Price differences for new HVAC system

1 year labor, 10 year parts on all. Currently have a 5 ton. And yeah the cheaper price is from a small outfit. Guys credentials is a licensed electrician as well as HVAC, 20 years experience. Nothing about it felt like he was trying to sell me anything, he even mentioned that his quotes usually come in about 30% lower than most others if I was getting other bids, and sure enough his number was a lot lower.

I know a guy who recently paid about $4500 for a 3 ton unit. 14 Seer
I thought was a good deal.

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what's your take on yearly maintenance plans? My new unit offers labor warranty as long as I keep a maintenance contract. Don't remember the price, but it was inline with contracts I've read from other companies.

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I do it and it’s $160 for two visits annually, late spring, early winter. Honestly I think the 1 late spring visit would probably suffice. The tech does spend an 1 hour with each service, so $80 an hour. I routinely piss away $80 on things less important than HVAC maintenance so why not have it done. With the PM service agreement, if I need a repair I get 10% the regular price and supposedly i’m placed on a high priority list for repair work. As I said in another recent post, I’ve been lucky not to have test that out.

Now I haven’t always had preventative maintenance (PM) contract, and I can pretty much do what the HVAC tech does (clean condenser and evaporator coils, check capacitor and contactor, check amperage draw on fan, blower and compressor motors, clean blower if needed, clean and blow out condensate drain, check refrigerant pressures, superheat, sub-cool) except check the refrigerant pressures, but I have an older system (15 years) and I i think it’s prudent having an older system checked annually. I actually do the same thing on my two autos, an annual inspection, where the vehicle is thoroughly checked, but I trust my auto tech company implicitly.

I notice a couple posters stating in current threads that HVAC techs doing PM on their units suggesting some additional $ services but I can say my company has never done that.
But a good, conscientious tech can pick up potential problem issues during a PM visit.

Interestingly I was reading the HVAC-Talk forum earlier today and I learned from a post from a HVAC tech that some companies now require the residential HVAC owners to have annual PM done and documented in order to maintain an extended labor warranty just as you described. I didn’t know that.