Our downstairs unit gave up the ghost about 2 years ago. Not a huge deal it says about 75 in the summer minus heat waves. Use a portable in those times to keep it around 72. It’s dual fuel so in the winter I just run the furnace on gas.

9 years ago replaced the heat pump and coil for the upstairs unit.
American Standard 3 ton 14 SEER unit with 10 year parts warranty and 4 year labor.
Cost me $3500.

Welp that 9 year old unit quit cooling Tuesday temps hit 90* upstairs was able to sleep downstairs since the little portable had been kicking.
Checked the unit found a mouse krispie fried across the capacitor. Awesome went and grabbed a new capacitor swapped it in but still no dice.
HVAC man came says I have a leak.
$375 later have 2.5lbs of refrigerant and stop leak in the system. It’s cooling but just a temporary fix.

When the weather cools I’ll have them back out to do a leak test $450 and replace whatever is leaking since I am still under parts warranty.

Asked for an estimate to replace the downstairs unit.

Amana ASZH5 2.5 ton 14 SEER with 10 year parts warranty and lifetime compressor warranty. No labor warranty this go round.
$8000 (ouch)

Kind of stuck with them fixing the warranty unit. Going to get a couple estimate for the dead unit and go from there.

At least the house is cool for now. Yesterday upstairs was 96* and downstairs was 84* with the little portable running.

Can you run a mini split unit downstairs vs a new forced air system.

Not looking forward to getting the bill on replacing our 5 ton one day.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Can you run a mini split unit downstairs vs a new forced air system.

Not looking forward to getting the bill on replacing our 5 ton one day.

I’d likely need 4. 2 on the ground floor and 2 in the basement. Or a couple multi zone units but labor and materials for the multi zone would likely be close to the 8k anyway. Getting a couple other estimates hopefully will be less than $8k
The portable keeps the kitchen and family room acceptable but still have a dining room and den on the 1st floor.
Then the basement would likely need 2 as well.

Parts warranty often does not cover leaks or gas. Also any contractor can do the warranty repairs if they are still under a factory warranty.

5 ton, Daikin, heat pump, 17 seer in Florida with the air handler just cost me $13k.

That stinks but I have felt your pain.

quote:

Originally posted by Stlhead:
Parts warranty often does not cover leaks or gas. Also any contractor can do the warranty repairs if they are still under a factory warranty.

Yeah, that’s why it cost me $375 just to get it rolling had to pay for 2 lbs of refrigerant and labor.
Though warranty will cover whatever part is leaking.
Glad to hear anyone can cover the warranty. I’ll get a couple more estimates for tracking down the leak too and not just on the downstairs system.

2nd HVAC guy came out today and was WAY cheaper on the unit replacement and uses a higher efficiency system.
Said he uses some sort of inverter system. Waiting on the written estimate for actual parts being used.

Also says will likely be able to fix the broken warranty unit for cheaper than the $450 the other company wants just to do the leak test.

Replacing an AC system sucks! Mine last went out in August 2015 and I have only one unit for a one story house. August in Texas is the hottest and most dreadful time of year. It sucked! I had to buy a small portable unit I vented out a window in a guest bedroom and for a week my wife, our birds, and myself spent all our time in that one small guest bedroom and the portable AC unit only could make it tolerable. I dread the day it happens again.

It is going to be hot here out west. No central AC. Have one of the Sharp free standing units in the front room that vents out the pellet stove wall thimble. It is a smallish house and it helps. Also try to keep the house closed up during the day. Fortunately we do not have much humidity. Just intense heat.
Hang in there guys. We are just entering into the worst of it.

Replaced both of the units in our Mt. home over the past 2 years ( they were 18 years old). The original units weren’t properly matched so it sounded like a freight train running but I knew that when we made our offer on the property.

Decided to get Bosch heat pumps with propane furnace backups. The beauty of these units is that the air handlers are variable units capable of running 10 to 100% of capacity depending on the load.

Cost us about $12K each but the house is much more comfortable and quieter. Was also able to use a rebate from our electric company as well as the Federal Energy Tax Credit so that helped mitigate the costs.

This fella highly suggests that we replace the furnace as well because it is over 20 years old and when he looked inside he pointed out alot of corrosion where water had been in the unit.
To which he is correct as 4 years ago our upstairs unit drain clogged and that drain is connected to the downstairs unit and all the water flooded through the downstairs furnace.

He wants to use an Amana side discharge inverter heat pump. Which sounds pretty neat because it can vary its power usage. So while it runs more it runs at a lower power when needed. With the unit running more it’s better at removing more humidity which we have plenty of. The unit is quieter and smaller. It can also be mounted on the side of the house. I think that will be good because the side of my yard is sloped and the units don’t stay level long.

