Hi, Our AC failed recently and I called the folks who installed it 12 years ago to come out and take a look at it. The tech came out yesterday, hooked up the gauges, and verified that it was empty. He gave me an estimate to rec harge it, which I agreed to - $550. About 4 hours after the service, the unit stopped working, obviously it had a leak. I asked the tech a few times before he charged it if a leak test should be run. He had filled it with maybe a pound and watched his gauges and said a leak test ($250) would not be necessary. The tech who came out today, verified that it was once again empty. He put a small amount of freon in it, got out his detector, and verified that it was leaking at the compressor coils. He gave me an estimate for a new unit and coils for $3200. I asked him about the service yesterday and he said that it is not standard procedure for them to test for leaks before recharg ing a unit. I'm certainly not an expert, but somehow that just doesn't see m right. Of that $550, $89 was the service charge and the rest was freon. I think if the first tech had done what the tech did today, charge the uni t a little and wave his wand around, he would have caught the issue before pumping 5 pounds of freon into the system, and my bill would have been mayb e $200 at most. I'm curious what others think, should the first tech have done more testing for a leak before charging it? Oh, and this was a TRANE unit that failed at 12 years.
Now for part 2 of the question. I really don't feel like spending 3k for a n ac unit right now. The new unit would be a higher seer rating and would require replacing the a-coils as well. I found on Alpine Home Air, they se ll a Goodman R22 unit uncharged for about $800. Add $500 for Freon (at mos t, I can probably find that cheaper) and maybe $500 for install (just guess ing here), and it seems like I could replace the outside unit only without messing with the a-coils. Would it be advisable to go that route for appro x $1800 or just bite the bullet and get the full upgrade? Thanks in advance Jon