I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction... I have two Premier 2 AT045, two speed units that were installed in 2001 but not turned up until 2007 (long story)... for about 5 months I have noticed a very hard kick in on one of them... harder compressor start and sometimes a spark noticeable if looking at the relay. I have the 10 year extended warranty on the units... so I had a GeoPro Master authorized dealer come look at it 5 months ago... they said there was no problem and charged me $85 for the 15 minute visit.

Now, 5 months later, I find it not cooling tonight... so I went to look at the unit and the TStat diag LEDs at the unit were on (Y1, Y2, O, G), and I could feel the water running (open loop; valves open) but no compressor on. I turned the power off... waited an hour, then turned it back on... went through normal startup sequence... Y1/Y2/O/G from TStat, fan on... water starts... relay kicks in... compressor does not start as normal, but instead makes a grrr noise, and after about 6-7 seconds of that, the relay cuts off. TStat signals are still there and water is still flowing... I have to power down the unit to close the valves. No Error lights on at all... except the flashing Status light that indicates the microprocessor is running properly.

So, my questions are... does this sound like a compressor failure or may be just capacitor? Could this have been caused by the hard start and arcing the service techs said was not a problem? (I can only compare to the 2nd unit I have which has a loud relay click but the compressor starts without that hard hit and contact bounce sound that the trouble unit had).

Do authorized service providers use Waterfurnace parts or just go out and throw in any compressor they have? I want to make sure I get the proper quality compressor comparable to the original in the Waterfurnace unit I have.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.