acinsa
07-04-2006, 01:28 PM
I am in the midst of having several contractors come out to my home and provide estimates on repairing or replacing my current system. I'm more confused now than when I started this excercise and this forum looks to be my best bet for great advice. Any help would be much appreciated.
I have a seven year old AC system (Carrier variable speed blower and Carrier Tech 2000 5 ton compressor) cooling my 3000 sq ft, 2 story home in San Antonio Texas. My regular AC guy came out last week and told me that I've got a leak and he had to put 5 pounds of freon in the system (last checkup was in Dec). He says that the coils in the blower unit are leaking and will cost around $xxxx to replace the coils. This seems to be a fair price for coil replacement as all 5 bids I have so far are around that price. Although everyone recommends replacement of the unit at around 50% more than the coil replacement. My normal AC guy is pushing Trane and recommended that I consider replacing both the blower and the compressor. His quote is a hair less than $xxxxx to go with the Trane xL19i (5 ton unit) with Trane variable speed blower. He also recommends multi-zoning (three zones) which brings the cost to around 20% more. That gave me a heart attack. I've gotten a few other complete system quotes (most not recommending the multi-zone) but all are within a couple of thousand on the price. I'm defintely interested in the 10 year P&L warranty since my current system couldn't make it 7 years (very disappointing). One of the contractors I was speaking with mentioned going with two American standard 15 seer units (one 3 ton, one 3.5 ton) for a bit less than $xxxxx (one to cool each story). This seems to make sense and the price seems good but I have no idea if this is better than a two stage compressor (or two compressors like in the 19i). I also noticed that everyone seemed to say that I needed a 5 ton system and nobody did any Manual J calcs. I know from reading through posts that SIZING is VERY important. The gentleman who recommended two units did look at my square footage (about 3200 sq ft under the roof, 1800 up, 1400 down) to come up with his calcs. Any advice on how to approach this problem would be much appreciated. I paid big bucks for the Carrier unit when I built the home (supposedly their best) and after it failed after 7 years I don't want to be going through this again.
Thanks,
Alan
[Edited by acinsa on 07-04-2006 at 11:27 PM]
I have a seven year old AC system (Carrier variable speed blower and Carrier Tech 2000 5 ton compressor) cooling my 3000 sq ft, 2 story home in San Antonio Texas. My regular AC guy came out last week and told me that I've got a leak and he had to put 5 pounds of freon in the system (last checkup was in Dec). He says that the coils in the blower unit are leaking and will cost around $xxxx to replace the coils. This seems to be a fair price for coil replacement as all 5 bids I have so far are around that price. Although everyone recommends replacement of the unit at around 50% more than the coil replacement. My normal AC guy is pushing Trane and recommended that I consider replacing both the blower and the compressor. His quote is a hair less than $xxxxx to go with the Trane xL19i (5 ton unit) with Trane variable speed blower. He also recommends multi-zoning (three zones) which brings the cost to around 20% more. That gave me a heart attack. I've gotten a few other complete system quotes (most not recommending the multi-zone) but all are within a couple of thousand on the price. I'm defintely interested in the 10 year P&L warranty since my current system couldn't make it 7 years (very disappointing). One of the contractors I was speaking with mentioned going with two American standard 15 seer units (one 3 ton, one 3.5 ton) for a bit less than $xxxxx (one to cool each story). This seems to make sense and the price seems good but I have no idea if this is better than a two stage compressor (or two compressors like in the 19i). I also noticed that everyone seemed to say that I needed a 5 ton system and nobody did any Manual J calcs. I know from reading through posts that SIZING is VERY important. The gentleman who recommended two units did look at my square footage (about 3200 sq ft under the roof, 1800 up, 1400 down) to come up with his calcs. Any advice on how to approach this problem would be much appreciated. I paid big bucks for the Carrier unit when I built the home (supposedly their best) and after it failed after 7 years I don't want to be going through this again.
Thanks,
Alan
[Edited by acinsa on 07-04-2006 at 11:27 PM]