Price check on central HVAC repair/replacement


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Old 06-01-18, 02:36 PM
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Price check on central HVAC repair/replacement

My mother's central heating and a/c unit went out today. The repairman say's it's the compressor. The unit was probably at least 20 years old and used R-22 as refrigerant. In part due to having to change refrigerant, the repairman says it would be close to $3000 to repair or $5000 replace.

Do either of those figures (or his explanation about the R-22) sound out of line? The company has an A+ rating with the BBB and in our little one-horse town, nobody stays in business long unless the word-of-mouth advertising is good, so I don't question his credibility but for that much money a second opinion could never hurt.

EDIT:
I probably should've mentioned it's a three and a half ton unit.
 

Last edited by Fred_C_Dobbs; 06-01-18 at 03:04 PM.
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Old 06-01-18, 03:24 PM
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While I can't comment on the $$ figures, it is true that R22 is obsolete and production has been banned for several years. It is still available (old stockpiles), but the price goes up every year. I'm running with a 25 year old R22 system. When it finally breaks down (so far I haven't had to replace anything in it), I'm going to buy a new system. The newer R410A systems run at higher pressures than the R22 systems, so it's not recommended to convert them.
 
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Old 06-01-18, 03:30 PM
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It's too hard to compare prices. I don't discuss prices here. Every area and market is different.
It's unfortunate that there so few companies to choose from but several estimates is the only way you'll know if you're getting a fair price.
 
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Old 06-01-18, 04:03 PM
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Does it at least sound reasonable that the price of changing the compressor would be jacked up by the need to convert to the freon-of-the-week?
 
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Old 06-01-18, 05:58 PM
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Looks like good prices to me. I would not even offer to replace a compressor in a 20 year old condenser.
 
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Old 06-02-18, 07:49 AM
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Thank you for your inputs. Considering the age of the unit, we decided it made better sense to replace it rather than repairing the most expensive component.
 
 

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