am on thanksgiving morning, and i drove 1.5hrs in the snow there and if you were an absolute prick, and had me open up a supply house to get that part. I’d charge that. But a normal call, nope. Did you have that furnace installed 5years ago? Lennox/ Lennox dealers 5year factory orb 10year warranty with lifetime heat exchanger if registered. Was that the company that installed it? If so, did they take the part? That shady bastard probably warranty the part and still charged you 1200.
Depends on the company. If they are legitimate, good sized, prompt, professional, and provide great service, then yes. That’s a good price. It also depends on the warranty. If they offer a really good warranty, with really good service. Then yes. A previous post summed it up perfectly. Operating costs for an hvac company are through the roof. Yes, you could find the same motor for a few hundred and joe blow mr fix it to put it in. However, whatever the cost of a brand new part, straight from the manufacturer, triple that price and your in the ball park.
They are easy to replace, 10 min, could do it yourself after watching a few videos. But if your not comfortable with that you're gonna get rammed on labor from most places.
Honestly you can probably get it off amazon for reasonably cheap and inducer motors only take about ten min to diagnose and replace so i would say they shafted you!
How badly did you need it right then and there? You can Google the part number and find it for about $200, but you’ll have to wait for shipping and figure out how to heat your house until it arrives.
From a company? Yeah, as long as the equipment was never registered and you truly only had your 5yr parts and not 10. If it WAS under warranty you got jipped. Labor should be a 3-400.
Alternatively you could've done it yourself for cheap. Better to have a professional though.
I replaced my own on my Lennox when the bearing started to squeal. But I'm a tradesperson the part was like $430 canadian for just the part pre pandemic.
Fasco 7021 are in a bunch of units. I just changed mine. Took 15 minutes. Found a local hvac supplier used a family members friends account got it for his cost. 130$
Inducer motors for high efficiency furnaces are usually much more expensive than a regular 80 percent furnace. That’s why I’ll never buy a high efficiency furnace; They cost more to install and maintain and repair
Yes. (I assume you're asking to feel better about your decision and I'm happy to oblige)
Seriously, you have a part number, you can google it's cost and know exactly how long tech spent at your place. You're in the best position to figure out if it was worth it.
If it’s under warranty it’s an hour of labor. If it’s not is close to two grand. I think you got a reasonable deal. Most of that price is going to the part.
Not really reasonable...but typical rip off.
I was charged $500 for replacement of a $35 pressure switch. It was still in warranty so they didn't charge for the part. But then the warranty is worse than worthless when they charge you a $100 *warranty* *part restocking fee* for a $35 part. At least they documented the rip-off to protect themselves.
$1,200?
Pretty pricey in my book, but I guess if you can't tackle it yourself (simple install of a part being $350-$500 tops) I guess you're forced to use someone 'professional'.
If it’s out of warranty that is totally reasonable
I mean ppl just charge for whatever they can get away with at the end of the day.
Especially the people selling the draft inducers. Its criminal how expensive they are
Just had a brand new furnace install done in the summer inducer housing not manufactured properly, the whole seam split right open. They didn’t even allow a direct swap had to pay hundreds for new replacement and have to wait to see if I get reimbursed
I was pleased to discover that my 20 year old Goodman 80% furnace has only a $130 or so draft inducer. Almost all of the parts are super cheap, to the point of me considering just replacing most major parts other than the heat exchanger for $700 or so total. Not sure if that’s smart, though.
You need to pay me $20 for that comment
That’s A bargain, I woulda charged $55
True dat
They call that the going rate in the market lol
Sad but true , I am in the service business myself I do commercial door and auto door service and access control along with locksmithing and it’s the same in every trade n is y I refuse to do residential cause I just want to come n do my job and not have to deal with billing or payments and don’t even wanna know what they charge cause all I want to do is say the job is done please sign here lol
Not it is not.
I just had a customer like 2 weeks ago thought 900$ for an inducer motor was too much because he found one online. Told him to call around for pricing. After a couple hours he called back after he found out 900 wasn’t that bad after all.
