I just found out that we have a bad freon leak on our Goodman air condenser. It is only about 10-11 years old. The guy that looked at it.. (my husbands friend) said we would have to get a whole new condenser because the leak is really bad. He said he has never been able to actually smell the freon, and he could at our house. He didn't have a leak detector thingy.. he just said that because the smell was so strong and the stains around the inside where the fan is is so bad.. that it'd have to be a leak. He checked the capacitor and the compressor with some tools and said they were both good. Anyway.. does anyone know how much Goodman condensers generally cost, and should we just get a whole new set (condenser and handler). Oh.. and couldn't we just get the leak fixed? Thanks! :)

Most ,if not all leaks can be fixed,, by the way you can`t smell freon,at least I`ve not found any with a smell. I think I would get a professional tech to check it out and at the same time he could give you an estimate on the repair /or cost of replacement in your area, get 2 or 3 price quotes before you decide which brand and company you want to spend your money with.a company with good reputation of doing good work is very important.

Depending where the leak is it might be repairable, than again there are some leaks that are not. Rss can have a chemical smell like chlorine or if it is burnt it will smell like sulfur.
If it comes between changing the coil or changing the unit I recommend changing the unit. Cost wise and life of unit would be better to get a new one.
Call a tech out to check it out and go from there.

Never heard of anyone able to smell a leak, but if it was that easy to smell then, it should be that easy to find. I'm also wondering with a leak that bad how he was able to verify the compressor is still good, since you will need to hold pressure on the system for a short time to verify your pressures are okay.

Many leaks can be fixed but you can easily reach a point of diminishing returns paying to fix them all before a new system is cheaper.