Home Improvement

TJT said:

Anyone familiar with HVAC here?

In June we noticed that the system in our house was acting up. Not cooling as powerfully as before. Had a dude come out and service it. Said it was working fine. Checked everything and tuned it up. Worked better after that. It shit the bed last night so called the guy back up. He refilled the coolant which is something I've never done in my 6 years in this house. House and system are now about 13 years old.

He said there may be a leak or I may need to replace the whole thing. Thoughts?

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HVAC techs know theyre in high demand and wont hesitate to tell you the option that puts the most money in their pocket. Ie. Get at least one more set of eyes on the system before doing any major repairs and dont tell them about the other tech or what that tech recommended.

TJT said:

I was 6/8lbs of coolant in the system. No idea over what time period that 2 lbs leaked out. I just had him refill it and fix the pressure valve on the condenser (it was stuck open so it wouldn't start). We'll see if the leak is something serious or not and if it is I'll just replace it I guess.

$13k for a new residential HVAC system tho in a 1500 SQFT house.

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That sounds like you're being quoted an entirely new system. The condenser unit outside and the evaporator unit inside the house. Im no HVAC tech, but I have no idea why you would need to replace both of them? The house Im buying that I talked about above - Ive been quoted a full tear out of the zone control system and an install of the evaporator unit for the house which is only about 700 sq/ft bigger than your house (2200 sq/ft) and Im being quoted 6500 (1250 of that is just for the removal of the old system). I replaced a condenser earlier this year on a property I manage and it cost that landlord 5300.

Lastly, my own personal house has a 15 year warranty on the central air unit. The warranties on central air units typically range from 10 to 15 years.

I'm going through the same thing. I keep the house at 73 at all times (in Az, its like 110 outside), and have never had any issues. A few weeks ago I noticed the house was 76... then 77.. 78, and the Ac wasn't ever catching up. I called an HVAC guy and he came out and told me I had a leak, he used a sniffer tool to try and find out and he thinks its in the coils of the unit itself. The entire house is 7 years old, so I wasn't thinking it should have any major problems. He charged me $400 to refill the coolant (waving an $100 fee just to come out when I asked him too), and told me that would get me by for a bit, but because of the leak it might be 2 days or 2 weeks, anyones guess.

To fix the coils its about $4,500, but his company insisted 10 years is usually life on AC units in AZ, and they would recommend I replace everything for $11,100 (Originally he started at between $14k-$17k, but I bitched and moaned it down). I ended up calling my father in law who is an HVAC guy and he said the $11k is probably fair, he agreed 10 years is good for AZ and recommended I do it. I then talked to other people who know jack shit about Hvac who were like "Whats the hurry? It might have been leaking for years, sure it might last 2 weeks... but it might last 2 years. Hell, even if it just lasts one, might it be cheaper to just fill it up every summer for a few more years before you swap everything out?" and yeah, beats me. My dads AC is 27 years old also here in AZ with no problems, so fuck me on an $11K bill for a 7-8 year old one.... I've just been sitting on it for the last week unsure of what to do.

TJT said:

Not trying to be unclear here but he's not recommending that I buy a new one outright. He recommended to get the freon in it and see if the leak is minor (last a few more years) or something major where it would be a better idea to get a whole new one than to replace a $4k coil on a 13 year old system.

In this case the outside condenser fan is also out so its like $1000 for this repair and then hoping its more minor than it might be.

Onoes IDK about you but I wont be tolerating my woman and children bitching about the house being hot all summer. I'll replace it if I need to. lol.

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Oh well hell man, I would think if the condenser fan is busted then thats the majority of the issue. Pretty much the same situation if your condenser froze up, even if its in the summer. Regardless, I'm still suggesting getting a second set of eyes on that central air.

Lanx said:

the hvac tech channels i watched say refrigerant is astronomical now

at first when i bought this house, i was thinking, wow this is stupid, i have 2 units, one for the first and 2nd floor, when my cap blew on one unit, that 2nd unit didn't seem stupid all of a sudden during a heatwave.

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Curious what comes out better in regular operation: Two low btu 5 ton units, or one big 8 ton unit?

Random thoughts from an hvac guy.
The ac in your house is a sealed system, the refrigerant charge should last the life of the equipment. If you need to have refrigerant added you have a leak. Leak checking is my least favorite task, its tedious af.
average life expectancy on modern equipment is 15ish years.
Unless you have a large leak its often more cost effective to gas a unit up yearly than to replace a coil.