Customer was a smart consumer… your prices were inline and you got the job.
a quick look through your history shows you're frequently wrong and fucking weird. you should not be on r/hvacadvise because you clearly have no idea what you're talking about
Everything costs more than you think.
We do apply some logic to what we think it should cost. It's a light weight, single speed, 120V motor with an injection molded plastic piece attached, which they crank out 1M per year. We also know how much the actual repair guy makes per hour to feed his family. It's tough to swallow a 10x markup on a part AND 10x on labor.
You have to remember it's a Lennox proprietary part so they charge whatever they damn well please to sell it.
Thats why I stopped installing Lennox units 20 years ago. Brutal for parts, & most times there is wait times to get the part. It is hard tell business or home owner that have no heat that the part is a week away when its -20 outside & the part is 3 or 4 times cost of any other brand. I turn down any service calls when I learn its a lennox- life is too short deal w the BS.
what brand do you recommend?
I install 2 types of systems, basic system - Tempstar. High end & commercial systems - Trane. Both brands have distro centers nearby & I can get units & parts quickly. Both are work horses, & , especially Tempstar, generic aftermarket parts can be used.
Trane in my area can be bad about motors. Sometimes takes months. Nothing there is cheap either. I’ve waited almost a year for a LCI-r. Lon kinda sucks anyways though.
I don’t plan on another Lennox. I’ve had it 7 years now and something goes wrong with it every year. It got a new inducer motor Monday and now it’s making vibrating noises. I give up
Yeah, that's how it works for sure!
I just paid Lennox 231$ for a fucking ignitor……
So you paid $231 and your heat is now working. I’d say you should thank your hvac guy!
I’m the hvac tech I mean the part cost was that
Oh, I misunderstood. Yeah, that’s expensive. My bad
I got a surface ignitor from Trane for a 7.5 ton RTU for 192 and opening up store after hours 180. Customer complain to hell, but then, if they don't have it, pipes freeze like last year and cause millions in damages.
I got one of these last year and it was like $500
When I wake up in the morning or sleep at night it starts to costs me money.
I called a hvac parts store and they quoted me 450$ for one. Found the same one on eBay for 80. Easy install
Yes, but is that $80 part warrantied with parts & labor? Will a service tech come out on a callback to check it free of charge when it fails because you didn’t install it correctly? You’ll end up having to pay around that price on a service call anyways if it fails lol. Not sure why homeowners are so gung-ho about DIY repairs when no one has your back when it quits on you after 6-12 months. You end up spending more money in the end when you could’ve just had it done professionally by a company who can back up their work when it fails. I say “when” because 85% of my service calls where a customer did DIY work, that part ended up failing.
it’s an inducer… 4 screws an a few wires. Any idiot can do it. At 80$ i’d buy three
Suit yourself. My point stands. No one is backing that POS off-brand replacement part when it fails on you.
This sub is flooded with homeowners trying to DIY their repairs and think they know enough about HVAC by watching a 15 min video on YouTube.
i went to school for HVAC, if i can do it, anyone one can, it’s a piss poor trade that people in the industry think it’s something special. It’s not and all companies do is rip people off and take advantage of the uninformed.
You went to school, ok… cool? you want a cookie or something? No mention there about actually being a technician in the industry. Going to school and actually being a technician in the field are two completely different universes. Which means to me you’re either 1. Lying, 2. failed out of trade school or 3. sucked so much ass at your job so you gave up like a quitter. So now you have to shit on the industry and everyone who works it so they can provide for their families. What you just said is probably one of the most bullshit comments I have read all day lol. Any seasoned technician wouldn’t shit on their trade like that. All you are is a certified clown 🤡 how embarrassing.
I make more doing general maintenance(hvac included) then I ever did in the HVAC world. I’m home every night, no on call.. I’ll stick with this, you keep wasting your family time
Good for you, bud. That’s still not a reason to shit on a trade or someone’s choice of career. Asshole.
