Should i replace furnace with air conditioner?

The 20 year + comfort aire central air conditioner in my home is about to give up.

I expect to replace rather than repair it due to its age.

The question is, do readers here recommend I also replace the 15 year old high efficiency dual stage luxaire gas furnace? The furnace has been reliable. One minor repair was required a few years ago. However it is 15 years old and is high efficiency, which i have been told is not as long lived as a mid efficiency furnace. Apparently the circuit board often fails in the high efficiency furnaces at about the 12 year mark and can cost $1000.00 to replace. The furnace is "cleaned" annually by a HVAC company.

Would there be significant savings to replace the furnace with the air conditioner. Or should i just do the air conditioner now and replace the furnace as required?

Advice is needed please.

 

Just my opinion, but I wouldn't replace a 15 year old Luxaire furnace unless I had been having a lot of problems with it. Again, just my opinion, but I believe you can expect another 10 to 15 years service from that furnace. I just replaced a York high efficiency furnace, same as a Luxaire, that was 31 years old and had been relatively trouble free. If you are that worried about reliability and have an extra $3,000 to $4,000 you don't need for anything else, you could replace it along with the air conditioner for peace of mind.

 

Is Luxaire made by York? I have heard York isnt one of the better brands.

 

York is one of several JCI products. Luxaire is one of them also.

 

Yes, York and Luxaire are JCI products as are Evcon, Coleman and Guardian. I think they are all good products and would much rather have any of the JCI products than some of the ones I frequently see with problems on this forum.

 

Contrary to Joe, I would recommend replacement of heating unit also. It's 15 years old. At this point it may last another 15 or crap put within the year. Now is the time to replace it (if the funds are available), not next year or within a few years when the whole thing must be disturbed again. It will also be be cheaper now than later. Plus you will have new cooling/heating system, not a half new, half old. Plus you will have new and up to date warranty on both units. Just may opinion.

 

High and mid efficiency units are equipped with the same controls and primary heat exchanger.

The board won't last any shorter in high than mid.

It shouldn't cost $1000 to replace a control board - only the blower motor, if it's ecm is very expensive to change. (and it's possible to just change the module at a lower cost)

The lifespan is the same in most cases.

I would not take out a working and safe 15 year old furnace unless it's incorrectly sized, it could last another 5 to 10 years.

Heck, I wouldn't replace a 20 year a/c with no problems unless in a brutally hot climate with a high electric rate. Most of the parts are pretty cheap and you can even find them online and replace yourself.

Normally only compressor failure or refrigerant leak for ac, heat exchanger failure for furnace justify replacement, otherwise you'll be better off keeping what you have.

Anything you buy now won't be the same quality as what was produced 15 to 20 years ago. You can actually end up with less reliable equipment.

It sounds like you're dealing with a dishonest sales guy looking for commission.

Why do you say this? Any problems?

There are far older units out there that still work.

 

I'm going through a similar situation as we speak. Last week my 10 year old A/C died. It was installed as a new unit with the furnace. The technicians who came to look at the unit spent hours trying to determine what and why I lost the A/C. Refrigerant was the reason but not the cause. Yes, they were able to determine what particular items failed. They explained what parts could be replaced and what the cost would be (I just missed on warranty for some parts). It was my choice to spend $2000 to fix a 10 year old unit that was still 10 years old and could fail on other areas or spend $3000 to get a new full warranty unit. I have to admit they tried very hard to work around getting a new unit, but explained the economics of buying new vs repair. They also admitted that I should've gotten more than 10 years service but just like anything there is no guaranty on longevity.

Circumstances dictate what a person does. First, in my case, I know little or nothing about A/C. I'm nearly 70 years old and no longer do major repairs as as I use to. My wife is 70 and feels the heat a lot more than she use to. Although I'm not rich and can't just throw $1000 away, money is not the determining factor in this case. I could've spent days looking for other quotes and "better" deals and be without A/C for weeks or have the original installers just do it and apply their $100 service call to the repair cost. I also trust this dealer in terms of fairness and quality workmanship. I opted to have the new unit. Will be installed end of this week. For me it was a quality of life decision!

 

Contractors can inflate repair costs to make replacement more attractive.

It doesn't really make sense to spend more than 50% of the installed cost on repair - that's if it's like 10 to 12 years old.

Figure a 20 year lifespan and subtract from that -> so the max to spend on a 15 year old unit is 25% of replacement cost.

 

I suspect there is a refrigerant leak in the system, its r22 and maybe as old as 39 years, although i suspect its about 25 years old. No sense fixing it. I was a former apprentice locomotive mechanic and fully understand the benefits of replacing the 15 year old working furnace with the defective air conditioning system. (Especially as it will involve supporting the evaporator coil while the new furnace js being installed if not all done at the same time)

right now im leaning towards just replacing the air conditioning system. Am learning about them now. They sure dont have the longevity of the old air conditioning systems.

 

IMHO, it's not cost effective to replace the furnace prematurely. They can work around it.