Swapping out side unit? What is involved?

[changezi]

Hi guys,
My brohter in law's AC stopped working and a contractor told him that his Compressor is gone. He said he would not put a new compressor in and would rather change the whole unit. He gave him a quote of $1800 for changing the unit. Since my brother law can not afford to pay that much, I am thinking to help him change out the outside unit and save him some bucks. Can you guys tell me what is involved in changing the condenser unit if I do it myself? Does it also require to change the inside unit and refrigernat lines etc?

Thanks

[mattison]

$1800 bucks is a pretty good deal.

It would be illegal for you guys to do this job according to the EPA and there are serious fines and jail time if a neighbor decides to cash in on the reward if they see ya doing it. On top of that you need several pieces of specialty tools to do the job correctly.

[changezi]

Thanks for the reply. Now that I know, I will leave it for professionals. Just another question, How is goodman product? Is it pretty reliable?

[danski0224]

It is not the brand, it is the installation.

I still fail to see how people will change an outdoor condenser, yet leave that old grungy coil inside. The refrigerant system is already open, so the extra work involved is more than half done. :D

Especially after a compressor failure, when little pieces of metal could be stuck in the coil, just waiting to make a return trip to the brand new compressor... The new liquid line filter drier does a good job of stopping those little pieces AFTER they go through the new compressor... Of course, no one wants to pay someone to put in a suction line drier and then come back to check the pressures...

Wait until next year, when the 10 and 12 SEER components are no longer available.

It gets better in 2007, when you can't buy any new R22 AC components, now you are looking at changing the lineset, coil and that new condenser cuz you gotta go with R410a... :wall:

To each their own. :D