Trane, Hinson Home Comfort Services’ HVAC Units Suffer from Valve Defect, Lawsuit Claims

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Trane U.S. Inc. and C & C Heating and Air Conditioning Company, which does business as Hinson Home Comfort Services, are the defendants in a proposed class action in which the plaintiff claims that the companies sold defective HVAC units.

Filed in Michigan, the complaint states the plaintiff and his late wife bought a Trane furnace and condenser from defendant C&C for nearly $6,500 that came with an extended warranty covering any manufacturing defects. The suit points out that the plaintiff bought his particular HVAC unit in part because of its touted reliability.

In 2018, the HVAC unit’s thermostatic expansion valve malfunctioned, the case says, noting such malfunctions were a persistent problem as evidenced by at least one service bulletin from Trane. The lawsuit pegs the valve’s failure on a rust inhibitor applied by Trane in the compressor that, after reacting with the oil in the compressor, caused the formation of matter that led to the valve sticking and ultimately failing. 

A technician dispatched to the plaintiff’s house added MJ-X oil to the compressor as instructed by the service bulletin, the case says. This did not fix the problem, and the technician was forced to swap in a new thermostatic expansion valve, the suit says. Although the replacement valve was under warranty, the plaintiff claims he had to pay $550 for labor for the part to be replaced.

All told, consumers who bought a Trane HVAC system from the defendants have not gotten what they bargained for, the lawsuit alleges. 

“Trane has sold tens of thousands of HVAC units with the same combination of rust inhibitor, compressor oil and TXV valve design as that in [the plaintiff’s] unit,” according to the suit.