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Here's why I almost replaced a perfectly good furnace last week

My neighbor Bob who's been fixing HVAC for 20 years told me my furnace was making a 'dead compressor sound' and I about panicked. He said it would cost me at least $2,800 for a new unit plus install. I was already getting quotes from three companies in Cleveland when my uncle who used to work for a parts supplier stopped by. He listened to it for maybe 30 seconds and said that noise was just a loose blower wheel scraping the housing. I took the panel off myself, tightened one screw, and the noise went away completely. Cost me nothing and maybe 10 minutes of my time. Has anyone else had a quick fix like this that saved you a ton of cash?
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3 Comments
joel_hall17
Nah, I gotta disagree here. Sure, you got lucky with a loose screw, but most people don't have an uncle who worked parts to diagnose it right. Ignoring a real bad sound could leave you without heat in the middle of a Cleveland winter, and that's way more than $2,800 in repairs and a hotel stay. Sometimes paying for a pro's peace of mind is worth it even if it ends up being nothing.
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young.nora
young.nora18d ago
My buddy's car was making a scary noise, turned out to be just a loose license plate.
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diana_west27
Huh. Reminds me of the time my muffler fell off halfway to a job site.
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