GuidesThe decision
Repair or Replace a 20-Year-Old AC
Age is part of the decision. It is not the decision. A system past its useful life can still need a capacitor, and a younger system can be finished.
We use the same test on every replacement question. ASHRAE’s published median service life is about 15 years for a residential split air conditioner or heat pump, and about 18 years for a gas furnace. Las Vegas heat often spends that life faster than a mild climate. Passing the median makes a major failure more serious. It does not turn a minor part into a new system.
Minor repairs stay repairs: capacitor, contactor, fan motor, flame sensor, control board, drain. Major repairs are a compressor, a leaking coil, or a cracked heat exchanger. On a major repair we put the repair cost next to a new system and look at the refrigerant and the history. R-22, or any refrigerant that is no longer practical to keep buying, changes the math on a leaking system. A system that has been consistently bothersome — the same house, season after season — is not the same call as a first failure.
If replacement is the answer, the new equipment is sized to ACCA standards for this house. We do not copy the tonnage off a data plate that may have been wrong on day one. Southern Highlands, Anthem, Silverado Ranch, and Mountains Edge are full of original systems in this window. Inspirada mostly is not. A builder system only a few years old is a repair conversation even when the payment is paid off.
One of our customers, Stacy, had the air quit on a Sunday on a 26-year-old system. The useful part of that call was walking through repair versus replacement while the house was hot, not a same-hour close. That is the pace we still use.
Is there a rule of thumb, like replace after 15 years?
Fifteen years is the ASHRAE median service life for a residential air conditioner, not an order to replace it. We still separate a minor repair from a major one, and we look at refrigerant, repair cost, and whether the system has been a repeat problem.
Services
AC Replacement
Properly sized A/C and furnace replacements. No pressure, no shortcuts.
AC Repair
Local A/C repair focused on accurate diagnostics, fair recommendations, and equipment that lasts.
AC Replacement Las Vegas
Matched air conditioner replacements for Las Vegas houses, sized for the attic and the afternoon load.