I have 2 floors and 2 separate AC units.

First floor has a Goodman compressor manufactured in 2012 3.5 tons and the coil and furnace is Lennox brand made in 1996.

I called an AC guy because it started blowing hot air not cool air like it supposed to. He checks the compressor and tells me it is leaking and he placed 3lbs of Freon. He told me it is not possible to change the coil, it is too old and the new ones can not be installed there etc etc. So he told me to pay like $100 every year for Freon and be done with it

yesterday, AC stopped working. Called another AC guy he checks out and finds that thermostat wire were touching each other or something like that and I went to walmart and bought a new thermostat he installed it, now it is working

I showed the coil to this new AC guy and he said he can replace it with Trane coil for $1,500. Then he said I better be changing furnace and coil together but dis not tell me the price on both yet. Appearantly he does not have a problem with size or dimensions and says trane coil will fit in there.

What do you guys think?

 

think you need to replace it all when the time comes. Im guessing you have r-22 at $65 plus per pound it will cost a fortune to charge up. replace it all and get a 10 year warranty and a much more efficient system.

 

Why do u think I should be replacing compressor also? It is only 5 years old

 

match system, everything 410A, SEER rating the same, 10 year warranty

 

so what do you do when compressor is 5 years old and everything else is 21 years old?

I don't want to get rid of my new compressor?

Which one makes more sense?

 

When you say compressor, are you referring to the entire outdoor unit or a compressor in the unit?

if it's the outdoor unit a new matching coil should be installed.

if it's a dry r22 unit, your tech should see if the compressor has poe oil which can be used with r407c, a refrigerant compatible that's not being phased out.

the entire system should have been changed in 2012, now it's costing you more money.

 

Have a matched system installed, and donate your 5 year old condenser to a tech school, used home goods store or sell it for a couple hundred bucks on Craigslist.
If you want to keep it you'll have to keep using R22. Or convert to an alternative like R-407C which will require POE oil. If the compressor does not have POE it will have to be removed from the outdoor unit and dumped, then recharged with POE oil.
You can have a coil rated for both R-22 and R-410A. Then when your outdoor unit dies the metering device can be changed out and R-410A used.
You will not get the rated efficiency, or possibly capacity, doing it this way.
Your also going to keep yourself with a mix-match of equipment.
It's more cost effective to do a complete matched system.

 

should be able to find a matching coil for a 2012 unit and get at least 13 seer. would be a huge improvement over a 13 matched to a coil used for 10.

not everyone has lots of $$$ up front. a 5 year old unit should have lots of life left.

 

My electric bill is like 20-30 a month all the time except winter it goes to 40

Summer time it is around $100 so I don't have a problem with efficiency. I am in a 3K sqft house with 6 rooms. We don't like cold so much

But the first AC guy said, it would not make sense to fix the leak just keep paying $100/year for Freon.

He filled 3lbs of Freon he said this is the new one that is why it is cheap. Cost me $100 for the Freon only. Altogether I paid $300 to him for minor stuff that he did

So my options are

1) pay $300 every year for this Freon maybe $200 if I find someone else

2) spend xyz amount to get rid of coil and no more leaks

just called the first AC guy he said evaporator coil was leaking

Are these my options?

 

can't mix different gasses, if it has r22 it should only be topped off with 22.

adding refrigerant every year is bad for the equipment due to running with the wrong amount most of the time, expensive in terms of operating costs and refrigerant, and wrecks the atmosphere.

it's not a reasonable solution and 3 years out it will end up costing as much as a repair.

get the coil, assuming it's only leaking there or the entire matched a/c system.

your 21 year old furnace should be carefully inspected and replaced if the heat exchanger is bad. budget for replacement.

 

So why is it that 21 year old evaporator coil's leak can not be fixed?

that is what the AC guy told me

 

Anything can be fixed, but at what cost to your wallet and to the efficiency. Plus you will weaken that coil doing repairs on it at its age so you could have more leaks down the road.