Coil conundrum: Defective Lennox AC models anger owners | West … – West Orange Occasions & Windermere Observer

Householders dwelling in newly constructed communities with Lennox air-conditioning models put in have reluctantly spent lots of to 1000’s of {dollars} changing defective evaporator coil programs. 

And so they’re not comfortable.

After two to 4 years, the AC models are inclined to freeze up or cease blowing chilly air. It’s believed the troublesome coil programs malfunction attributable to poor manufacturing. Whereas Lennox makes use of uncoated copper tubing inside its programs, most AC firms use aluminum coils, mentioned Terry Strickland, the proprietor of Polar Specific Air Conditioning & Heating LLC. 

“All people else goes to full aluminum coils,” Strickland mentioned. “Lennox remains to be the one one utilizing the copper aluminum, and it’s not holding up. The copper we’re utilizing at this time is a lot thinner than it’s ever been as a result of, once more, everyone’s making an attempt to economize.”

As somebody who spends his time fixing AC models recurrently, he’s seen a number of owners with Lennox-brand models expertise this similar difficulty. Final yr, he estimates he made about 12 to fifteen replacements, largely in newly constructed properties in Winter Backyard and Windermere. 

A category-action lawsuit from 2015 over the problem has resulted in payouts for some owners who fell sufferer to surprising restore bills. Householders eligible to hitch the class-action lawsuit have been instructed they may stand up $550 in reimbursement. Nonetheless, Lennox nonetheless denies all of the claims of the lawsuit and states it doesn’t imagine the copper tubing was associated to the failures. And though Strickland mentioned Lennox plans to maneuver to aluminum coils, that transition hasn’t taken place.

“The coils that I decide up are nonetheless the identical coils they’re having issues with, and the identical coils I’m placing in are the identical coils they’re having issues with,” he mentioned. “And all they’re doing is making an attempt to Band-Help it till it’s out of guarantee.”

Strickland mentioned he’s typically had to return and change a house owner’s coil a second time. Typically, the lifespan of any AC unit, relying on the person’s upkeep, is 12 to fifteen years. Consequently, Strickland mentioned he’s give up buying and promoting AC models from any manufacturers Lennox owns.

Tod Younger, a house owner in Windermere Trails who closed on his house December 2013, needed to spend $1,400 to interchange his coil system after solely two years. He was shocked to have his AC unit malfunction so shortly.

“It’s a brand new home … so you’ll anticipate that the AC unit wouldn’t clock out throughout the first two years, and also you’d should spend $1,200-plus to have it changed,” Younger mentioned. 

Younger’s AC unit began failing after the class-action lawsuit already had been settled, so he needed to pay for the bills out of pocket. He’s seen there have been a number of AC restore vans throughout his neighborhood, which was constructed by Meritage Properties, and far dialogue about the identical AC difficulty on the social-media web site NextDoor.

“Any day, you may drive by our neighborhood and also you’ll see both Armstrong Air Conditioning or different AC restore firms in individuals’s driveway, every day,” Younger added. “And so they’re all having the identical difficulty.”

Michael Manganiello, who lives in a city home in Wickham Park, paid $800 to have his AC coil system changed. His 4-year-old AC unit stopped working final August. He couldn’t imagine his unit would malfunction so shortly both, as a result of the earlier owners solely resided within the house for six months annually, and he had routine AC upkeep completed yearly. 

“I’m not a type of infamous AC customers who continually have it on,” Manganiello mentioned. “Once I’m not house, I set it to 78 or 79 levels, and once I’m house, I go away it at 77.  …  I  shouldn’t have any AC issues, particularly when the unit is lower than 4 years outdated.”

A number of months later, after getting the coil system changed, he seen an advisory on his neighborhood’s web site informing residents that many individuals locally had skilled the identical AC difficulty and there was a class-action lawsuit.

The expertise has left Manganiello cautious of Lennox models.

“I positively gained’t buy something associated to Lennox sooner or later,” Manganiello mentioned. 

Lennox officers didn’t return repeated messages in search of remark.

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Contact Gabby Baquero at [email protected]