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Life expectancy of residential central air
I purchased and installed a central air unit for our home back in the Spring of 1998. This American-Standard unit, which appears to have a SEER-10 rating, has never given us any trouble and has never needed to be serviced.
I realized yesterday that next Spring will be 15 years since installation! Obviously a simple service inspection is well past due, but with its age is it even worth the cost? Or should I instead be considering replacing it with a current baseline efficiency model next year? With the exception of this summer the A/C usually will not operate enough here in Michigan to justify the increased cost (and increased complexity) of the highest efficiency models. |
it should not cost that much to preform the summer maintenance on the unit. The average life expenctance is around 15 year for a A/C, but that does not mean yours won't last 20 or more. the oldest running residential A/C unit I ever worked on was around 35 years old. I currently see many units still running that are 20 + years old.
If you have a medical condition or want to limit the possiblity of living with out A/C for a few days and can aford it replacing it would not be foolish. |
Never been serviced? Not even maintenance? Find a local contractor who your friends or neighbors know is good and have them do a check up. It is cheap insurance if you can find a good mechanic to have it looked at once a year.
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I'm afraid that I'm just cynical enough to believe that if you bring someone in to look at it now and especially if you tell them it's never been serviced, that they'll muck about with it just to prove a point and you'll start having issues. If the ports haven't been operated in all those years, just connecting gauges could leave one jammed open or dislodge some gunk into the lines and now you have a repair.
Just my 2€. I'd leave well enough alone at this point. |
I'd leave it alone!
Someone else says, and I agree, old school, don't fix what ain't broke.
I have a hard time believing you don't do any other maintenance? Do you ever clean the thing? No dust, no mud? Do you cover the compressor over the winter? |
Well ... this is not a matter of being "broke", it's a matter of trying to keep it from being broke.
You wouldn't say the same thing about changing the oil in your car, I would assume. There's no difference in providing maintenance to your A/C system. As others have said, find a good contractor in your area - ask friends and neighbors, and check BBB ratings and such. Quote:
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I disagree with the when it breaks replace it.
read up on how basic systems work and you will be able to handle just about every failure, except a leak. Leaks are for the pros. EPA says so. The rest is no more complex then a car and in fact far simpler. All you need is a working knowledge of your system to keep it running for another 15 years. |
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I"m 50 /50 on this. It's true you can replace 90% of the parts and keep it running, but a 15 year old unit will be more costly to operate and work less efficiently as a new unit. It's one of those spend it now or spend it later issues.:yes: |
I am seeing a lot of analogies to auto maintenance. My car came with a book of regularly scheduled procedures. Why didn't I get a book? What regular procedures should be done with a conventional cooling system to keep it running for as long as possible?
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Most AC last more than 20 years in that part of the country. It only get used 2 months of the year the most, and only a few hours (some days only 1 hour) a day. Filter only needs to change once every year, or two years. (not hot air heat, so no filter for heating). I lived in northern MI between 1980-1990, My AC never serviced either, I only changed my filter once every 2 years. Never had problem.
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