Right on.

You wont be disappointed. They will treat you fair, honest prices and quality work. They don't pay for a lot of advertising. Word of mouth keeps them busy. That is always a good sign.

Haha. That sounds like my company.

You can get a better price off-season. Units die in the summer. AC guy can work a ridiculous number of hours. Attics are beyond miserable. You can save a decent amount on your electric bills with a new unit if your old one has issues. Ours had disbonding of the Evaporator core. Brother said it was probably due to Chinese Sheet rock. New unit kept the temp lower and kWh were about 30% less.

Prices generally for the equipment do not change depending on what season it is. You may hear of a company that runs an add during the winter saying they are just breaking even and trying to keep their guys busy and that’s BS. Any company that’s worth their salt should have work if they want it. We have canceled 50 contracts this year and have turned down work because we can’t keep up. Don’t get me start on hiring people that’s been a joke.

The start of the phase out of 410A is going to start soon and there are three replacement refrigerants that are being discussed and all are a propane base. The EPA has never approved a propane base refrigerant for residential or light commercial. The last I heard three of of the manufacturers all wanted to use a different type of refrigerant as well. So it’s going to be a chit show.

The SEER rating has already gone up and is going to go up again and there is now a new rating called SEER2. All of the new systems SUCK for all the brands! The quality has gone down across the board with everyone. We have had ECM motors go out that is under warranty and the motor is not in stock. Just the other day we had a high end condenser that the board was bad and under warranty but not in stock. So how did we fix it? We bought a condenser at our cost of $6,700 so we could get the board and then they changed the plugs so we had to do had to cut the wires and splice them.

Don’t worry about 410A being phased out there is plenty of it around and will be for a long time. Prices on equipment has gone up and will continue with the changes that are being required. The old PSC blower motor that were in units would cost the consumer say $350 well a ECM motor will be double that.

It’s really a [censored] shoot as to what to do right now. If the system is working and you haven’t had issues it might be best to keep it running and save for when it does need to be replaced. Or go ahead and spend money on replacing the system now with a new 410A system and know that in the future the refrigerant will cost more. Or wait a year maybe two and get a new system with the new refrigerant and see how that’s going to work out.

Probably wondering why he had condensation on all of his walls….

I'd be looking hard at mini splits myself. $1k for each bedroom plus another $2k for the common area - or about half the cost of a new system. Everyone has individual control, they're more efficient than most regular units, and if one goes out you still have AC in the house...plus they're very cheap to replace entirely if it fails.

Mini split is the hope for the children.

Check the Gov. tax credits for the system your putting in.

Carrier

Thought this was a call to a seance. The AC spirits will be disappointed.

Smaller AC companies slow down in the cooler months. Prices are a little bit better then. Right now they price high. If you don't like it they have 20 more lined up that will.If you think they are getting in an attic for cheap right now you are crazy. They are working sun up to sun down and making a fortune. New installs is where the money is.

Post of the week! I LOLed.

If not broke, why replace it? I worked briefly for an HVAC company, and these new units are not made to last. I was shocked to see so many coils come back bad; rusted and leaking from new installs.

If anything, stick with a small company. Yes, these new EPA standards drove up the cost.

Haven’t found an HVAC company yet that I could trust. Right now I’m on year 4 of a new system & year 1 of a new unit outside because a guy didn’t know his job well enough to diagnose a problem (outside). Hopefully will be good for a long while with regular maintenance. Posts like this and YouTube at least help a little on what goes on with AC systems.

The local pawnshop always has AC equipment. Even the high dollar programmable gauge set. Where you can choose the type of refrigerant. Like R22 to R134.

Weight scale for the tank. Vacuum pumps. The bigger expensive jobbers.

R22 is used in your house. R134 in your ride. R22 is getting phased out. Current price is $250 for a 5# tank.

One can of R134 is called a pound. Imagine 5 cans worth.