You all seem to never steer me wrong with this kind of info, so I’m back yet again. Our house was built in 1997 and we have the original AC unit. It seems that it has been on its last legs for a while and our wonderful HVAC guy seems to keep it going for us. Still, I think it is almost time, as when it is very hot, the upstairs seems not to be able to get cool enough (i.e. - set at around 72, but when we went upstairs last night the temp was 80). So…advice on a new unit? What brand? Heat pump or not (we currently don’t have a heat pump but I’ve heard the newer technology can be a good option). We live in the mid-Atlantic region so AC is usually on from May to Sept or Oct. Hot and humid summers (usually).
My AC guy is great, as I mentioned, but he is a small one-guy company and seems to be set on no heat pump and no real choice when it comes to brands. I haven’t asked him lately, but IIRC, it seemed to me that he was pushing the one brand (which I can’t recall) that he would be comfortable with - whether or not it was the best for us.
Has anyone recently replaced their AC and can give some advice or suggestions (or what to avoid) I would appreciate it!
I wouldn’t replace it until it stops working and is beyond reasonable repair. When you do replace system, consider doing two separate zones, one for downstairs and one for upstairs.
I had to replace a unit a few years ago. It’s a complicated decision, but the main thing to know is that the installer is more important than the brand of unit. Get a few different bids. If a contractor does a manual-j calculation to size the unit, it’s a good sign that he knows what he’s doing. Do a lot of research to pick a good company.
As @lizard said, you should probably get a zoned setup to split up/downstairs. If you’re willing to pay more upfront for lower operating costs and greater comfort, you can consider a multi-speed high SEER unit. Those run at a lower speed when the cooling requirements aren’t as great, which helps to keep humidity under control while maintaining a more even temperature.
Anyway, it’s worth doing some research; there’s discussion boards used by people in the industry you can find with a little searching, in addition to tons of information online.
Check if you have adequate insulation above 2nd floor ceiling too. More/better insulation might help upstairs.
We are in a similar position. AC is 13 years old. Coil has a significant leak and AC guy said to replace it- for $1000! Wondering if we should just get a new unit. We do have zoned heat/air so at least the first floor is comfortable.
However, if you wait until it stops working (which usually happens when you need it most), you will likely be at the mercy of HVAC companies who will want to charge higher prices.
I know where I live, companies charge 2-3x as much for AC replacement in summer vs winter. It may be best to get it fixed for now, then replace it in fall or winter. Current model year AC units will also be clearing out for next year’s units, so you might be able to get an even better price.
About a month ago our upstairs 15 year old AC was just not keeping things cool. As we were investigating, we noticed ice on the copper pipe coming out of the exterior AC unit and some ice build up on the outside of the furnace. Apparently our “seal” cracked a couple weeks ago which allowed the freon refrigerant to leak out. So instead of 7 lbs, we were down to 1 lbs which resulted in the condenser coils to freeze up. (FYI - this old freon stuff is disappearing and will be replaced with something different so the price to refill freon is supposed to sky rocket.
Option A was to pay $250 to try and recondition the seal plus $650 for 6 lbs of free - on or to get a new Carrier AC unit installed for $3600.
I agree with fractalmstr - At my HVAC place, you can save more than $1000 if you order and pay for a unit between November and April. After that, supply and demand kicks in. Worth asking…
Cold air goes down. Try closing your upstairs doors and pulling curtains or blinds so you don’t get direct sun. Maybe the cool air will stay upstairs longer.
We replaced everything 2 years ago. Ugh…so expensive. We got high efficiency furnace and good air conditioners but not high effiency. We have variable speed motors which allow us to shut off rooms not being used without hurting the system.
All in all we have seen a great reduction in our bills and are very happy. I would not wait to replace AC as you might as well begin saving on bills ASAP.
Our friend replaced his system through Costco. They hired subcontractors. He was pleased.
Best advice: contracts are now stating you have to have yearly inspections to keep the warranty. This could run into huge money especially if you have 2 units. So state you want them to inspect free for the first 5 years and write it into the contract.
Good luck.
I agree with others,it is huge who installs it. One piece of advice, don’t use Sears, my MIL and my wife decided to get central A/C installed in our house, they did it through sears, it was a nightmare, no doubt they found the cheapest contractor they could, and the units themselves and the work was horrible. We currently use window A/C, our units died several years ago and we didn’t want to fork out the money, with college costs right now and such.
Make sure that the person doing the work does a survey and runs calculations. Let him know that the upstairs struggled (we had the same problem, the idiot installed too small a unit for the upstairs) and they will install a higher capacity unit.
In terms of the quality of the unit, I have heard good things about trane (my main furnace is Trane, I love it), Carrier is supposed to be decent. I would talk to your service person, and ask him what he has seen, usually they know which are good or bad (if he doesn’t do installation). The other thing I recommend is finding someone local, even if you have to pay more, a lot of these guys with the low bids put in crap units, then disappear, a local guy is going to want to maintain his reputation. Be careful of contractors giving you a ‘great deal’ by installing your unit if you commit to a certain date (usually in the short term future), where they are doing a commercial job and have ‘spare time’. They will give you a discount, like 500 bucks, but the reality is when they do jobs like that, their costs are a lot lower because insurance and such is covered by the commercial job, but more importantly, they often give you an inflated price and because the proposed date is close by, pressure you into taking that ‘great deal’. If they do that, say thanks, and find someone else, you likely will get a better price from someone else.
