What a Trane Wreck!

by Tom
(Sarasota, FL)

At retirement my wife and I built our dream home with what we thought was the best of the best products on the market. The most disappointing purchase for our new home was the 5-ton XR12 Trane Hvac unit installed in Jul 2003.

I have had 4 compressors (yes f-o-u-r) replaced in this one central air conditioning unit in less than 8 years and have spent in excess of $3,000.00 in labor costs alone. A Trane dealer sold me the Hvac unit and only authorized Trane repair technicians have worked on the Hvac unit.

When the 4th compressor was replaced the repair tech suggested I call the local Trane field rep and ask them to help out on the labor cost of the repair as an act of good faith and fair dealing for all the problems that I have had.

The rep requested that I send a copy of all prior work orders and I did. I explained I had health issues (Parkinson's) and would appreciate a quick response since we were without central air conditioner and the daily temps were well into the 80's in south FL.

Well, after 23-days of repeated phone calls to this guy and getting every excuse under the sun (the "dog ate my homework" type of excuses), he said the problem was not related to faulty parts but how the parts were installed.

Let me wrap my mind around his logic - using two different Hvac companies and four different Trane certified repair techs, they all installed the replacement parts wrong? Yeah - right! I will NEVER buy another Trane product - EVER.

Comments for What a Trane Wreck!

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Rating
star 		Total trane wreck NEW
by: Anonymous

4tee3f49b1000aa Air handler on its fifth coil. Absolute junk. Last coil leaked straight out of the box. Others leaked due to liquid line rubbing through aluminum coil because the certified Trane installer was useless. They replaced it 3 times under warranty due to exact same rubbing install error without ever figuring it out. When the warranty was finally up and it quit again I took the cover off myself and it was blatantly obvious what the main issue was. Overall a bad installation but multiple other failures have also taken place. Trane are HORRIBLE to deal with. Worst customer service to the householder I have ever experienced. NEVER AGAIN.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Trane Comfort Link - INCREDIBLY BAD NEW
by: Anonymous

Six years ago, I hired a Trane dealer in San Diego to completely redesign the HVAC system in my home. I opted for the latest technology from Trane using a single furnace and A/C compressor with dampers that allow us to close off unused parts of our home. FOR SIX YEARS we have dealt with UNRELIABILITY, SUBSTANDARD CONTROLS/THERMOSTATS, and few decent explanations from Certified TRANE dealer. We are on our 3rd Comfortlink Control Screen and came home tonight to find the system again on the fritz, the house cold (for San Diego) and no options but to contact the installer.
As I tried to restart the system from ComfortLink controller #3, it fell off the wall on to my tile floor and fractured its screen - a perfect metaphor for my Trane experience. I mean really, how hard can my system be working in a place as temperate and balmy as San Diego??? TRANE/COMFORTLINK is a poor-quality, high-priced, not-ready-for-primetime DEBACLE that for the umpteenth time IS LEAVING ME COLD.
Rating
star 		The Page is Fine, The TRANE UNITS ARE JUNK NEW
by: Anonymous

Sorry about my erroneous five stars. It should be zero stars. From the guy who just spent $120,000 replacing all 11 Trane systems. NEVER BUY TRANE. They are a TraneWreck!
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Trane is a REAL Disappointment NEW
by: Anonymous

Trane claims they only allow companies that they certify to install and maintain their equipment so yes I blame the company for poor performance and that includes their sales person who just repeats Trane's BS marketing propaganda!!

The installation of my system was so poor that when the sh*t hit the fan, Trane put a field rep at my house to oversee the re-installation. I also required a duct test since all the ducts were replaced when the new system was put in as well as the an indoor AC closet built (the old air handler had been up in the attic which in FL is a really stupid design error for any installer but that system lasted approx 20 years!)The company who did the work addressed the poorly installed ducts no less than 5 times! They also had mis-sized the system even with doing J Load Calcs which the managed to screw up. If this was a good contractor certified by Trane, what are the lousy contractors doing?!