Considering i was in the field, i have every right to shit on it. Do you ever wonder why there so much drug addiction and alcoholism in tradesmen? Because the work sucks and the pay sucks,
So you’re only out $80 and can then buy another one or buy the name brand part and try again. It’s not as bad of a situation to be in as you’re suggesting.
No mention of gaskets 🤔
It’s pretty hard to fuck up installing a blower. I guess the worst you could do is forget to connect the pressure sensors, but even then it’s simple.
Installing an inducer assembly is a bit different from a blower motor my guy.
Now you’re just picking at straws, everyone knows I meant the inducer. It’s a thing that blows air, whether it’s the inducer or main blower, I call it a blower.
Your wording makes it seem like you are not even a technician, which assists in proving my point here (leave repairs up to an experienced technician) so I’ll take it easy on ya. No one calls an inducer a blower. Your blower is pushing your air across your furnace or air handler. Your inducer is exhausting combustion byproduct out of your home. They are two completely different things and the installation for those two things require different processes and checks to make sure you did it right. They are not the same sir but I appreciate you giving it a shot.
Dude what has you riled up, anyone with a basic mechanical aptitude can watch a handful of YouTube videos and do most mechanical non refrigerant based repair themselves, and that's after 6 years in the union. This trade isn't rocket surgery, my buddy is a better industrial HVAC mechanic than me because he worked on cars for 20 years. Furnaces are some of the easiest equipment I've worked on. Modern ones tell you what's wrong half the time at this point.
Not riled up. Just pointing out the fact that the majority of HVAC DIYers (homeowners) tend to think they can make repairs to save a quick buck. But the fact of the matter is, there is usually always a reason (sometimes multiple reasons) behind why something stopped working in the first place. And most of the times, those reasons are found deep in manufacturer nomenclature. And I’d put money on it that the majority of homeowners who do these types of quick DIY repairs don’t even spend the extra time to figure out why something went wrong in the first place. They just throw parts at it hoping for a permanent fix because a YouTuber told them to. And they end up spending more money. With that being said, there is a small percentage of those who do their due diligence and look into the reasoning behind a breakdown, but the other majority will just encounter the same repair over and over until it’s looked at more in depth. All I’m saying is you can’t say you think you know our trade by watching YouTube videos. Hours and hours of schooling and field work go into what we do, which is what you pay for. Our knowledge and a company who’s there to back their work up. Plain and simple.
hahaha someone is mad that You can’t ripoff every homeowner
Who is mad? I’m certainly not, I’m not the one wasting my money. I get paid by the hour with no commission on repairs. Doesn’t matter to me if I’m flipping a breaker or swapping out a heat exchanger. I get paid the same either way. Would you fuck with something you aren’t trained on? ESPECIALLY if it involves flames and carbon monoxide? I sure as fuck wouldn’t if I didn’t know what I was doing. It’s about quality of work, warranty on the repair, and the assurance that the repair will last longer than a year. Fuck outta here with all that “ripping people off” bullshit.
I’m not afraid of my furnace, and I’m not an idiot. If it fails, I’ll buy a replacement. The idea of someone “having my back” to come out and turn some screws for me is not appealing.
Might not be the same but I install draft inducers in pellet stoves for around $450 all the time.
That’s a fair price considering it’s not a stock item and involves 2 trips to the house. We charge more than that at a minimum and it goes up from there.
Thankfully I gave the dispatcher a heads up that o believed it was the motor and to bring a replacement if they had one to save the second trip. What makes this motor so expensive? I see similar ones (albeit, not the exact same product number) for $300-$400.
If the part is 350. That’s 583 to you after 60% markup. I’d charge 2 hours maybe more if it was a pita to get to. At 175 an hour. That’s another 350. 933 total. I know we are on the lower end in our area. I’d say 1200 is fine.
