Your air conditioner has run just fine in your Houston, Texas, home until recently. You had the system for about a decade, and you’d love to make it last a little longer. When it stops working and you call in a professional, you find out the evaporator coil is leaking badly. Replacing just this part seems like it will save some money and help you get a little extra life from your old unit. Before you take the least expensive way out, make sure you understand how your evaporator coil affects your unit’s efficiency, and why replacing it may cost you more in the long run. The evaporator coil is one half of a two-coil partnership. The other half is the condenser coil. Regardless of your unit’s make and model, the manufacturer paired the condenser and evaporator coil sizes together to make sure your system will run as efficiently as possible. Evaporator coils are located in the air handler of your air conditioner. These coils hold the refrigerant sent in by the compressor, chilled and ready to cool your home.

When air moves over the evaporator coil, the refrigerant takes the heat from the air, making the inside of your home comfortable and cool. Your evaporator coil is done for, and you are wondering if you can just replace it without replacing anything else. That’s a bad idea for a few reasons. If you decide to replace the evaporator coil, keep in mind that it will need to be the same size as your current unit. If not, you’ll get almost no efficiency out of the unit, as it will have to run longer to keep your home at a comfortable temperature. The big problem will be trying to find a new evaporator coil to match your existing condenser. Often, it’s nearly impossible, as your old unit may not even be made anymore, and the newer units and are bigger and built differently. Ideally, you don’t want to face the choice between replacing your evaporator coils or replacing the entire unit too soon. The best way to prolong the life of your evaporator coils is with regular maintenance.

Between what you do on your own and what a professional maintenance plan can offer, you should be able to keep your evaporator coil and the entire unit working for many years.portable air conditioning unit parts Each month, check your filters and replace them if necessary. how much to replace compressor in ac unitYou will also want to clean the evaporator coil if you can reach it. window ac unit cheapestA soft brush to knock off the dust is fine. A UV lamp is something to consider as well. It will kill mold and other biological growth that can cause problems with your evaporator coil. Dirty evaporator coils can develop leaks or ice over. Leaks mean you’re losing refrigerant and your air conditioner won’t cool your home.

If your coils ice over, it can damage your compressor, which is an expensive fix. As part of professional maintenance of your air conditioner, we visibly inspect your evaporator coils even if they aren’t where you can see them. We’ll make sure they’re clean and free of damage. When you are ready to have your air conditioner serviced or you suspect a problem with your evaporator coil or anything else, contact us at Davis Air Conditioning & Heating today by calling 888-710-5530. I was going through my blog roll this morning when I saw that someone had asked this elsewhere. I figured it would be a good question to ask. In general, how long do evaporator coils last in a home AC system? How can I make them last longer? If I want to replace them, what should I keep in mind? They should last for the life of the A/C system, which is generally 15-20 years for a high quality system. (Many people end up replacing their systems between 12 and 15 years due to efficiency issues or deferred maintenance causing damage to more easily damaged components, such as the compressor.)

Most of the time, evaporator coils fail because they are allowed to get dirty or are allowed to have ice build up on them. Things you can do yourself to help prolong the life is to make sure you change your HVAC intake filter regularly and use a high quality filter (filters should be in place for no more than a month, and should be replaced sooner in a dusty environment if you can no longer see light through the filter), and make sure that your evaporator coils are draining correctly. The easiest way to make them last longer is to have a licensed HVAC technician perform regular maintenance on your system. This should be done once a year, typically in the winter time. The technician will clean the coils and check them over. At the same time, the A/C tech will check to make sure that your coolant is at the right level/pressure and that there are no leaks in your system. If you replace them, you probably want to replace the entire system at this point thanks to many recent gains made in efficiency.

I'm not sure if how long they "should last" matches most home owners experiences. Looking at many consumer complaint websites showed many users with failure between 5 and 7 years. Recommended Maintenance Didn't Save Me You should always do the recommended maintenance, but in my case maintenance wasn't the problem. I have a 14.5 SEER, 2.5 Ton Carrier unit. The evaporator coil started leaking after 43 months (under 4 years). It was a small leak where the copper met the rusty metal housing. I used high quality filters and replaced them every 2-3 months. They never looked dirty but I still replaced them within the recommended window. It was under a service contract and had preventative maintenance done by a licensed tech from AC-Designs in Central FL every 6 months (twice a year). The parts were under warranty but labor was not so it was a little over $600 to replace with a 90 day labor and 1 year parts warranty. The tech did note that my case was unusual and he's seen both extremes with some lasting the life of the system (15+ years).