Need some Quick Insight into A/C Repair Costs !!!

[jediphx]

ok my wife and i have been having a problem with the a/c in our home freezing up and needing to be recharged with freon every few months. We had an idea it was a leak but just confirmed yesterday that it is indeed a leak in the coil inside the central house unit. (outside unit is fine) According to the guy we need to replace the coil and the plenum. Cost I was quoted with labor is $1300. Anyone with experience with this, could you tell me if this is a fair price for this job? Thanks

 

[drnickriviera]

Sounds reasonable. That's around $500-$600 in parts

 

[MiataNC]

Had a similar issue. Cost $1500 to repair.

Seems to be about the going rate.

 

[amdskip]

oops, house, not car

 

[jediphx]

ok thanks, a neighbor said that they had replaced their entire central inside unit for a little more than $1500 (which i couldnt believe) and that why I wanted to make sure.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: jediphx
ok thanks, a neighbor said that they had replaced their entire central inside unit for a little more than $1500 (which i couldnt believe) and that why I wanted to make sure.

If you are spending more than $1k for repairs then you should probably be getting a new one, especially if it is more than five years old. New units are SEER 13 or higher. Try to get one that is higher.

 

[dartworth]

The A coil costs $200-400 and a couple pounds of refrigerant is under $50...factor in labor which should be around 8 hrs and there you have it

 

[jediphx]

well the house was built in 1970, someone owned it 10 years before we did and we have owned it for about 8 years ourselves. We never replaced anything on it. How much would a new one cost? The central unit in the hallway is both heater and a/c. The a/c is electric and the heater is gas.

 

[nakedfrog]

I had AC installed (had none before) a couple years ago and it cost me a little over two grand.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Get a second estimate. For that kind of money, I would also find out how much it would be for a new A/C.

 

[jediphx]

well it seems that even if I replaced the central air heater unit the coil and plenim are separate pieces so they would still need to be replaced anyways.

 

[skull]

Any good a/c contractor will replace the A-coil(evaporator) when they replace the central air unit. The A-coil is inside the plenum. Some companies will replace the plenum to raise costs. They should be able to just make a door with sheet metal to cover the hole they make to take the A-coil out. My old company would reaplace the a/c unit and A-coil for $1800 for a 3 ton a/c or smaller. $1300 for just the evaporator is pretty high. If the outside unit is more than 10 years old I would definatly go ahead and replace it. Life expectancy is only 10-15 years.

 

[richardycc]

the A coil? I think they charged me $300 for that part when I replaced my whole system to a seer14 one, total was around $1600 minus $300 rebate. this was 3yrs ago.

 

[jediphx]

One thing I forgot to mention that I think makes a difference, my heater unit is gas and the a/c is electric so that is why the coil is not inside the unit like an electric


the a/c unit outside is fine, from what i was told the central air/heat unit in the house is separated from the coil and the plenim so if I replaced the heating unit I would still need to pay to replace the coil and plenim also. I called around and everyone seems to tell me that 1300 is a fair price for replacing the coil and the plenim.

 

[skull]

Originally posted by: jediphx
One thing I forgot to mention that I think makes a difference, my heater unit is gas and the a/c is electric so that is why the coil is not inside the unit like an electric


the a/c unit outside is fine, from what i was told the central air/heat unit in the house is separated from the coil and the plenim so if I replaced the heating unit I would still need to pay to replace the coil and plenim also. I called around and everyone seems to tell me that 1300 is a fair price for replacing the coil and the plenim.

Yeah the coil sits inside the plenim on top of the furnace. They have to do that so the condensation doesn't blow on the heat exchanger. Where in an electric furnace it doesn't hurt the elements to have the condensation blow on them from underneath.

They don't have to replace the plenim. Thats what is raising the cost. They can just cut into the existing plenim and make a sheet metal door to cover it up. The reason i'm saying to replace the outside unit is because it won't be much longer before it dies. In order to change the coil they have to take out all of the freon. So there only 2 copper lines and disconnecting and hooking up the electric to put a new outside unit in. When your a/c needs to be replaced if there a good contractor there going to go ahead and replace the coil again(every company i worked for would refuse to replace just the outside unit). So in effect you will be paying twice to have the evaporator replaced. You might as well pay an extra $500-$700 and get the new outside unit while your at it.