The A/C went down due to a capacitor in the outdoor condenser unit which the technician fixed. We had a very strong onshore flow this AM complete with coastal advection fog (which we get typically a few times a summer) so I had to put it down to 62 to get it to run for him. He said the system was down two pounds which I paid to have filled. Obviously if it's leaking eventually that will have to be fixed because the refrigerant costs $50/lb. We had it installed 15 years ago. It's supposed to be a closed system that doesn't leak at all but it seems like some would escape at joints over time. The copper evaporator coils in the house seem to be the most common culprit due to corrosion caused by formic acid found in the air of most houses. Trane has developed an aluminum coil that supposedly doesn't have the problem. He said it's $3200 to replace the coil, ouch.
Yeah, last time I had the A/C worked on I too realized I was in the wrong business...
David, I had my coil replaced this week. Only $800, but that was labor only. The coil was under warranty. The tech told me they are replacing copper coils with aluminum because of the corrosion. The HVAC company certainly gets more per hour than any surveyor I know.
Andy
My wife said she has thirteen coil replacements currently on her service schedule. And, based on Maryland pricing, Dave's coil replacement was expensive, but his refrigerant was cheap.
I haven't replaced the coil yet but may have to eventually.
I had a similar situation, the coil developed a leak, it was $900 to replace (the $3200 does seem high). They are allowed to use old Freon in my system which was about 15 years old, but they weren't allowed to install an old coil that could use the old refrigerant. Because they can't install an old coil the new coil needs newer refrigerant, and because my perfectly working compressor can't use the new refrigerant it needed to be replaced. Oh, but there's more, because the piping between the compressor outside the house and the coil inside the house can't abide the new refrigerant it needed replacing also.......
For me it was a bit under $5000, sounds like it may be more for you if the coil alone is that much, maybe you are lucky and your other equipment doesn't need upgrading and it's just the coil.
The system takes R410A. The $3200 quote is probably complete which this company seems to quote complete.
A capacitor failed which he replaced hopefully not with the flux type because I wouldn't want to find ourselves traveling through time.
I had a new AC system installed in 2009, but I have no idea what kind of refrigerant or coil material it uses. Anyone know when they quit using Freon and copper?
Jim Frame, post: 430149, member: 10 wrote: I had a new AC system installed in 2009, but I have no idea what kind of refrigerant or coil material it uses. Anyone know when they quit using Freon and copper?
R22 units were last available new in 2010 but that doesn't mean yours is an R22 unit.
Aluminum coils apparently came out about 2006. Aluminum doesn't corrode like the copper.
The problem with copper is the new more efficient units have thinner wall tubes which leak after 7 to 10 years, commonly. The older less efficient units didn't develop the leaks until after decades because the copper tubes are thick walled.