I also made the mistake of buying the Electronic CleanEffects filter which has turned out to be pretty useless! Check out this independent lab's results: ftp://ftp.aprilaire.com/Fulfillment/Air_Cleaners/EAC_Lab_comparison.pdf
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		11 Trane Units in My House.. 7 Work NEW
by: Anonymous

First lets talk star rating. The question is rate THIS PAGE, not rate Trane. I give the page 5 stars and Trane ZERO stars.

I built a cost is no object house. Over $7 million dollars in construction cost. House has 11 zones. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars maintaining them. Exactly 4 of the 11 zones are working at the moment. My AC contractor says we need to throw out everything Trane and replace it all. You can imagine what this will cost....

So I called Trane. Standard run around including WE CANT HELP YOU, CALL THE LOCAL DISTRIBUTOR.

Amazing...Never buy Trane. I am going to make spreading the word about these crooks my retirement mission.
Rating
star 		Why all the 5 stars from bad experience comments NEW
by: Anonymous

Why do you folks give a 5 star rating for a system you say you hate. I don't get it. The more impressed you are, the more stars you give a company. If you have lots of problems you give them less stars.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Two more TRANES down!!! NEW
by: Chad Slater HVAC 10 Years

As to the post anonymous left you must be a salesman for TRANE. I have seen nothing but problems with TRANE units. Very rarely do I see one with original parts or coils. The reason I am on here I because I have another unhappy new customer that wants me to.change out there three year old TRANE systems cause they are over the BS and the constant repairs. They are a high priced cheap product. I have been installing YORK for years and out of the 300 units I have put in I have changed one compressor due to the high amount of lighting in FL. And one TXV.
Rating
star 		Not Hard to Stop Trane
by: Wendy

Installed 2 new Trane units in our home 12/8/09. We have never owned Trane units; decided to go with it believing it to be a premium brand.

Last week service tech determined the coil on one unit is bad; small leak that could not be located but allowed loss of refrigerant.

Needs a replacement coil. Trane will replace the part but not cover labor and refrigerant. Estimate to cost us nearly $1,000 to replace this defective part. Our Trane did indeed "stop" in just 2 1/2 years.

Model #4TEE3F49B1000AA
Ser# 90523H92V
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Trane not made for harsh Florida climate
by: Anonymous

The cooper is just to thin and harsh corrosive Florida environment will eat it up in 6-8 years and then they will repair it until it is out of warranty. My neighbor and I bought our units at the same time. We had the same problems.

NOT RECOMMENDED!
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		This Trane Makes a Stop Every Summer (buy the extended warrenty)
by: Anonymous

I moved to Denver from Atlanta in 2008. Promptly in April of 2008 we purchased a Trane central air conditioner including humidification, Clean Effects Ionizer, Heat Pump, fancy thermostat and Installation for a price of 10,000.

We already invested in the furnace. All aspects of the installation was handled by a Trane approved company. In this case AireServ. Here are the results:

1) Ran from April 2008 to June 2010.
2) Replaced (2) Compressors in June of 2010 and was without air cooling for two weeks.
3) Replaced fancy thermostat $240
3) June 2011 - All freon leaked out from the Trane / AireServ copper pipe. And you guessed it, Not covered.... another 1,000 to fix.

Just because a company can afford the $$$ in marketing, it may not be the best decision. My Amana in Atlanta never had this costs or maintenance.

I can not recommend in this economy that a family consider spending the outlay of cash that we foolishly did thinking we were buying quality.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Really?
by: Anonymous

I am really surprised that because you got taken to the cleaners by a salesman you would conclude it's the manufacturer's fault.

need i say more...?
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Have Had My Trane 19i for 4 years/$9900.oo /
by: J. Owens

TRANE 19I /4YEARS OLD/10 YEAR WARRANTY/HAVE HAD UNIT SERVICED 2 TIMES A YEAR BY Airco/NOW MY TECH. TELLS ME i DO NOT HAVE A HEAT PUMP/I think the sales misrepresented the unit to me. Will never buy another Trane.

(Texas)

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