I am the owner of a single family house with a 15-year-old heat pump.Recently the unit stopped defrosting. I had a service technician come to inspect the unit. He said the electronic board that controls the defrost cycle is not working and must be replaced. The estimated cost is about $350. However, due to the advanced age of my heat pump, the service technician recommended replacing my entire unit — inside and outside. The cost of replacement is about $5,000.Generally speaking, I love my current heat pump. It is very reliable and very economical. I have extremely low monthly utility bills and the unit does a good job in winter and summer. Which leads me to my two questions. Do heat pumps really need to be replaced at such an early age? Everyone I talk to seems to say heat pumps generally only last about 10 to 12 years. Anything more and you are on borrowed time. Everyone tells me that the service technician is right -- replace the unit, don't fix the part. I don't get why a heat pump should need complete replacement after only 10 to 12 years -- in my case 15 years.

It seems like you should be able to repair and fix the unit many times before you will ever match the cost of replacing it. I know many older furnaces would last for 30 plus years.Our society seems to be a very "throw away" society these days.home ac units for saleWouldn't it be wise to invest money into repairing a heat pump, before replacing it?how to hide indoor air conditioner unitDo you feel that both units should be replaced as a "matching set"?how long will a central ac unit last Or can you just replace one unit at a time? My outside unit is the one with the problem. The inside unit is fine. Although it is even older than the outside unit -- probably 20 plus years old. But once again, everyone seems to tell me the same thing -- replace both units.

I don't seem to understand the logic behind replacing both units.I'm going to echo the advice of your service provider and the other wise folks with whom you've consulted. I must tell you, however, that your 15-year-old compressor/condenser has done its job and doesn't owe anybody anything. It has served you well but it's time for it to go for a couple of reasons. Sure, it seemed to you to work well and operate at a level that did not weaken your bank account, but all things are relative.Let's look at it in its 15-year time frame and compare it to what happens today. Heat pumps have a reputation for lasting from 8 to 12 years -- in my experience -- on average. Some last longer -- some less. That's because they do double duty; both heating and cooling. Those furnaces that you eye enviously lasting 30 years plus are only working less than half the time the heat pump does -- no A/C -- so proportionately the heat pump's right up with them. When I see a heat pump working well at the age of yours I always say the good news is, it's still working and bad news is, it's still working.

The older a heat pump is in today's world the more electricity it will use to do its job.There is a formula that is used in the industry to calculate the energy in against the heating and cooling that comes out of it. It called the SEER rating and means seasonal energy efficiency rating. You see them written on the sides of the newer units and they are numbers that hover around 10 and up a bit. The SEER number indicates the amount of electricity that goes into the unit against the amount of heating or cooling capacity that comes out- - the higher the number the more efficient it is.Your 15-year-old unit is probably 10 SEER or less. Since January 23, 2006, every unit sold in the U.S. has to be at least SEER 13. That's pretty darn efficient and to do that the heat pump engineers had to go to a different coolant and had to redesign the units – both inside and out. That's why both have to be replaced.Pouring money into your old unit is not economical in the short or the long run in view of the requirements.

You could nurse your old soldier along with $350 here and $200 there for maybe a couple of years or so and then the technician will come out, look at the unit and deliver the bad news -- it's shot and that's all there is to it. Now all the money you put into the older unit is money gone and you're right at square one for the new unit.So go ahead and get on board with the replacement system and keep a sharp eye on your heating and cooling bills.I'll bet you'll be pleased.Keep the mail coming. If you've got a question, tip, or comment let me know. Fix your air conditioner You maybe able to fix your air conditioner on your own. Here are some things to consider before you call an air conditioning repairman to insure you don't get an $80 or $100 charge for a minor item. These are all simple steps that any homeowner can take to discover and repair a minor A/C problem that is keeping your system from cooling. The first thing you may want to do is click on Air Conditioning, this will show you how the air conditioning system works and identify all the different components.

This troubleshooting guide is for split systems only (indoor unit and separate outdoor unit). This is not for package units (one piece outside the house or on the roof). Check the thermostat to make sure it has power to it; most new digital thermostats will be completely blank if there is no power to them. If the thermostat is blank or if your thermostat has batteries go to the furnace or the fan coil and unplug it for a few minutes and then plug it back in. In some cases this will re-set the system and you will be back cooling again. If your unit is a fan coil it might be hard wired in this case just flip the circuit breaker on and off or pull the handle on the disconnect to the off and then back to the on position. If this does not work look at the drain pan under the cooling coil. If this is completely full of water then the overflow switch may have cut the power to the unit to prevent water damage to your house. To fix this problem you will have to unplug the emergency drain line, which is a white plastic pipe that usually runs outside by the side of the house.

