Purchased both a/c and furnace in April 2012. We live close to St. Louis, mo. Summers are usually hot and humid. We have an 1800 square foot ranch house and keep a/c on during June,July, August and mid- September. Then we shut the air off and open the windows and use our attic fan once the weather cools back to 75-80. With that said…clearly we don't abuse the unit by overuse and always hire an hvac expert for regular cleanings and change the filter regularly. The unit ran beautifully the summer of 2012 and 2013. We turned it on mid May of 2014 as it was a very hot and dry start to the summer. The unit stop cooling three weeks later! We called a professional who said the condenser coil broke and we need a new one. Good news, it's under warranty. Please keep in mind at this point the unit has only run for two full seasons and 3 weeks of a third season. Our repairman calls the local distributor who calls the Ruud distributor…they don't have any coils as they are being built. It appears many people who own a Ruud had their coils break! We are told one week. That week passes, it's 95 degrees outside. The second week comes around, we were told the part will be ready to ship out. Terrific! Only they didn't tell us that they won't ship the part right away, they wait for the truck to fill rather than ship one part at a time even though it is under warranty. The second week passes, still no part, temperatures again hovering around 95. Third week comes around, by this time I am calling everyone daily, RUUD, their warehouse, the local distributor, etc. Everyone is playing the blame game. The shipping truck finally moves the third week, however, now we have to wait 3 more days so it can make 3-5 stops on its route to St. Louis. The part finally arrives three weeks later. While the part was under warranty the labor, Freon, etc. is not. $700 later we finally have air. Upset that we had to pay for the repair, upset Ruud wouldn't step in and help expedite the shipping on a 2 year old unit. Now it is the summer of 2015, just 1 year and 15 days after we had the condenser coil replaced, it blows again! Once again Ruud won't stand by their product only saying "it's under warranty". The customer service lady Jamie, even suggested it was because of my neighbor and that they probably shot it out with a B B gun. Then she asked, " do you have dogs". Yes, I said. Jamie replied, "Well that is why the coil keeps going out, your dog is peeing on it and corroding the coil". First of all, my dog squats, secondly the coil is 2 feet above the dogs head and thirdly my dog doesn't have opposable thumbs to take the cover off the unit to pee on the coil! The unit is only three years old, it broke down last year and again this year. Repairs cost $700+ each time, plus having to wait 3 weeks for the part to arrive. I can't afford to pay $700 each year, so I opted buy a Lennox. RUUD still refuses to take any blame for the defect, and basically told use there is nothing they will do other than honor the warranty. Turns out the copper coils are made so thin that this is a common problem , not only for us but for anyone who buys a Rheem or Ruud unit. When a company can't keep the replacement parts in stock due to so many going bad, it should be a clear sign it's an inferior product. Bottom line, don't purchase a Ruud unless you like sitting without air in your home for three weeks during the summer, and be prepared to spend $700 every year for your replacement parts. But as Ruud said, "It's not our fault".
