Thank you for the comments. My wife keeps saying the same thing but I can't help but feel that the replacement was completely unnecessary.

Although it does sound fishy, 18 years is a long time for the compressor to last. I’ve never had one last that long (unfortunately for me). It is a reminder to get a second opinion on a big replacement. The guy from the gas company told me a story today about someone that replaced their water heater after the plumber told them they needed a new one. Turns out the gas had just been turned off.

I really appreciate your thoughts on how to view the experience. I agree that as a preventive measure, it's not a waste of money. But I still question the competency of a company who professes to be experts in the field yet doesn't even address the main issue nor acknowledge that the initial symptom was still present after the install. Just be open and admit they didn't do a complete job!

Without doing the jiggle session with the old unit, all that can ever be done is guess. I hope you don't intend to derail his business based on a guess on your part. I'd bet 9 out of 10 technicians would have done the same thing given the age of that compressor.

Remember, they didn't force you to buy the new system, but you accepted their recommendation without a second opinion, so you must accept some of the blame if you insist on pointing fingers.

At the end of the day, it needed to be done soon anyways. If anything, he saved you having to make a second repair service for more money down the road, and the unit is cheaper now than it would be next year, or the year after that.

I don’t see why you are ruling out that your old compressor was faulty and your circuit breaker (which I am assuming is about the same age or older) were both faulty. Sometimes after a big expense we are so uneasy about it we are looking for trouble.

You know that, if you had not replaced it, Murphy’s Law says at the next heat wave your old AC would have died and you’d be on here posting that the HVAC company should have insisted you replaced but they didn’t and now you’re paying top dollar for a replacement cause it’s 4th of July weekend and it’s 98 degrees. So you’ve spared yourself that.

National average life of an air conditioner is about 15 years. An 18 year old AC is probably around 10 SEER efficiency. Minimum entry level machine depending where you live is 13 to 14 SEER depending on equipment configuration and such.

So if you wound up with a 14 SEER rated unit you could effectively save around 40% of what the old one cost you to operate via utility bills. In 10 years time it could make you look like a genius. That's assuming the old one could have last another 10 years.

Of course if you're in the middle of selling your home / moving maybe not so much. But a new AC should help you sell it, if that's the case.

If some one reading this has a new machine with a reported bad compressor it should be checked / tested. I service the Katy, Texas area.

I saved someone this year over $2600, because of an improper diagnosis on a 5.5 year old AC unit.

With that said--- this mostly comes down to age of the machine.

I suspect the original cause of the breaker tripping was the old compressor drawing too much current (ie going bad). This could have cause arcing/burning/oxidizing of the brealer contacts which "jiggling" might have cured temporarily. You may well need to replace the breaker sometime soon if this was the case. I would go ahead and be thankful that it's been replaced with a nice new unit that, hopefully, will last another 18 years!

sktn77a: beat me to it. I would have that breaker replaced as well. Be happy that you 1 got 18 years out of a compressor unit, 2 you will not have to worry about compressor problems for a few years and 3 you more than likely got a more efficient compressor that will save you a little change every month it's in operation.

speculation only...will never know...the savings of old vs new in operation costs sounds nice but won't happen....and while a new condense might help as a selling point, it certainly does not add additional value to a home's selling price...don't kid yourself...

IMO

I’m guessing from your comments you haven’t had an annual checkup on your system. Everything has a lifespan and 18 years is a long time for an AC, especially if you haven’t done annual maintenance. I drove my last car ten years before it had to be towed and scraped and I always had regular maintenance. My mechanic had warned me it was time to start shopping, but I hate to car shop. It was not my mechanic’s fault the car stopped running-it was its time to die.

If it were me, I'd get a 2nd opinion on the required repairs before making the decision to replace my AC. As far as incompetence or truthfulness of the HVAC tech, that would just be speculation at this point. If you don't trust your HVAC contractor then wait for the labor warranty to run out and then switch to a different HVAC business for future maintenance and repairs.