Good advice. I didn’t think to mention until I saw the replies that we do already have a two zone system. Have never really had issues with the main level, but the basement - which is on the same zone as main - is freezing and the upper level, on it’s own zone, has issues when it is really hot. Checking the insulation and adding is a good thought. We are the second owners of this house and my suspicion is that the builder put in the bare minimum necessary, which really was not sufficient for the upstairs.
I agree in theory with you, @lizard, about getting as much out of it as possible, but I know the end is near and I want to be ready if we need to replace it quickly. My hope is to get through the summer and replace it when it is not an emergency. Because of the age of it, I have to believe that our electric bill will decrease with a more energy efficient system (as @sax mentioned). And I didn’t think about the price of freon going up…more to consider!
A unit from the late 90’s is probably using r134a, which was the replacement for r12 (aka freon). Anything after 1993 or so will use r134a, which was done because freon destroys ozone. They have decided to ban r134a and replace it with a new substance, but I believe as of right now it still is not totally banned (what happened with Freon is that if you needed it, they could recycle it, but nothing new could be made). It is going to get expensive as the new stuff takes over, if I remember correctly they found r134a is a greenhouse gas.
I’ve been looking into this for a while and the option I like is the split system, as mentioned in #2, but I don’t know how your house is set up with ducts, etc.
My house was built in 1999 and we have freon in both our Carrier units and was informed that as of next year all new AC’s will have some other type of refrigerant. Maybe this is a state by state issue…well whatever it is, my checking account is a few thousand dollars lighter 
I just found this info online:
In 1987, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered the phasing out of certain ozone-depleting refrigerants as part of the Montreal Protocol. The act calls for 90 percent of R-22 coolant, commonly called “Freon,” to be phased out by 2015 and to be virtually obsolete by 2020.
Most air conditioners manufactured before 2010 use the old R-22 coolant. The new EPA-approved coolant, known as R-410A, does not work with the R-22 equipment.
Something else to check before you pop for new a/c units is the ducting for upstairs. Make sure it is intact right and doesn’t have any holes, separations at seams, or is defective and has disintegrated and your cold air is just filling up space in attic above ceilings and not getting into living area.
Something a lot of people don’t do enough and wonder why a/c isn’t cooling enough…change/clean a/c filters regularly. Check your filters.
Since we are talking about AC…I have 3 wall units at my apartment. They are quite noisy (to me) and not as cool as I would like them to be. Can the noise be fixed or should I just replace them?
Try taking cover off window a/c and oiling fan shaft going into fan motor. Make sure fan isn’t hitting anything too while it’s running. If motors are noisy, it probably makes sense replacing whole unit instead of trying to repair or replace worn fan motor.
@lizard - thanks. This is all a bit beyond me. I may just replace them to get a peace of mind. I just hate to throw away perfectly good ACs.
I think most of the major brands are similar. Carrier, Trane, etc.
As your system is approaching 20 years old, its probably getting near the end of useful life. However, you might check a couple of things before you write the check for a new one. Check your air filter on the unit that cools your upstairs. If the filter gets pretty dirty, it starts to inhibit airflow, and, oddly, that causes the cooling coils to ice up which inhibits cooling. Its easy to check and you can tell by looking if its inhibiting the airflow.
The other thing to check is your ductwork in your attic (assuming that’s where it is). Its possible for the continual heat in the attic to weaken the duct taped joints that some installers use, and you can wind up with a substantial “break” or hole in your ducting that will seriously change the performance of your system. In fact if you’re seeing a big difference between downstairs cooling and upstairs, I’d look into this.
Good luck.
I know people bash Sears, and in general I don’t disagree these days. But I’ve actually had some good Sears AC stories. Our ACa was installed in 2002, before we owned the house. Somewhere along the way we were able to get a Sears warranty for the unit. Last May I paid for a 2 year plan. It was several hundred bucks, but included a couple of check-up visits and seemed like an OK deal. Last July our compressor died, and Sears fixed it, for free. Lately our unit hasn’t been keeping up with the heat, so I called them. Something inside the house was “frozen” and there was a slight freon leak (I could have this a little wrong, but there were 2 problems). I am VERY HAPPY I got that warranty, and it’s paid for itself MANY times over.
OP. I could have written your post, except that our house is almost 80 yrs old and not energy efficient. The AC system (2 zone) installed by the previous owners was at least 20 yrs old and run on r12. I have just finished major AC upgrade throughout the house. We replaced all equipment, but kept old ducts (mostly) - some ducts were already upgraded a few years ago. The original two zones, became four (2 split systems with heat pumps). I used an advice of a good friend (a general contractor and an engineer) to use LG brand AC (LG Multi-V IV Air Source Heat Pump System). He just installed the same system in his own house. The equipment is very sophisticated and requires an engineer to design and configure the system to work properly for your house. The work itself takes several weeks. Expensive, but should provide big savings on our cooling and heating bills. Very comfortable - I wish I have done this sooner. Good luck!