Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - 2003 Carrier 48JZ needs combustion motor & heat exchanger?

First off, I am not a diyer, but someone just looking for an educated opinion.

I have a Carrier 48JZ dual-fuel unit that was installed on 1-3-03.

I was told in Oct 2008 the combustion motor was going but I did not know quite what that meant and the tech basically told me that as long as it worked, just to go with it. So no worries for a year now.

I live in NC (middle of the state) and a week and a half ago I turned the heat on for the first time. It seemed to work fine. I have a programmable t-stat during this time of year I have the heat set to go OFF at 6am. Well at 6:30am I noticed the fan was still running but no heat. I soon realized that I could not cut the fan off thru the t-stat but had to cut the system off at the main breaker box.

Today, the Carrier guy came out and said that the combustion motor is shot (I saw it and the blades were rusted right off)and the heat exchanger needs to be replaced too (has a hole from rust as well).

Well, the GOOD thing is the heat exchanger is covered under warranty (tech said the part cost $1500) but the bad news is that I still have to shell out $600 for labor!:madhell:
Total cost to repair is about $1263.00.

My husband is :madhell: and thinks we were sold a piece of crap. I too wonder WHY in the world something would rust so quickly. I asked the tech if there was something that we could have done to prevent this... like put a shelter over it? "No" he said.

Tech said that the high humidity in our area contributes to a lot of rust problem. OK, then why do they sell units that don't hold up to this sort of weather?

Tech also said that the combustion motor is on back-order from Carrier so that tells me they have a CONSTANT problem with them. Tech admitted they do.

When we were sold this unit, WHY didn't someone tell us to expect to spend $600-$700 every 4 yrs to fix the darn thing?
WHY? Because we would NOT have bought it!!

When our last gas heater went out it was 12 yrs old. It finally died due to the burners, etc. At that point I really wanted a heat pump to cut OUT the LP gas bill. Well when I talked to teh sales guy I guess I let him talk me into the Dual-Fuel unit bec he said it would save on gas and then when it got really cold outside we could be sure to be warm.

Well, it worked great for almost 5 yrs now. Our gas bill was cut down to 1/2 tank vs 3 tanks/yr. The electric bill was cut way down too. So we were happy.

Now we are NOT happy to have to spend $1200 for something that should last longer than 4 years! We had our unit "maintained" on schedule 2 times a year, as recommended.

Does anyone know if this is a common problem with this model? Would it be worth my time to call Carrier and complain?

Thanks!
Lee

Its not uncommen for a combustion motor on any packaged unit to go bad. The heat exchanger should have lasted longer but again we are talking about a packaged unit. The good news is that $600 to change a heat exchanger is a very fair price.

There is nothing you could have done to prevent it, its one of those unfortunate things, sorry.

Carrier may be one of the last to change over to stainless steel heat exchangers. Listen people NEVER EVER purchase a package unit that does not have a stainless steel heat exchanger. The aluminized steel will not last in the outdoor enviroment that a package unit exposes the HX to. Glad to hear that the dual fuel unit worked well for you i just ordered myself a new Dual Fuel 15 Seer package unit today to replace a 17 yr old Heil gas pack that has had 2 aluminized Heat Exchangers put in over the years (yes it is completely rusted out again now). Funny thing is that now the replacement HX that Heil sells is actually SS, at least Heil learned there lesson. Are you listening Carrier? I looked at the Carrier 48VT dual fuel unit and it had the aluminized HX it was the first one crossed off my list as unacceptable.

Carrier may be one of the last to change over to stainless steel heat exchangers. Listen people NEVER EVER purchase a package unit that does not have a stainless steel heat exchanger. The aluminized steel will not last in the outdoor enviroment that a package unit exposes the HX to. Glad to hear that the dual fuel unit worked well for you i just ordered myself a new Dual Fuel 15 Seer package unit today to replace a 17 yr old Heil gas pack that has had 2 aluminized Heat Exchangers put in over the years (yes it is completely rusted out again now). Funny thing is that now the replacement HX that Heil sells is actually SS, at least Heil learned there lesson. Are you listening Carrier? I looked at the Carrier 48VT dual fuel unit and it had the aluminized HX it was the first one crossed off my list as unacceptable.


Great choice on stain steel only way to go .......

Go amana or split rheem anything with stainless stell I feel for you as i have replaced trane pk units ht exchangers at 3 years old and im in triad area ....
And if you got a tank you must be propane id look at a 13 seer or ++++ heat pump