Well, I'm just a user. I believe that it is reasonable to realize that the unit would need repair in the 'moderately' near future and therefore the obvious error was not a huge loss. However, this is really a good teaching moment for all of us to realize that we ought to ask good questions and probably get a couple of opinions. Sooner than needed replacement is not a winner, just not a huge loser. If the unit went 5 more years, that is 5 years not on the new units lifespan and yes, a later replacement will probably be more expensive, but will likely be even more ffecient, and if not yet on a fixed income, the increased cost would just be inflation.

BUT, it is clear that the original unit was still running and may have continued for several more years. Obviously, the breaker wasn't broken, just dirty, because it apparently ran fine once reset. The 15 year 'average' lifespan for AC may be partially explained by MANY others experiencing similar diagnostic 'errors'.

Also, just my experience with AC: I have a split system with a Heat Pump upstairs, and regular HVAC downstairs. The HVAC is 20 years old. I did have to replace the heat pump with a leaking coil after 17 years use. Remember, a heat pump runs year round. Both units were basic Goodman units that many here consider bottom of the barrel crapola.

We had a breaker that kept tripping in a similar manner. Our electrician said that the brand of breaker that had the problem was a brand that was faulty. I wish I could recall the brand. He replaced it and we've had no more issues.

I don't know about anyone else, but when I take my car into the shop, I don't tend to second guess the diagnostic and don't usually drive it to another shop to get a second opinion. However, I agree that the old unit was likely on its last legs. I also have a "vintage" unit, and it scares me to think of the cost to replace it in mid-summer, if I can even get someone to do it. This is probably a blessing in disguise.

Diagnosing defects isn't exactly easy, and it gets increasingly harder the older a unit is. You see all sorts of potential issues, simply because things are no longer anywhere close to in factory condition. If you want a comprehensive diagnosis, the technician would have to check each part for whether it still operates within normal parameters. Typically, that would require removing it and replacing it with a brand-new part.

You could certainly pay the technician to do that. But he probably costs you at least $50/h. So, if he takes 8h to fully diagnose the problem, you are out $400 for labor alone. Some of the parts that he needs to do this diagnosis would add several hundred more. And at that point, you haven't even started the repair.

Or you could rely on the technician's professional expertise. Rather than exhaustively testing every single part, he goes down a checklist of the most likely culprits trying to minimize your overall cost. This approach isn't 100% guaranteed to test the fewest parts, but it should still be a better outcome for the vast majority of situations.

daddystheman,

I am curious to know the brand and model of your AC condenser and where are you located. There are often debates on this forum about which equipment is the most reliable. Getting 18 years out of an AC condenser without any major problems is very good these days.

I am not sure if investing $3250 in replacing a compressor in a 18 year old R-22 system is the best investment. Hopefully you will get another 5-10 years of service out of the HVAC system without a major repair.

Mike, it sounds to me like he replaced the whole AC condenser with a new unit. This wasn't a compressor change out as far as I can tell. So the new AC condenser would most likely be covered by 10 years parts at least. Efficiency goes up in this situation if the work was done properly.

The don't make R22 units any more so it's highly unlikely that it's a R22 condenser that the company installed. If you know what you're doing R22 to R410a conversions can be achieved on 18 year old indoor equipment.

There's a list of things that need to be considered in doing such things, but if this is what the company did.... just escaping the R22 Freon debacle coming in the not too distant future could easily make up any difference in terms of life the old condenser had or didn't have.

I service the Katy, Texas area.

If that is the case then it would be helpful if the OP explained what exactly was replaced. Once all the facts are known we can make a better judgement if the installer was a liar, incompetent, or both!

Now that it's gone,there's no way of knowing what condition the old unit was in nor why the breaker was tripping. I recommend just stating the facts while reviewing the installer and alow readers to draw their own conclusions. In the future,ask questions before buying. I can tell you from first hand experience that when lying, incompetency and greed are weeded out of the hvac field,few are left that actually earn what they are paid. 75% of techs in Texas work for owners that couldn't diagnose an ailing system if their life depended on it. Who's fault is it? Look in the mirror,he has been hoodwinked while looking for the lowest price in town. Dealing with hometown,family owned and run businesses won't solve all your problems but it can eliminate a few.

Pretty unusual occurrence. And I'd change the breaker also.