Derek Cole answers caller questions about HVAC failures and repairs. A leaking coil on a 10-year-old unit usually means replacement, not repair. Capacitors are the most common failure he sees, and catching them during routine maintenance can save you money.
Questions this episode answers
About 500 capacitors.
Chapters
You ask your comfort and energy questions and they get answered. This is the Ask Derrick Cole show. Hey, this is Derrick Cole. Welcome to episode 48 of the Ask Derrick Cole show. Answering your home and energy questions. And yes, we are outside today. As you can tell, we're not in studio, so. So that's fine though we got a little different vibe going on. Feels good. But let's get into the questions.
I have a leak in my coil. Should I do the repair that would cost me $1,300 or consider replacing my 10 year old unit?
Yeah, leaking coal is very, very expensive. And with a 10 year old system, I would look more at replacing it than repairing it. And the reason I say that is because once you repair the coil and you spend that $1,300, you still have a 10 year old unit, no warranty on anything else. And you gotta have a bad compressor. Next bad circuit board. You know, you can start as they call it, hundred dollar to death instead of nickel and dime you $100. Yeah, you can start hundred dollars. So new system will be the way to go. Ten years old, you get a new warranty, you get a new system and you don't have anything else to worry about. So I would definitely go that route and not fix it. Now, if it's a rental house and something you're looking to just fix and move on, I can see that. But I would replace it if you plan on staying there any length of time. Even if you do plan on selling it, I would still look at replacing it because heating air according to Better Homes and Garden is one of the only things you can do in your home to actually get back 100% of your investment. So if you replace that system, you should be able to get 100% back in the home value. Feel like I need to bend down. Feel like I'm milling.
Okay.
I don't need, I don't need to yell.
When replacing, when replacing the outdoor system, should the indoor unit be replaced as well?
It should be. It's kind of like replacing one tire on your car, not replacing all four of them or replacing two of them and not the other two. I mean, you have a mix and match kind of system and that's probably not going to be rated by, I think it's Ari that actually does the matchup. So once you get to a 14 seer, 15 seer unit, if you don't replace the indoor section, you're not going to get that match as well. So we always replace both parts of the system. Again, let's say it's 10 years old, you get a new condensing unit and you have a 10 year old vehicle air handler which has no warranty. The condensing unit has a warranty. So again you're kind of, you're just putting a little patch over it. You're not really doing a whole lot. I mean replace the whole pair, get a new 10 year warranty with it and that way you don't have to worry about anything breaking down. And if it does break down, you got a warranty. I go back to the tires and I've heard this before. People say you want to replace two tires or replace all four of them. Well, replace all four of them so that way we can roll the same way. I don't want half of it done and half later. Let's get it all done now.
What is the most common thing to go out on my unit?
Probably the most common item I've seen is the capacitor. I think last year we as a company went through about 500 capacitors. So by far it's the most popular. But a capacitor is one of those things that you can actually on regular scheduled maintenance, you can actually test the voltage and see when it's getting weak. And it's not going to go out when it's 70, 75, low humidity, it's not going to go out when it's convenient, it's going to go out when it's hot and cold because the more load is under, the more pressure it's going to go out. So if it's weak, that's going to push it over the edge. So when you do regular maintenance and have that checked and the tech comes to you and say, hey, your capacitors running a little bit weak, a little out of range, go ahead and replace it. I mean that's why you're doing maintenance, because you want to do it now when it's convenient and not later when you have a breakdown and everyone else is calling because it's 20 degrees outside. So capacitor and as well as capacitor is one of those items that we can catch on the maintenance before it goes out. Now it's not 100% foolproof, it can still go out. But it's one of those you can check and say, hey, it's starting to run a little weak, let's replace it and you'll be good to go. That's it. That's episode 48. Make sure you send in your questions askdericole and we'll get them on the show.
