Pullman Community Center says it's made $100K in repairs to relatively new Carrier AC units

CHICAGO (WLS) -- People who run the Pullman Community Center say they have spent nearly $100,000 making repairs to relatively new air conditioning units.

The two large Carrier air conditioning units, which were installed in the fall of 2018 when the non-profit community center opened, are struggling to cool down the 135,000 square foot center.

The center's contractor Al Raffin said they spent about $500,000 for the two units and installation, and now they're barely pumping out air.

"These started to fail pretty quickly," Raffin said.

Raffin said Carrier's one year warranty on the units has passed. He also said the center was closed during the pandemic and got little use out of the AC units. But he said in the last two years, the center has spent nearly $100,000 in air compressor replacement sand othe repairs.

"We're a non-profit so it's hard for us to keep spending money that we don't have," said Anthony Beale, Jr., manager at Pullman Community Center. "It gets very hot. When it's about 90 degrees outside it's about 100 degrees in here, people are dripping sweat and it's uncomfortable."

"The problem that we have is we can't get any response from Carrier. Carrier won't respond," said Raffin.

The center said after the ABC7 I-Team got involved, Carrier conducted an inspection at which time its technical service manager discovered that "piping installation" by a third party caused the compressors to eventually fail.

The I-Team reached out to this third party, Zone Comfort Systems, and on the phone a representative said he did not believe the units were improperly installed. He also said Carrier is responsible for the final check and start-up services.

Carrier responded again, saying that "Piping installation was not part of Carrier's Start-Up Services," but that it will lend guidance to the third party contractors so they can fix the piping issue. Carrier said it will pay for two new compressors, which they will install at no cost.

That doesn't mean everything is solved. The community center is asking Carrier to examine parts again to make sure the piping installation is to blame. There's also the cost of fixing that piping which the community center says the third-party contractor is not covering.