Knowing when to replace the air conditioner in your Hillsboro, OR home will help you avoid frustrating, mid-season breakdowns, unnecessarily high energy bills, and more. Unfortunately, the signs of a failing AC can closely match the symptoms of a broken one. At Pro Heating and Cooling, Inc., we’re sharing tips to help you determine whether AC repair or AC replacement is right for you.
Age
With proper installation, moderate use, and regular maintenance, air conditioners can last between 15 and 25 years. With local temperatures rarely rising above the mid-80s, your air conditioner might provide two full decades of service before showing signs of significant wear. However, if your older AC has recurring problems, requires an expensive repair, or costs a veritable fortune to run, it’s probably time to replace it. Over time, holding onto an old, inefficient but still-working AC could prove far more costly than replacing it.
The Big Four
There are four common signs that indicate an air conditioner is struggling. Whether they’ve reached the end of their lifespan, require maintenance, or need repairs, air conditioners often exhibit these symptoms:
- Poor or inconsistent cooling
- Decreased humidity control
- Decreased air quality support
- Lower efficiency
Determining whether these problems are age-related or fixable will help you decide whether to replace or repair your cooling system.
Ineffective or Uneven Cooling
A standard, central air conditioner should create roughly the same temperature in every room. If you have large areas of your home that always feel hot while others feel cool, you may need HVAC air balancing service, a new air filter, or professional AC maintenance. However, if you’re already up to date with AC maintenance and your air conditioner provided balanced, whole-house cooling before, it may be time to retire it. Aging air conditioners have an increasingly hard time distributing cold air to every room.
Decreased Indoor Air Quality
The first thing to check when your indoor air quality (IAQ) declines is your air filter. When homeowners skip filter replacements, large clumps of collected debris can break off and eventually reenter the living space. Dirty air filters can also leave large buildups of dust, dander, and other allergens behind HVAC vent covers, in ducts, and on sensitive AC components.
If maintenance isn’t the issue, you might have long-term IAQ concerns resulting from various location and household-specific factors. For instance, if you have multiple indoor pets or live near a busy freeway, you’ll invariably have more allergens and contaminants in your home than usual.
You can adjust your HVAC system’s IAQ support to better suit your needs by scheduling an air quality test and installing a whole-house air purifier or other IAQ accessory. For homeowners with older air conditioners and no prior IAQ problems, sudden and lingering changes in air quality may indicate the need for AC replacement.
Excess Humidity
System performance declines across all areas as air conditioners near the end of their lifespan. In addition to decreased air quality support, your AC might not extract as much moisture from your indoor air. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, if your climate control system can’t keep your humidity under 60%, you risk developing problems with mold.
A common cause for poor humidity regulation is a blocked AC condensate line. Our HVAC technicians can fix this problem with basic AC maintenance. However, another common cause for poor humidity regulation is age-related wear. When maintenance won’t do the trick, start planning to replace your AC. Unchecked problems with indoor moisture create poor operating conditions for air conditioners and could hasten age-related failure.
Rising Energy Bills
By some estimates, residential air conditioners can lose as much as 50% of their efficiency over their first 10 years of use. These efficiency losses often continue at an increasingly rapid rate. If you’re debating whether to tune your AC, address minor repairs, or start fresh, sizable increases in your energy bills are good reasons to consider scheduling a replacement. Age-related increases in AC energy consumption won’t get better as the months and years go by.
The End of Your Warranty Protections
All air conditioners come with manufacturer warranties. AC manufacturer warranties cover repair and replacement costs for problems caused by faulty components, incorrect assembly, poor equipment designs, and other manufacturing-related concerns. AC warranties for basic air conditioner parts typically last 5 to 10 years, and AC warranties for compressors often last 10 to 12 years. When air conditioners experience costly or recurring problems, the end of their warranty protection makes replacing them rather than fixing them the better choice.
Recurring Repairs
Although air conditioners can last up to 25 years, many of their components will not. For instance, you may need to replace your air conditioner’s capacitors one to two times during the lifespan of your cooling system. Notwithstanding this, you shouldn’t have to schedule AC repair service every cooling season.
If your AC needs costly repairs every year or if it needs multiple repairs throughout the cooling season, it’s time to let it go. Your AC could be incorrectly sized for its service area or simply no longer fit to serve your home.
Exorbitant Repair Costs
Some expensive AC repairs include:
- Compressor replacement
- Evaporator or condenser coil replacement
- Replacing blower motors
- Control board repair or replacement
Whether you’re facing the high costs of recurring repairs or a single, expensive repair bill, there’s a general rule in the HVAC industry: Replacement is the best choice whenever the costs of repairing an AC are more than half the cost of replacing it.
Obsolete AC Refrigerants
For some older air conditioners, a refrigerant recharge service following a refrigerant leak is both hard to find and expensive. If you own an air conditioner that still uses Freon, this may be the case. Also known as R-22, Freon is obsolete. The EPA phased Freon out and outlawed its domestic production and importation in 2020. With finite Freon supplies remaining, you’ll save more money by replacing a Freon-reliant air conditioner now than you will by waiting.
If you own a 10 or 15-year-old air conditioner that uses Puron, replacement could also be the most cost-effective choice. As Freon’s successor, Puron enjoyed a limited run, but HVAC manufacturers are currently prioritizing highly efficient, next-generation refrigerants instead. Upgrading an old, Puron-reliant AC to one that uses a new, high-efficiency refrigerant will have a noticeable impact on your energy bill.
Major Home Renovations
Following a major renovation, you may find that your older air conditioner is no longer powerful enough to cool your home. Unintentionally creating AC sizing issues by adding rooms, walling off rooms, or making other significant layout changes can cause stress on the cooling system. It also causes undue wear and the potential for costly and recurring repairs. If your AC unit is undersized or oversized, upgrading it to meet your current cooling needs will add value to your home and minimize future AC problems.
The best way to decide between AC repair and replacement is by consulting with a reputable HVAC company. We provide AC installation, repair, and maintenance services. We also offer ductless AC, IAQ support, and financing for qualified applicants. For expert AC service in Hillsboro, contact Pro Heating and Cooling, Inc. now!