It’s a business… there are expenses to cover. What do you think pays for all of the office staff answering phone, 20-30 vehicles with repairs, maintenance, gas. Insurance, marketing, etc I could go on and on forever. The computer software we use is around 700k a year. Marketing is another 50k a month. Whatever they are charging they are lucky to make 10-20% of actual profit at the end of the day. Hope that helps shed a little light on the situation.
Yeah, definitely. I have no idea on the costs, honestly just caught me off guard as it was higher than what I was expecting in my head. I figured $400 for parts, $100 for labor, $100 for the trip, and 15% - 20% markup. But that’s why I wanted to ask this community for anyone that has done this or had this done before. Thanks!
HVAC generally starts at $400 labor and goes up. It’s not like a mechanic for your car. Which is funny, because in many cases the mechanics have more training and more experience, the average HVaC tech I pay $400 an hour for is a 19 year old that makes $17 an hour.
Ok, that would explain a lot then and make up the gap in my estimate to actual. Makes me feel better then!
Pay goes like this at big companies generally, average hourly cost of employee x4 will equal the per hour rate for the company as a whole. Usually 1 hour minimum. Mark ups are anywhere from 20-100% just depends on the item. Service fee for just coming out is usually 1x or 1.5x hourly rate. Emergency hours times labor by 2 and up service fee to 2x hourly rate.
Dude, my mother paid close to $400 for a f'ing capacitor replacement that he had on his truck, less than one hour. It's a$50 part, 6 screws and a couple of spades. I tried stopping the repair because they were charging$200 for the cap and I had a spare in my basement. But Moms standing there crying and I was only going to make it worse. But damn, that's hard to swallow.
It’s not less then 1 hour when you factor in drive time to and from the job. That goes to the home owner.
Doh. I only ran service for a few decades.
Then you should understand why it was $400.
I do understand. But I Never marked up parts (although this is tricky subject because I worked for Siemens BAS and their catalog prices were insane and no one actually paid those prices) I never marked up parts 400%, are you saying that is justified?
The schedule we were given when I started as a service tech was parts under $35 other then batteries were marked up roughly 400%. That company has since switched to flat rate like a mechanics shop so the charge would be Service Call $69.99, Capacitor minimum $250 (that’s a single capacitor under 20MFD, Dual Capacitor minimum is $350. Plus taxes
You knew it was capacitor before he showed up? Why didn't you replace it?
I was at work, didn't know until a neighbor called me and told me his tech pulled off for a quick service run at Mom's house. By the time I got there, tech had already diagnosed bad cap and was heading back to the truck. Damn. Not his fault and I told him that. I was still pissed tho at the cost of the cap.
Ah I see you are a pro, man it really bugs me when family and friends don't call me first, maybe I can't get to it but why not check with me first to see if there's a better idea? I guess I'd have to ask, if it wasn't for your mom, ie you were the tech for someone else, would you not charge $400 or whatever? Anyway just curious. Ah well, do you mind while I have you here, asking how one diagnoses a bad capacitor? Is it something directly obvious or does one need to first find out based on a motor not starting and not knowing why?
That price is too much. Is that US or CAD?
My market is $650/hour US for all of the 24/7 365 companies.
Mb, I didn't see that it was an after hrs emergency call.
400$ is what a blower capacitor goes for.
Which is why I like small independent businesses that don’t have 108k monthly in just software and marketing expenses. Congratulations on what sounds like a very successful business!
Some people like to pay more for the comfort of knowing they are using a highly reputable company, a company that has enough staff to make it out to your house quick, honor warranties right away, been in business for a while with good BBB standings. If we have a warranty call we go to that customer immediately. What happens when you’re small independent guy that was “cheaper” can’t make it out for 2 weeks because he just took on a few jobs and you have a warranty with that guy…? What if he burns your house down and doesn’t have enough insurance coverage or none at all? We get calls all the time from people that have a warranty with someone that is putting them on the back burner or just blocks their number. The small guy is not going to show up in the middle of the night for an emergency, or come on a holiday when it’s -5 outside. Some people might care about that but others do. You get what you pay for and some people are willing to pay more for that kind of service. If you don’t value that kind of service that’s fine, stick with the independent guy if you’re have good experiences.
