Cost to recharge air conditioner

How much does it cost to have your home air conditioner recharged with freon R22 anyway?

Look up Heating and Cooling contractors in your area. They can probably give you a ballpark answer on the phone.

Hello Buster#5:

Let's cover a couple of fine points about refrigerant gasses before you spend your money.

1. Refrigerant gasses are used in a 'closed loop' condition. It doesn't wear out, it can only leak out.
2. In some cases, if you look at the gas pressure on the low-side only, a dirty condenser coil will indicate a need for more gas; but this is a false reading.
3. Continuing to add gas to overcome the dirty condenser coil can eventually biring the systeme to an explosive conditon, with the hot gasses running at above 400 psig.
4. There is a wise saying in air conditioning work; "Clean first, gas last". Keeping the condenser coil (the outside unit) and the evaporator coil (the inside unit) clean will keep the unit working at peak efficiency without the constant addition of refrigerant gasses.
5. Remember, it doesn't wear out, it leaks out. If indeed your refrigerant is low you need much more than a recharge; the leak needs to be found and repaired.

I hope this can have some effect on hiring novice air conditioning service men who make tons of money on the statement, "It just needed a little gas". The vast majority of air conditioning repairs I have made are (1) cleaning and (2) reconnecting a burned off wire.

Stay cool!
Glenn

What a great job with the AC 101 class....

This just makes me want to remind everyone who needs to do maintenance on their mechanical units every year to keep up.
Remember.... costs to maintain are less than to fix

If your system is empty, it's gonna cost a couple of hundred bucks. If your system just needs a top-off, it will obviously cost less. I think I'm paying about $250 for a 20gal. tank of R22.
GlennJanie, I agree w/clean first, gas last but, if your paying a novice repair man by the hour, it might just be cheaper in both the short & long run to not chase down that leak. Top it off an move on. Especially, if this leak took years to trip the low pressure switch.

July 26, 2010 1:48pm

Ok, the condenser coil is the radiator looking thing that surounds the unit? I sprayed it with a hose from the inside, is that how you clean it?

Our problem is: The air blowing out is not as cool as it used to be, then the circuit pops after a while. Can rain or water have anything to do with this? Because I noticed that our drainage near the unit is very poor now, draining TO the house when it rains instead of away! I will fix that, but am wondering if it could have anything to do with my problem?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!