Replacing Evap Coil... Lennox vs American Standard? (Houston, Howe: home builder, price)

[descovy]

I posted this in the House forum, but want to post here in Houston forum for some local input as well. I hope that's okay!

My house is 6 yrs old and has 2 Lennox AC units... One upstairs, one downstairs, both 4 ton. They were installed by home builder (so builder grade) and use the new 410a coolant.

The evaporator coil leaked all bone dry and we need a new coil / capacitor. We have 2 quotes which are comperable from mid sized AC companies.

1st company (Dominair) wants to install the same Lennox 4 ton coil.

2nd company (Courtesy) wants to install an American Standard coil, but be only 2.5 ton. However American Standard offers a 10 yr warranty... Lennox offers 5 yr warranty.

Upstairs of house is about 1200 sq ft.

Any thoughts? Thankfully we have time to think, since downstairs AC still works!

[jasonamd]

You have a 4 ton unit for 1200sqft? Wow. That should probably only need to be a 2-2.5 ton unit. It is probably very inefficient and causing you higher bills than it should.

You can install a bigger evap coil (for example a 3 ton condenser with a 4 ton evap coil) but installing a smaller evap coil than the size of the condenser is probably a bad idea and it will be not be very efficient.

Are you sure your condenser (outdoor unit) is really 4 ton?

[Schumacher713]

No AC company makes their own coils. They are all outsourced just like the compressors and just about every component. AC companies are a huge rip off. You should not install a 2.5 coil on a 4 ton compressor. I would just install a Goodman coil which is the same as American Standard with a 10 year warranty.

[trbstang]

Wow, only 6 years? My evaporator coils were both leaking last August at about 14-1/2 years. Had to replace the lower one (recharge leaked out in 3 days!) and since the whole unit was 14 yrs old, we redid the evaporator and compressor - 3.5 ton Lennox units. Now the upper one just finally leaked out a couple of months ago and we will hopefully not need to replace it yet. So far the recharge (added 2lbs) is holding ok. Our upstairs unit is a 2 ton, for about 1100 sqft. FWIW my AC guy (independent company, 2 guys, been in the business for years) quoted me $1800 to replace the 2 ton evaporator, flush the lines, install new drip pan and overflow switch and recharge. I should have done it last year with the other unit, since his price then was only $1400. We replaced the upstairs compressor several years ago so it is only about 7 yrs old now and no need for a complete new system.

Good luck on it!

[Schumacher713]

1800? Wow that is high. Should cost under 1000 bucks.