In this episode of The Comfort Experts, hosts Derek Cole and William Skipper answer a common homeowner question: when is the right time to replace a heating and air‑conditioning unit. They explain that most manufacturers rate system life at 10‑15 years, and that compressors and coils typically begin to fail within that window. They argue that repairing a major component on a unit that old is often not a good investment because the rest of the system is equally aged, leading to subsequent failures (e.g., coils failing after a compressor replacement). Derek uses a heart‑compressor analogy to illustrate the unit’s central role. William emphasizes that technicians will assess age and repair cost to recommend either repair or replacement, and they invite viewers to contact their service at 1houraircarolinas.com or by phone.
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Owning a home has many elements that have to be looked after. One of the most important elements is comfort, and your heating and air conditioning is priority. That's why we stop at nothing to provide on-time service and expertise for all of your heating and cooling needs. We are the comfort experts. We have the solution for all of your trickiest heating and air conditioning needs. That's why we brought you our show, The Comfort Experts. Every week we bring you tips and tricks to improve your home and bring you peace of mind with our quality service tips for home heating and air conditioning maintenance.
Hey, this is Derrick Cole along with William Skipper and we are The Comfort Experts. And answering common questions that the public has about their heating and air equipment. And one of the questions we get quite a bit of is when is the right time to replace that equipment? Skip, what do you think?
Well, Derrick, typically what we see is 10 to 15 years is about the time we start seeing units starting to fail with major failures. Most of your equipment manufacturers will tell you that life expectancy of their systems are 10 to 15 years. We start to typically see compressors and coils start to fail in that range, so that is right in line with what they're saying. But what you need to do as a homeowner is understand when is it the right time to make that choice of going ahead and changing that equipment out because a major repair on a 10 to 12, 15-year-old system is not typically a good investment. When you see a compressor fail at 10 to 12 years, it can be changed, but what you need to understand is we're putting a compressor back in that same system that every component in that system is 10 to 12, 15 years old. We're putting a compressor back in that's going to be pumping at full capacity. On 12 to 15-year-old coils. And what we typically see then, Derek, is within a year or so down the road, we start seeing coils fail because of, you know, pressures that they're not accustomed to in the last 5 or 6 years.
Yeah, because the compressor is like a heart. The heart in your body is the compressor of the heating and air unit. So that thing's pumping refrigerant, pumping blood to your system at full capacity. 15 years later, Things start to break down.
That's right. And when you find this issue, our technicians are prepared to sit down with you and discuss what is the right investment for you. Sometimes it might be to repair, but it depends on the age and the cost of that repair. It's just our technicians are prepared to talk to you about it.
That's right. We'll be glad to help anytime you need us. 910-534-4462, or you can go to our website.
1houraircarolinas.com.
And find us on Twitter, @DerekMCole, @WilliamJSkipper. We are glad to help, and we are the Comfort Experts.
