#AskDerekCole Episode 48: Most Common Failure

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 that's fun 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, leaking coil 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 could have a bad compressor next, bad circuit board. You know, you just start, as they call it, hundred dollarnya to death instead of nickel and diming you. Hundred dollar? Yeah. You can start hundred dollar. So new system would be the way to go. 10 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. Um, 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 and air, according to Better Homes and Gardens, 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. I feel like I need to bend down. I feel like I'm yelling. Okay, 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're gonna 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. Once you get to a 14-seer or 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 fan coil air handler, uh, 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. Um, I go back to the tires, and I've heard this before. People say, you want to replace 2 tires or replace all 4 of them? Well, replace all 4 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, uh, is the capacitor. I think, um, I think last year we as a company went through about 500 capacitors, so by far is the most popular. Um, but a capacitor is one of those things that you can actually on regular 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 it's 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 capacitor's running a little bit weak, a little out of range, you go 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 the, one of those items that we can catch on the maintenance before it goes out. Now it's not 100% foolproof You 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, #AskDerekCole, and we'll get them on the show.