I have a 12 1/2-year old split air conditioning system (outside condenser/compressor unit is Lennox 10ACB60-3P and evaporator unit in the attic is Lennox CH23-65-1; heating uses natural gas). I have had leaks for the past few years, but last year, it got so bad that the unit would not cool at all by the end of summer (in Phoenix, AZ). The leak has been isolated to the evaporator. The condenser/compressor unit is working fine. The gas furnace/air handler is also working fine.

Question: Which of the following should I choose?
1. Replace only the evaporator unit
2. Replace the evaporator and condenser/compressor units as a matched higher efficiency set
3. Replace the evaporator, condenser/compressor and the furnace/air handler.

Thanks.

That choice is yours but

Your unit is 12 years old and past its prime

A new matched unit will save you $$ and if you go with a heat pump and new gas high efficiency system you will save bigger $$.

The question is cost. As we all know the price for both gas and electric are not going to get any cheaper so switching to the heat pump/gas furnace will start to put savings in you pocket right away and also in the future.

If you fix the old stuff it will be cheaper than a complete replacement but since it is old you could keep spending more money on repairs as time goes by.

Get two or three estimates on both repair and replace and then you can see what the cost difference will be.

Only buy equipment that has a FACTORY warranty of 10 years on parts and seriously consider a 10 year FACTORY labor warranty also.

Do NOT by a warranty offered by the dealer you buy from. If that company goes out of business your warranty is also gone. There are complete factory warrants available and this way if the dealer goes out of business it makes no difference to you. There will be a toll free number to call for service and they will have a local factory authorized company do the repair. If you are unhappy with that company you can call the number again and if you live in a well populated area they can send another company to fix what the other did not fix.

Dealers make good money up front just selling a aftermarket warranty and in many cases they really do not want to come back and fix the unit they installed because the after market warranty companies do not pay much on labor.

Good luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hvac1000

That choice is yours but

Your unit is 12 years old and past its prime

A new matched unit will save you $$ and if you go with a heat pump and new gas high efficiency system you will save bigger $$.

The question is cost. As we all know the price for both gas and electric are not going to get any cheaper so switching to the heat pump/gas furnace will start to put savings in you pocket right away and also in the future. .....

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Thanks for your reply, hvac, especially about what to look for in a warranty (factory warranty, etc).

You talk about a heat pump and a gas high efficiency system - with a heat pump, there should be a no need for a gas furnace, correct?

A couple of more questions:
- If I am going to replace the entire system, is it worth replacing what they refer to as 'linesets' as well (the copper tubes running between the outside and inside units, I suppose)?
- I have read that the equipment brand name does not matter much, but that the installation is pretty much everything. Still, there are probably equipment manufacturers that probably must be avoided. Anything that you have on that? Specifically, are York and Goodman of reasonable quality?

Thanks.

There should be a no need for a gas furnace, correct?

If you buy a back up electric furnace you will not need a gas furnace

If the lineset is the exact same size you can flush it and use it over

The install tells it all. Junk install = junk job=junk equipment= sooner failure of unit.