price to replace 15 year old AC unit

I say this every time and in every thread. Take that quote, what they quoted you, and set up a time tomorrow or next week and call at least 5 companies. They only need 15 minutes max for the most part to quote, unless you have major duct issues or something.

So your wife can take a morning or you take a morning off and get 4-5 quotes in 4 hours easily. Then compare.

This will likely save you $1500-2000. This is the worst time of year to do it, if you can wait until fall do it. They are all swamped right now with work. If you wait until October or November you can save more.

Thanks guys. I am going to wait until winter, and get several quotes. I think the shot of coolant I got today will hold us over.
I was just wondering if this was in the ballpark and judging from comments it is close enough for me to start planning out the expenditure.

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I say this every time and in every thread. Take that quote, what they quoted you, and set up a time tomorrow or next week and call at least 5 companies. They only need 15 minutes max for the most part to quote, unless you have major duct issues or something.

So your wife can take a morning or you take a morning off and get 4-5 quotes in 4 hours easily. Then compare.

This will likely save you $1500-2000. This is the worst time of year to do it, if you can wait until fall do it. They are all swamped right now with work. If you wait until October or November you can save more.

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I couldn't agree more. I also found that the majority of HVAC places are using the same quoting software, because they were all formatted and looked very similar. One quote was handwritten. I ended up saving $1600 and it was Bryant for a secondary home in Auburn built in 1965. I went with a SEER 14 because all the efficiency is going out the windows because I haven't done anything to the house. The unit that was replaced was 31 years old and a SEER 6 I'm guessing.

(edit) The unit that was replaced was a Ruud, and the serivce guys commented that it was a tank. The new outside unit takes about half to a third of the prior pad. I haven't analysed or looked at savings yet because its only the second month.

Sounds like a decent price. I was quoted ~$7400 for a 16 SEER 2.5 ton American Standard this past March

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Wouldn't this depend on the set point of your thermostat and not so much the name brand of your A/C unit

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Not exactly. The AC unit that came with the house never could keep up in July and August. I could never get the temp below 78 to 79 degrees.

Please tell me that you're not like my ex wife who thought setting the thermostat to a lower setting would make the AC come out colder....

Lastly A lot of people always talk about name brands. What people don't know, is that they only have two manufactures for scroll compressors. And every company uses the same compressor. So when you are buying a unit your paying for the name and the coil design. One more thing if the unit you are buying has a orifice tube and not a proportional vale dont get it. Orifice tube cannot get to the superheat like a proportional valve unit. And if you get a gas heater. Ducane is what all the companies uses for there furnaces. So you see that people are paying more just for the name brand.

"I think the shot of coolant I got today will hold us over."
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Where's the leak? Did they give you a price to fix it?

Just for some reference I bought a 4 ton 16 seer unit last November for $6000. No duct work. Complete system. Prairieville area.

Big AC companies blatantly rip off people, the amount of mark up is insane. I use a small contractor and he gives me incredible deals. Did a Goodman 14 Seer (he said the price to go up to the higher seer just doesn't have the ROI) on my house for almost half of what the big name companies were quoting me installed. Just had him install a mini split on my new house as well. Business is "B Cool Contracting" 225-329-7338