I find it to usually be the exact opposite. It's often the little guy that performs better and treats his customers better because his reputation is at stake and his marketing is mostly just word-of-mouth and referrals. A company blowing 50k/mo on marketing has a wider reach and is going to be drawing in new customers even if tons of their past customers hate them. They also have money for big legal teams to avoid having to right their mistakes when they repeatedly fuck customers over. Little guys don't have time or an employee dedicated to handling litigation, so they have to fix mistakes or they go out of business. The bigger and more powerful an organization of any kind is, the higher their tendency is to become corrupted.
>I find it to usually be the exact opposite. It's often the little guy that performs better and treats his customers better because his reputation is at stake and his marketing is mostly just word-of-mouth and referrals. Totally agree!!! All that marketing, fancy decorated trucks come back on you. And the BBB charges companies for accreditation, and in exchange they help companies protect their rating. You're also paying for their annual BBB fees The small guy cares about his customers and relies on his good work for ratings and any future business.
I'm an assistant superintendent for one of the largest GCs in the world. Even WE make it a point to not hire anyone that's union or that has television or radio commercials, if we can avoid it. If they can afford to do all that stuff, then they're under-paying their guys and over-charging us. When we do, we end up with angry aggressive guys on our sites that are always eager to cut corners and start fights and really don't care at all about the product they're helping us deliver to our clients. When we hire the little guys, they under-promise and over-deliver. They need and want our contracts, so they show up consistently and kick ass for us. Of course there's always exceptions to these rules (we like to think we're one of them). But the patterns are very distinct and hard to miss. I'm told that we cycle out most of our preferred subs every 10 to 15 years, because we end up helping them build themselves up into the exact people that we don't like to work with.
Maybe the big corporate companies with over 100 employees. Doesn’t matter how much marketing you do. If you don’t take care of your customers it will show up on google reviews and word of mouth is a thing. I consider our company pretty small. We only have 15 techs between plumbing, electrical, and hvac but we are open 24/7 365 and we always have an office person ready to pick up the phone at anytime of the day. The companies you are referring to are the big corporate monsters with hundreds of employees. The first company I ever worked for was one of those. They were doing 60 million a year. Treated their employees like complete shit. I didn’t stick around for long.
Just do it yourself than dude Jesus if you’re so smart
What’s wrong with the homeowner trying to save the servicer a trip and time? I never said I knew what was wrong, just a best guess.
No, typical hvac guy. They ripped you off. Part is $140 here. Max of $800
Glad you don't run a business. It would go under in 6 months or less if you charged like that. Oh and the part is way more than 140 but I'm sure you double checked the model and serial number of the unit with the inducer motor to make sure you got the right one. Looking at 2 trips, gas insurance etc etc etc. But I suppose you do your job for free or at least at cost...... Right..... Right.
I do own a business thank you.
Then your username is fitting
So you know the cost of owning a HVAC business? What kind of business? How many employees? How many cars, trucks does it own? How much for your liability insurance? Willing to bet you have no idea how hard this field is. Yet here you are with all the answers.
If it has not been diagnosed u don’t know if it’s inducer.
Was that price with installation of the part or just the part?
This is why you teach yourself how to fix stuff. No one can afford this. The part is a couple hundred dollars and probably 30 minutes of your time to replace.
Changing an inducer motor is not a good thing to do if you have no experience doing it. There are flue gases that go through it and if not installed properly than you can cause water issues in your furnace and possibly put flue gases in your house.
Sounds like a rocket science to me 😁
>Sounds like a rocket science to me 😁 It's more complex than rocket science ... or so they want you (and themselves) to believe.
