When your air conditioner reaches the end of its life, you need to be prepared, or you could get caught in a heat wave with a broken-down cooling system. If your AC needs repair now, at the start of summer, should you get that done, or should you get a new air conditioner? Is your old AC unit still worth fixing?
There’s not a simple, black-and-white answer to that question. There are a few different variables you should take into account before you decide whether to pay for that repair your air conditioner needs or invest in a new AC system instead. Here are the things to consider.
Age
If your air conditioner is still fairly new, and especially if it’s still under warranty, it’s more likely to be worth repairing, even if that repair is pretty costly. You might still get several more years out of it! If that air conditioner is ten years old, an inexpensive repair that will get it through one more summer might be a reasonable choice. If it’s much older than that, it’s not worth repairing.
Condition
The key to keeping an AC system in good condition is maintenance. This should be done annually by a qualified technician. If you’ve been consistent about having that done, your air conditioner is much more likely to still be running at eleven or twelve years of age. If you’ve never had maintenance, you’ll be lucky if it’s still running at seven or eight.
Repair Cost
Don’t make assumptions about what a repair will cost. Get an estimate. That way you’ll have all the facts while you’re considering your options. It might be a great plan to have a quick and inexpensive repair. Don’t give up on your air conditioner, thinking the repair will be too expensive, without knowing for sure.
Repair Frequency
As air conditioners get toward their twilight years, they need repairs more and more often. Each one might not be too costly, but all together, it might be more money than the air conditioner is worth. And if it needs repairs at least once a year, it’s getting to the point when it will be unreliable when heat waves hit. You certainly don’t want to deal with a breakdown then!
Efficiency
After a year of working hard, collecting dust, and losing lubrication, your air conditioner’s efficiency will have dropped by about 5%. Maintenance can keep bringing that efficiency back up at the start of each summer for quite a while. But eventually, no amount of maintenance can make up for the wear and tear an old air conditioner has gone through.
An old air conditioner’s efficiency will keep dropping until it stops running entirely—or until you decide it’s time for air conditioning replacement in Woburn, MA. And here’s the other thing you should know: today’s air conditioners have seen significant improvements in how they use energy. A new system will be more efficient than your old one ever was!
If you’re still on the fence, we’d be delighted to talk over your options and help you make a decision you can feel confident in.
Reach out to Cooling Unlimited, Inc. to speak with qualified AC experts.
