Better to replace now or during the Fall?

[Veronica Coates]

Hello. I'm new to this board but I've got a question. Our A/C hasn't been working properly, constantly running. We had someone come out and look at it a few months ago and they suggested we replace the WHOLE thing. We said no and just got a new motor. It turns out we only need a new condensor(not sure if I'm spelling that right) and possible new coils. They quoted us around $5k to do it. My dad knows someone who said if we waited till the Fall he would do it for almost $1k for just the condensor. We know we need a new one. My question is, would be better to wait and repalce in the fall? It is working, just not that well or as much as we would like. We live in Oklahoma and the temps in the summer are usually as high as 103. Would it be better to replace now and go with lower cooling costs? My husband has researched SEER rating and all that so we get an efficient one and all that but I'm trying to convince him that we should wait until the Fall because it will be cheaper and he says the cost would outweigh itself because of cooling costs.

Any help would be tremendously appreciated. Thanks!
Veronica

[William E. Siegel]

I agree with your husband. Why sink $1000.00 or more into your system now and have to replace it in 6 months. The savings will eventually outweigh the costs. There are also some good rebates out there right now and you can usually get 6 or 12 months interest free.

[Veronica Coates]

We wouldn't be putting money into it now. We already replaced the motor which was $500 but that was a few months ago. What we would do is leave it as it is right now and replace the motor once cooler weather hit in the Fall/Winter.

[Gary Reecher]

Make sure that a heat loss/gain calculation is done for proper sizing. Bigger than what is needed is not better, it's less efficient.

[David A. Andersen]

Don't worry about SEER ratings if you not going to replace the entire unit!

You will loose all of your investment in SEER if the equipment does not match.

You can not by 10 SEER (or lower) equipment like you have now. So your only real option is to replace it all.

Also, if you mismatch equipment it will void your warranty.

[Gary Reecher]

Forgot to add that some of the manufacturers are beginning to get strict on warranty issues. If the compressor goes out on a new 13 seer unit, which is the lowest you can get now, that they want the model and serial number of the evaporator coil. If it doesn't match their list then they tend not to want to honor the warranty.