This Trane ain’t bound for glory…
Winter has arrived and we are faced, yet again, with the annual failure of our Trane heat pump. After a myriad of technician visits and varied diagnostic attempts over the years, we are still no closer to stabilizing this machine. We moved into our newly constructed home in April 2016. Our contractor put the installation of the heating and cooling system out to bid and selected a Trane installer because of the reputation and reliability of the Trane brand. We were happy to pay a premium for the system (Heat pump model #4TWR4060E1000BA; Air handler model #TAM7B0C60H51SCB) in the hopes we would have many worry free years of service.
Then the nightmare began. Early in January 2017 the heat pump faulted when temperatures dropped into single digits. The original installer made three service calls to diagnose the problem.
First visit addressed a wiring problem with the furnace.
Second visit addressed heat pump fault issue. Error code was defrost lockout. They ordered a new control board indicating they had seen this resolve the problem at other locations.
On the third service call, they replaced the control board. They also implied that a newer board was being released in the near future and they would replace ours when it was available (never happened).
When the heat pump faulted again, the original installer would not come out on a warranty service call. As it turned out, they never registered the original warranty within the allotted time and did not instruct us to do so. When we asked them to contact Trane to get the warranty back dated, they said Trane would not work with them. At that point, we were basically hosed and had lost our warranty advantage. We then talked with the original installer on the phone who walked us through the reset procedures although the problem continued. We crippled thought that winter on the emergency heat setting. The issues remained unresolved since the problem could not be duplicated outside of winter conditions. There were no issues during the summer as our use of air conditioning was infrequent.
The winter of 2017/18 was mild so the lockout problem did not surface.
The winter of 2018/19 saw the defrost lockout problems begin again. The system had to be reset several times as local technicians attempted to diagnose the problem. Again, we had to rely on the emergency heat setting and our electric bills sky rocketed. We scheduled a service call in October 2019 in an attempt to head off the winter faulting problems. The technician found that a J-2 jumper on the defrost board was not clipped so he clipped it. He indicated the purpose of the jumper was to allow higher temperature of OD coil for defrosting in low ambient temperatures with high humidity. During the same call, he looked for other operating limits and found none. He indicated that under regular operating conditions the defrost lockout should not happen until around -7 degrees. Service call was $139.32.
In January 3-13, 2020 – three service calls were made. The heat pump started blowing the breaker and the furnace was running continually. It was noted that breaker problem did not happen until after the jumper was clipped. The Trane certified service technician discovered that the heat pump compressor had failed (OHMed out the compressor and found the windings had failed). The compressor was replaced and system reset. Also looked at the thermostat and made some adjustments to installer settings and added refrigerant to the heat pump. Invoiced $637.89 for the three calls.
July/August 2022. Scheduled maintenance service call. First technician diagnosed a needed part replacement but did not order part or schedule a return visit. Owner followed up and examined the heat pump and said no parts were required and we were good to go.
November 11, 2022. Heat pump faulted again. Called a different repair service provider and they reset power to get the heat pump to come on and it began heating. He said the unit had locked out due to too many defrosts in a cycle. Reset power again and added refrigerant although it faulted again shortly thereafter. His diagnosis was that the unit needs a new outdoor TXV and quoted $1900 for the repair. We are still operating on the emergency heat setting and expecting a huge electric bill for this month. Invoiced $341.14 for the service call and repair quote.
December 7, 2022. Scheduled a second opinion for the heat pump faulting problems. This owner/technician reviewed past history of the unit and the multiple attempts to repair it without finding a permanent solution. Said he would not attempt the suggested $1900 repair because there was no guarantee that it would be successful. Recommended replacing the entire system.
As of December 7, 2022 our out of pocket expenses have been $1118.35 and we are looking at an additional $1900 repair or many thousands for the system to be replaced. In addition, we are paying unnecessarily high electric bills that this system was supposed to mitigate.
So, the nightmare continues. We have our house temperature set at 63 degrees and live with layers of clothing, extra blankets and strategically placed space heaters. If there were a lemon law for heat pumps, ours would certainly qualify. In a perfect world, Trane should come to our rescue and at least replace the heat pump or, better yet, the entire system to end this eternal nightmare.
Trane – hope you are listening and will find an expedient resolution for us.
Desired outcome: Replace heat pump or entire system if that's what it takes to resolve our problem.
