So quick rundown - we live in an old home with an old A/C and we've basically accepted it will need to be replaced in the next few years. With the Texas 105 degree days it gets us to 68 at night but by mid-day 76 is about as low as it gets. The unit is constantly running from 6am-on for the most part.
Sunday morning we awoke to the house at 77 -- the coolant line had frozen. I shut the unit off to let it thaw and after a few hours kicked it back on, and while it got us down a degree from 77->76 (do moreso to the "cool" day Texas had yesterday), it didn't get below that. No freezing during the day but on inspection before bed I saw it starting to freeze again so we cut it off for the night.
Our A/C company came out the next morning (Stark). From what I can tell, they make their money off of being available, but high markup. I don't know that for sure, just the impression I get. They came out last year to replace the compressor and gave us the sales pitch for a new unit, but since we aren't sure how much longer we are going to be in this house (plans to keep it and rent it out), we are trying to hold out any big purchases.
They looked at things and basically said the coolant line is freezing because we're way low on refrigerant and that's why that even though it's cooling, it's not cooling well. It's a R-22 unit, so he said prices are obviously going to be high per pound. I believe he quoted me in the neighborhood of $4k+ to replenish the unit with recycled R22, but I may have mis-heard. I also understand that they'd much prefer go the full replacement route so any quote on that is going to be marked up even more. It's a 7 or 9 pound refrigerant capacity on the unit.
So - we're comparing prices of new units and kind of running the math on how much we'd likely save in our energy bill with a unit that is actually efficient. But obviously the costs of these units is pretty daunting.
Looking for some advice/suggestions. Bite the bullet and stop patching a system that will just need more work in 6 months, or go for a freon fix that should get us through this summer and allow us 8 or so months of non-misrable weather to really put some price shopping into our options for the future?
Is the freon option even really an option? Is it insanely difficult to get recycled U22, or just expensive (I'm seeing $100-$150lb numbers online, but no sure if thats nationwide or just "if you can find it").
Sunday morning we awoke to the house at 77 -- the coolant line had frozen. I shut the unit off to let it thaw and after a few hours kicked it back on, and while it got us down a degree from 77->76 (do moreso to the "cool" day Texas had yesterday), it didn't get below that. No freezing during the day but on inspection before bed I saw it starting to freeze again so we cut it off for the night.
Our A/C company came out the next morning (Stark). From what I can tell, they make their money off of being available, but high markup. I don't know that for sure, just the impression I get. They came out last year to replace the compressor and gave us the sales pitch for a new unit, but since we aren't sure how much longer we are going to be in this house (plans to keep it and rent it out), we are trying to hold out any big purchases.
They looked at things and basically said the coolant line is freezing because we're way low on refrigerant and that's why that even though it's cooling, it's not cooling well. It's a R-22 unit, so he said prices are obviously going to be high per pound. I believe he quoted me in the neighborhood of $4k+ to replenish the unit with recycled R22, but I may have mis-heard. I also understand that they'd much prefer go the full replacement route so any quote on that is going to be marked up even more. It's a 7 or 9 pound refrigerant capacity on the unit.
So - we're comparing prices of new units and kind of running the math on how much we'd likely save in our energy bill with a unit that is actually efficient. But obviously the costs of these units is pretty daunting.
Looking for some advice/suggestions. Bite the bullet and stop patching a system that will just need more work in 6 months, or go for a freon fix that should get us through this summer and allow us 8 or so months of non-misrable weather to really put some price shopping into our options for the future?
Is the freon option even really an option? Is it insanely difficult to get recycled U22, or just expensive (I'm seeing $100-$150lb numbers online, but no sure if thats nationwide or just "if you can find it").
