I put off fixing my swamp cooler for 2 summers, finally did it in June and the $180 part was the easy part
So for two summers I just ran fans and told myself the swamp cooler on my roof was "probably fine," which is a lie you tell yourself when it's 98 degrees in the house. Last June I finally hauled myself up the ladder and found the pump was fried, so I grabbed a replacement at a place off Eubank for about $180. The funny part is the pump took me 20 minutes to swap, but I spent 3 hours up there because a pigeon had built a nest in the vent and I felt bad kicking it out. My neighbor Rick saw me on the roof and yelled that I was doing it wrong, then came over and did it the same way I was doing it. Now I check the pads every May instead of waiting for the house to turn into an oven. Anybody else got a rooftop nest story or am I the only one who waited way too long on their cooler?
Learned the hard way that "probably fine" is the most expensive sentence in home repair. I skipped my cooler for three summers straight, just sweated it out and told myself the pads still had life in them. Then one July the thing blew hot air and I paid a guy $400 because every shop in town was booked out two weeks. Same deal as you too, the actual fix was cheap, it was the waiting that cost me. Now I climb up there every spring with a flashlight and pull out whatever the birds dragged in, because those little guys love that vent more than I love a cold house.