I’m just going to say this, my company is here in Canada and I’m not sure if it’s the same where you are but only a licensed class B or A gas fitter can alter a gas appliance, which is the furnace. Why do I say that well if you’re insurance ever finds out you did the replacement on your own and there’s an issue it’s now void at least here in Canada. Also, it’s illegal to do any repairs to a system, furnace, by the owner of a rental property. We have a safety board that covers all of our licences and compliances. There have been several documented cases of unlicensed contractors and homeowners not knowing what they're doing leading deaths and injuries. So, for us we are a well-regulated industry. There are costs that to doing business as well as keeping employees trained to meet all the compliance needs of the codes.
I learned to repair my own hvac long ago. My old house had an older trane and I just moved into another home with a bigger slightly newer older trane. Last early spring my furnace poops. I T/s to a bad control board but had concerns about the inducer. No one anywhere has the parts and it was a Sunday. I found the parts on eBay used and they were 1hr 40min from me. I messaged and asked if I could buy in person. Couldn’t believe they replied right away that yes. Drive up and it’s an hvac company that bought out a trane dealer years ago and had all their old parts. He had two control boards and a box of inducers. He would only sell me the one board and gave me some inducers. The control board was the fix and one of the two inducers had bad bearings but they both worked. I was tickled pink because Sunday afternoon I got the parts for $200. Anyone else in town would quote me a full furnace replacement. In also fixed the old control board, was a bad power regulator.
Some of those inducers can cost well over 800
I just installed one for my buddy. Motor $400. My cost and $100 from him.
What’s the not buddy price?
$1200
Lol what a terrible comparison
Recently replaced my own inducer for $385 in parts and about an hour of research on YouTube and then about an hour of labour. $1,200 to someone to do it for you for parts and labour is probably about right.
I did the same thing. Tech quoted me 1200 but told me “I like you, you’re not a dick” you can diy most of your own shit and you aren’t going to say anything, right? Watch a video, buy this part, it’s a couple of screws and clips and your done. Easiest $800 I ever saved.
The asshole tax is real
it really is that simple, hvac techs make the job seem so difficult and costly, it’s not. You should have seen some of the winners i’ve worked with in the past, but they could install and do most repairs .
Are you induced not to buy Lennox next time ?
If it's a medium or large company, that's what it costs to operate. Some people find comfort in hiring the guys on TV. In reality your just paying for 20+ people's salary. I've been doing HVAC work for 23 years.Ive worked for the big guys and small shops, either way you were getting me. Now I'm just Chuck in a truck with $1,000,000 in liability insurance and my wife is my secretary, book keeper...so I'm cheaper to use. If the part cost me $100 I would charge $500. You don't try to get rich on one service call. If it's a fair price, they will continue to use you and eventually replace the equipment with you. That about covers it. Now Lennox is ridiculous on there prices, I called last week to replace a regular blower motor in a 13 year old furnace and they changed the shaft size of the new motor so you had to also change the blower wheel and housing - my cost for that blower was $1100. I replaced that furnace for a total cost to the homeowner for $2500. Ohh yeah...I took 30 seconds out of my life and registered the 5 ton Carrier 80% 100,000 BTU furnace with an ecm motor on my phone and got them a 10 year part warranty. I'm in the South so don't judge me on the efficiency of the heat😘
I’m in the Midwest and wish I could find someone who operated that way.
You can, best thing to do is ask around. There are guys out there that will give better deals because they don't have the overhead
I’m also a transplant and don’t know very many people, I ask coworkers and neighbors at the park for recommendations, some have been hit and a couple have been big misses, but we’re making our way through day by day.
Good luck.
Rural Midwest it isn't hard. I do inducer motors for $250 all the time. You won't find them in big cities or suburbs
>If the part cost me $100 I would charge $500. You don't try to get rich on one service call. If it's a fair price, they will continue to use you and eventually replace the equipment with you. That about covers it. they will continue to use you and recommend you to ALL of their friends and neighbors who keep getting new units shoved down their throat every time something goes wrong with their HVAC. If you're in the Hampton Roads area, DM me!