He also wants to use a matching 80% gas furnace to replace the old.

All to the tune of $9,000 and the heat pump qualifies for $2k tax credit. So I am looking at $7,000 total to include a much more efficient system and getting a new furnace when the other folks wanted $8k on a less efficient unit that did not qualify for the tax credit and did not include replacing the furnace.

That sounds good. I would just add two caveats. One being a tax credit does not reduce the cost from $9k to $7k imho. And, make sure the dealer is really top notch. If there are issues it could make the deal go south.
I might be mistaken but isn't an Amana inverter what Para had installed in the last year of two?

Black what state are you in if you don’t mind saying?

quote:

This fella highly suggests that we replace the furnace as well because it is over 20 years old and when he looked inside he pointed out alot of corrosion where water had been in the unit.

This is what scares me. My furnace and A/C were installed in 2007, so they're 18 years old. The furnace works fine, and we also put in an insanely expensive fireplace wood stove insert last year, so it barely runs anymore (only when it gets SUPER cold out, or we're away from home for an extended time).

Unfortunately, the A/C is on borrowed time. It had to be refilled last year, and that cost over $500 due to the old type of refrigerant that it uses. It's working now, but I'm not sure how long that will continue.

It's bad enough to have to replace the A/C system, but to have to buy a new furnace to replace one that probably has another 10 years of life left in it at our intended usage really sucks. But I also don't want to spend thousands on new AC and then have the old furnace take a dump out from under it in 6 months.

And I've gotta have A/C. I thought I'd try to get without it this year, but June quickly banished that thought from my mind. It's like satan's sweaty buttcrack out there and the house pretty much turned into a swamp until I broke down and turned it on. I was so incredibly relieved when it worked!

Yeah, ours went in 2017, it was August and Texas ~ 99-ish days.
Too about a week for our guy to get it in and installed.
It was rough so I bought a floor standing unit to help from Home Depot circa $350 and I still use that unit in my garage.
Could not have been a worse time for us. HOT!!!!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I get it whole heartedly get it the downstairs A/C has not worked in 3 years and we’ve limped along on the gas furnace and a portable unit for the kitchen and living room when it’s blazing outside.
He said the furnace does not have to be replaced however he would HIGHLY encourage it.
If we only replace the coil it would add about $1000 to the labor charge when the furnace does go bad and he would have to install some adapters on the old furnace because the new refrigerant has propane in it so they have to install leak detectors or something like that.
My unit was manufactured in 1998 and not installed until 2002 when the house was built.
So for the cost he is charging especially compared to the cost the other guys wanted to charge without a new furnace I am good with it.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
That sounds good. I would just add two caveats. One being a tax credit does not reduce the cost from $9k to $7k imho. And, make sure the dealer is really top notch. If there are issues it could make the deal go south.
I might be mistaken but isn't an Amana inverter what Para had installed in the last year of two?

I get it, it reduces my tax liability by $2000. So no technically my HVAC is still $9000. However my tax liability is $2000 less.

And yes this fella is quality.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Black what state are you in if you don’t mind saying?

Kentucky

quote:

the new refrigerant has propane in it so they have to install leak detectors or something like that.

well that's interesting, and not something I was aware of.

So in order to save the spotted titmouse or whatever we're now not only costing consumers millions by forcing AC system upgrades through legislated refrigerant deprication, but we're also increasing the likelihood that your house will catch fire when your new AC coil leaks flammable gas into your furnace. Or at the very least, your furnace now won't light mid-winter because some sensor is telling it not to, either legitimately or otherwise.

Our regulating bodies are mentally retarded.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This HVAC guy assures me there is not a concern for any sort of explosion.

I saw a video the other day talking about HVAC guys checking for leaks with torches.
Fella lit a torch and ran it along the refrigerant line and at a point in the line where the leak was the torch flame got a little larger.

At the time I thought it was just a silly internet video for clicks but guess it is actually legit.

We had a leak last week, the system was struggling. They mentioned that due to the new 2025 rules, I could not buy a new condenser as that refrigerant was no longer available, but the leak was in the coil and it would be 3100 and those parts were still available with the 410 refrigerant. He said if the condenser goes out the coil would not work with the new refrigerant so I would need a whole new system whenever the condenser went out…could be years from now. I didn’t like throwing away 3100 and rolling the dice so went with a whole new system, could and condenser . 5 ton Lennox 14 seer 5 ton for 7500 installed. It has a 10 year parts warranty so should be set for a while. The new system is much better than the old one and actually runs and shuts off. The old unit must have been leaking for a while as it ran all the time.