Not all air conditioning units have overflow switches, if yours does not then go to next step. Unplug the furnace from the wall socket and plug in a lamp. If you have a fan coil you cannot do this since the circuit is 230 volts. 230 volts is high voltage and only an experienced person should check to see if there is voltage to the fan coil using a volt meter. If the lamp will not turn on you have no power to the indoor unit, check all the circuit breakers, turning them off and on until the lamp turns on. If the light was off and now is on then this should fix the problem. Plug the furnace back in and if there is power to the thermostat than make sure the cooling temperature desired is set below the room temperature. It may take 4 to 5 minutes before the thermostat calls for cooling because of internal time delays. Your thermostat may have a green light that comes on when it is calling for cooling or display that says cooling. If the air conditioning does not come on then try the fan switch to see if the fan comes on.

If the fan comes on with the fan on switch and runs but there is no cooling than check for air flow coming out the supply air registers. If there is no air flow coming out the supply air registers but the fan is running then you probably have a clogged filter. Take the filter out and look at it, if it is completely dirty then leave it out for the time being and try to restart you air conditioning system. We would recommend unplugging the furnace or the fan coil for a few minutes, plugging them back in and trying to turn the system on from the thermostat again. If you take the filter out and restart the system and the air conditioning does not come on and you still have no air flow it is possible you have an iced up coil. You will need to let the ice melt off the coil and let it run into the drain pan. This will take several hours then try the system again. Running the fan only will defrost the coil quicker. If running fan, make sure the thermostat is not calling for cooling. Fan runs, thermostat is calling for cooling and good air flow coming out the vents but no cooling.

Your problem is most likely with your outdoor unit. Check to see if the condenser fan is running and if you can hear the compressor running. If the compressor is running but the condenser fan is not running, turn the unit off immediately to keep from damaging the compressor. With the unit turned off, take a stick or other item that you can stick through the grill and give the fan blade a push. If the fan blade moves easily then you probably have a burned out condenser fan motor. If the fan blade moves but is very difficult to turn you may have a bad bearing and you may be able to spray some WD40 on the bearing through the grill and this may get you going for a short period until you can get a technician to replace the fan motor. Also make sure the fan blade is not scraping on something, this might be also temporarily repaired by bending the blade to where it doesn't scrape on the item again. If neither the compressor or the fan motor turn and there is no sound at all coming from the outdoor unit you could have simply a tripped circuit breaker or a blown fuse.

For a circuit breaker just flip the circuit breaker back and forth that controls the outdoor unit. If it is the fuse you actually need to turn off the breaker box, flip the circuit breaker to the outdoor unit to off and pull out the fuses (caution the fuse box has high voltage 230 volts which is very dangerous only a qualified electrician or HVAC technician should pull out the fuses) and test them with a continuity checker/volt meter or simply take the fuses to Home Depot and buy new fuses, replace the old fuses and see if when you turn the circuit breaker back on and you turn the thermostat on if the unit starts to run again. If you have checked power to the condensing unit (flipped circuits & checked fuses) and unit still does not run you may be locked out on a high pressure limit. This can be caused by several things but one thing that can cause this is a dirty or clogged condenser coil. Turn the circuit breaker to the condensing unit off then take a broom and brush as much dirt, grass and leaves as you can from the coil.

Then take a water hose and wash off the coil. This not only cleans the coil but lowers the temperature of the coil so the high pressure switch reconnects the circuit. After cleaning the condenser coil turn the circuit breaker to the unit back on. Then go to the thermostat and turn to off and then back to cooling. If the problem is high pressure then your unit should start running again. After you have gone through these steps and the ac unit is still not cooling you have a serious problem, the control circuit board, bad capacitors, low refrigerant or a burned out compressor. In any event it will take a qualified technician to repair your unit. All of these fixes in most cases are just stop gap measures to get you cooling immediately. You should have a qualified HVAC technician look at your system and permanently fix the problem. Find a qualified HVAC technician If you want to make sure your air conditioning unit does not fail unexpectedly in the future you should have your air-condition contractor install a ColorTouch programmable wifi thermostat.