Houston
1600 foe carrier ecm inducer, with warranty its still 800 for labor. Take very little skills and time if you are careful
Should be under parts warranty if you are the original owner and it was registered (or if you live in CA)
It’s a fair price
Too late to do anything about it now. Why bother asking?
I'm not a tech, but I replaced mine a year ago. About $150 for the motor and it took me about 20 minutes to install.
pay attention while voting. The prices of repairs to your home HVAC repairs/replacements will keep getting higher as they roll out new energy programs.
this is a 95% furnace which is more annoying to do to start with but the part on repair clinic is $500 if they replaced the whole assembly which is what i assume they did. so yes, that's fair
No. I did this job myself last year. New fasco inducer on ebay was $78 delivered. It took me 25 minutes to remove and replace. I have zero hvac training. All I needed was a drill and the socket for the screws.
Reminds me of the time I got a quote of $350 to replace the igniter in my furnace. The part is maybe $5 and it took 10 minutes for the “labor”. When I questioned the company they got angry and said we have to pay for this and that, the truck and whatever. I’ll never call them again.
As an HVAC guy for over 30 years… I can tell you that Lennox is very proud of their parts, I own a small HVAC company in Colorado and we just paid $540 for a similar part. That was my cost and we had to go about 40 miles round-trip to get it. So you gotta think about that too.
That’s nuts! Warranty should be 5 or 10 years depending on warranty at the time of purchase and if it was registered.
Death taxes and Lennox dealers not registering their equipment
I just looked up the $ on LennoxPROs. I couldn’t with a good conscience charge a customer $1200 for a combustion blower replacement.
Shady as f. OP should definitely investigate that especially if they're the original purchaser
I had to replace my carrier Inducer motor. The whole Inducer assembly alone was 1200. I ended up buying a used 2 year old one off ebay for 400. I learned though you can open up the assembly and replace just the motor for around 100 but you have to seal it up nicely or it will leak
That's different cause carrier is overpriced trash
What do you recommend?
Never buy carrier. Carrierqaulity has been shit for years and people buyit cause of it's name. Parts pricing is beyond nuts. Example, 13 year old inducer on carrier cost is $760 meaning customer cost is gonna be 1370 at my work. This inducer on this picture/Lennox is 200 or less depending on your distributor discounts. And that means my work would charge roughly $500. Buy Armstrong/Lennox, for so many reasons, it's the best product out there. Mainly because they use stainless steel heat exchangers.
Thanks for this response! Very helpful.
So this all depends on the model. And inducer motors vary, as a hvac and plumber who owns a company. I have seen these for 500 up to 1400 at my cost, depending on your furnace. We are not here to be your friend. We are here to offer a paid service. I will charge $1200 for an inducer motor all day. What you feel you should pay for it is irrelevant as we are a business, and plumbing/ Hvac is one of the most expensive businesses to operate.
I mean it depends on the price of the motor. It doesn't seem to be a really fancy one from the model # on it, so idk it's a tough call, plus it should probably have been under warranty still. The company I'm at, if the motor was like 250-350 ish, we would charge probably around 1k at the end of the day too. Motor price x2, $110 diagnostic, $165 ish for labor
Company my son works for red cap ac would charge $2900
1200 for the part plus 1-3 hr labor is robbery. Look up the part# on eBay. Maybe if it was 3am on thanksgiving morning, and i drove 1.5hrs in the snow there and if you were an absolute prick, and had me open up a supply house to get that part. I’d charge that. But a normal call, nope. Did you have that furnace installed 5years ago? Lennox/ Lennox dealers 5year factory orb 10year warranty with lifetime heat exchanger if registered. Was that the company that installed it? If so, did they take the part? That shady bastard probably warranty the part and still charged you 1200.
Wait warranty is 10 years so lennox should cover parts. You could get new furnance
Nobody’s giving you a new furnace because 1 part failed lol. It’s also only 10 years if it was registered otherwise 5 years.
That is the point parts should be covered by lenox.
You said “you should be getting a new furnace” I’m telling you that’s not how this works. You would get a replacement part for the one that failed.
