Repair or replace AC

[Jun Wang]

Hello

I need some advice on my rental property ac unit. So I just recently purchase my first rental property out of state. The tenant has moved in and the AC started having issue. The technician came out and had to refill the refrigerant.

He added 2 lb referigerant and said it might be a small leak or just evaporated. Not sure how true the evaporated part is ???

Anyway, the unit is still under Amana 5 year warranty and it ends 10/2020. So I called warranty service provider and they said only parts are included with warranty and if it was a leak, the cost of labor is about $1500.

So my questions is to repair it while still under warranty to save maybe few hundreds on part or just replace a new AC unit (~$6000) when it break down again.

Or just keep adding refrigerant for the next few years ?

Thanks

[John Teachout]

If someone is charging 100 per pound for refrigerant, they're royally screwing you. The prices of r22 have come back down but there's also replacements for it that are relatively inexpensive such as 407, etc. This "R-22 is really expensive" is a way for HVAC companies to gouge people. Certainly that 5 year old unit would have had something other than R22, but still...And it's never "normal" to have to add refrigerant to a system. It only needs it if it has a leak and a 5 year old unit shouldn't be leaking. Doesn't mean the unit is defective, someone may have put a 3" nail in the wall to hang a picture.