How to Reduce AC Repair Cost

AC repair cost by HVAC companies could be quite high. There are two main ways to reduce aircon repair cost.

• Do regular air conditioner maintenance, aka AC tune up.
  Regular AC maintenance greatly increases the time between AC repairs or excludes the need for aircon fixes altogether. For example, when the outdoor unit (condenser) short cycles for whatever reason, it will eventually wear out the compressor and the entire air conditioner much sooner than under normal use. Meanwhile, with periodic air conditioner maintenance, conditions that could cause AC short cycling would not exist in the first place. In addition, a short cycling air con uses much more electricity to do the same cooling.
  Saving on AC maintenance does not pay.
  
• Do not repair an old AC. It’s cheaper to replace it with a new air con.
  At some point old air conditioner service becomes throwing good money after bad money. Just as with an old car, an old aircon fix is not worth it. A couple of examples with a 10+ year old air con.
  1. An HVAC Tech found that the air con is low on refrigerant or completely empty. Don’t bother with repair. Here’s why.
  Every air conditioner has 3 main elements: An outdoor unit (condenser), an Indoor coil (evaporator), and connecting them 2 copper lines. The copper lines either leak right after the installation or never. Now, the remaining indoor and outdoor parts of the air conditioner are assembled by brazing dozens of small copper tubes. Eventually, due to metal fatigue, they start leaking refrigerant. This type of refrigerant leak is hard to find and impossible to repair. Also, pretty soon due to metal fatigue, new refrigerant leaks will appear. That’s why “Don’t bother with repair of an old air conditioner“.