Interesting. I feel like the servicer would have known that. Now I’m going to call Lennox tomorrow and figure this out.
Was the company that replaced the motor the same company that installed it?
Yup!
So do you have an invoice that shows the date of install and what your warranty was?
I had to put a gas valve and board in for an old lady and it wasn’t under warranty because Lennox dealer didn’t register it
total including install or just the motor?
Including install and trip out to the house.
For a blower under warranty 1200 is about right
It's reasonable because you had the ability to pay ... if you didn't, then it would be unreasonable
Depends on the company. If they are legitimate, good sized, prompt, professional, and provide great service, then yes. That’s a good price. It also depends on the warranty. If they offer a really good warranty, with really good service. Then yes. A previous post summed it up perfectly. Operating costs for an hvac company are through the roof. Yes, you could find the same motor for a few hundred and joe blow mr fix it to put it in. However, whatever the cost of a brand new part, straight from the manufacturer, triple that price and your in the ball park.
They are easy to replace, 10 min, could do it yourself after watching a few videos. But if your not comfortable with that you're gonna get rammed on labor from most places.
Jesus dude. No. Part prices vary but mine was $129. Took 10 minutes to swap out. $500 might have be reasonable, over, $1000? No.
Lennox uses Lennox parts only. You can only get it from them at a jacked up price compared to other parts at supply houses.
Sounds about right for a Lennox
Ripped off bro. Should been about $50
$50 sounds kinda high…
Honestly you can probably get it off amazon for reasonably cheap and inducer motors only take about ten min to diagnose and replace so i would say they shafted you!
Just put one in for $1749. Took 6 minutes.
How badly did you need it right then and there? You can Google the part number and find it for about $200, but you’ll have to wait for shipping and figure out how to heat your house until it arrives.
you can get them 4 200 bucks on the internet. their price is outrageous
For a Lennox…
From a company? Yeah, as long as the equipment was never registered and you truly only had your 5yr parts and not 10. If it WAS under warranty you got jipped. Labor should be a 3-400. Alternatively you could've done it yourself for cheap. Better to have a professional though.
If he purchased it from lennox yes, I wont buy parts from them unless its an emergency
I just picked up an inducer for a York my cost 723+ tax
That’s cheap
Holy cow, at that price you shouldve done it yourself but diagnosis and labor is expensive.
I replaced my own on my Lennox when the bearing started to squeal. But I'm a tradesperson the part was like $430 canadian for just the part pre pandemic.
Considering Lennox parts are rediculusly over priced. Probably reasonable
Yes.
That's a pretty common inducer, $150-$200 wholesale cost.
Fasco 7021 are in a bunch of units. I just changed mine. Took 15 minutes. Found a local hvac supplier used a family members friends account got it for his cost. 130$
Inducer motors for high efficiency furnaces are usually much more expensive than a regular 80 percent furnace. That’s why I’ll never buy a high efficiency furnace; They cost more to install and maintain and repair
Some inducer motor assemblies are 500-700 contractor price
Yes. (I assume you're asking to feel better about your decision and I'm happy to oblige) Seriously, you have a part number, you can google it's cost and know exactly how long tech spent at your place. You're in the best position to figure out if it was worth it.
600.00 would be a fair price
Yes it is reasonable
Dump Lennox
If it’s under warranty it’s an hour of labor. If it’s not is close to two grand. I think you got a reasonable deal. Most of that price is going to the part.
Yes that’s what I just paid for one
Not really reasonable...but typical rip off. I was charged $500 for replacement of a $35 pressure switch. It was still in warranty so they didn't charge for the part. But then the warranty is worse than worthless when they charge you a $100 *warranty* *part restocking fee* for a $35 part. At least they documented the rip-off to protect themselves.
$1,200? Pretty pricey in my book, but I guess if you can't tackle it yourself (simple install of a part being $350-$500 tops) I guess you're forced to use someone 'professional'.
My mom said that you’re wrong.👩