Air conditioner repair cost
Most air conditioner repairs cost $150 to $650. The expensive ones, a compressor or an evaporator coil, are the point at which you stop repairing and start pricing a replacement.
National average
$450
per project
On this page
- What the common repairs cost
- Refrigerant is where the money disappears
- Repair or replace
- What you can check before calling
- Frequently asked questions
- Why is my AC running but not cooling?
- Is a home warranty worth it for HVAC?
- How often should I have it serviced?
- The technician says I need a whole new system. How do I know if that is true?
- Can I add refrigerant myself?
Most air conditioner repairs cost $150 to $650. The common failures are cheap parts that fail predictably: a capacitor, a contactor, a clogged drain line. The expensive ones, a compressor or an evaporator coil, are the point at which you stop repairing and start pricing a replacement.
Like every trade that comes to your house, there is a minimum. A diagnostic visit is $75 to $200 and most contractors credit it against the repair if you go ahead. In peak summer, expect the high end and expect a wait.
What the common repairs cost
| Repair | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Diagnostic visit | $75 to $200 |
| Run capacitor | $150 to $350 |
| Contactor | $150 to $400 |
| Condensate drain clearing | $100 to $250 |
| Condensate pump | $200 to $500 |
| Blower motor | $400 to $1,100 |
| Fan motor, outdoor | $350 to $800 |
| Control board | $400 to $900 |
| Thermostat | $150 to $500 |
| Refrigerant leak search and repair | $400 to $1,600 |
| Refrigerant recharge, R-410A | $250 to $750 |
| Refrigerant recharge, R-22 | $600 to $2,000 |
| Evaporator coil | $900 to $2,800 |
| Compressor | $1,500 to $3,500 |
Emergency, evening and weekend rates typically add 50% to 100%.
Refrigerant is where the money disappears
An air conditioner does not consume refrigerant. It is a sealed loop. If it is low, there is a leak, and adding refrigerant without finding the leak is buying the same gas twice.
This matters enormously if your system is old enough to use R-22, which was phased out of production and is now expensive. A recharge that costs $250 on a modern R-410A system can cost $2,000 on an R-22 one. If a contractor tells you an R-22 system needs refrigerant, treat it as a replacement conversation rather than a repair one.
Ask which refrigerant your system uses before agreeing to anything. It is printed on the nameplate of the outdoor unit.
Repair or replace
The rough test: divide the repair cost by the years you realistically expect from the system afterwards, and compare that to a replacement divided by fifteen.
A $6,800 replacement over fifteen years is about $450 a year. So a $400 repair that buys three more years, at $133 a year, is clearly worth doing. A $2,400 compressor on a 15 year old system that might give you three more years is $800 a year, which is worse than simply replacing it.
Replace rather than repair when any of these is true:
- The system uses R-22 and has a leak
- The compressor has failed and the warranty has expired
- The system is past 15 years and the repair is over about $1,500
- You have had two significant repairs in two seasons
- The evaporator coil has failed out of warranty
Repair when the system is under twelve years old, the failed part is an electrical component rather than the sealed system, and it has otherwise been reliable.
What you can check before calling
Some of the most common call-outs are things you can rule out in ten minutes.
The filter. A blocked filter is the single most common cause of poor cooling and of a frozen coil. Check it first.
The breaker. Air conditioners have two: one in the panel, one in the disconnect box beside the outdoor unit.
The thermostat. Batteries, and that it is set to cool rather than fan.
The outdoor unit. Clear leaves and debris from the coil, and make sure nothing is growing within two feet of it.
The drain. If the system has shut itself off and there is water near the indoor unit, the condensate line is probably blocked and a float switch has done its job.
Ice on the lines. Turn the system off, set the fan to on, and let it thaw for a few hours before anyone looks at it. Running a frozen system damages the compressor, and a technician cannot diagnose an iced coil anyway.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my AC running but not cooling?
Most often a dirty filter or a frozen evaporator coil, both of which restrict airflow. After that, low refrigerant from a leak, or a failed capacitor that lets the fan run while the compressor does not.
Is a home warranty worth it for HVAC?
Read what it excludes. Many policies cap payouts well below the cost of a compressor or coil, exclude systems above a certain age, and require you to use their contractor. They can be worthwhile on older equipment; they are frequently disappointing at exactly the moment you need them.
How often should I have it serviced?
Once a year before cooling season, and again in autumn if the same equipment heats. A service should include cleaning the condenser coil, checking refrigerant pressures, testing the capacitor and clearing the condensate line. It is worth doing: most of the expensive failures announce themselves first.
The technician says I need a whole new system. How do I know if that is true?
Ask which specific part failed, what it costs to replace, and what the remaining warranty is. Get the model number and the age of the equipment. Then get a second opinion from a contractor who is not selling you the replacement, particularly if the first visit was free.
Can I add refrigerant myself?
Legally, no, for anything but the smallest self-contained appliances. Handling refrigerant requires EPA Section 608 certification. Practically, adding refrigerant without finding the leak wastes the money anyway.
Read next
Repair or replace your HVAC system$6,500 to $22,000per projectThe $5,000 rule says multiply the repair by the age of the system and replace above $5,000. It is memorable and it is wrong often enough to cost money. Here is the arithmetic that works, and the cases where it is not close.
AC refrigerant recharge cost$250 to $2,000per projectA recharge costs $250 to $750 on R-410A and $600 to $2,000 on older R-22. But an air conditioner does not consume refrigerant. If yours is low, it is leaking, and refilling it is buying the same gas twice.
AC compressor replacement cost$1,500 to $4,000per eachA compressor costs $1,500 to $3,500 out of warranty and $600 to $1,400 if the part is still covered. It is the most expensive component in the system, and past twelve years the money usually belongs in a replacement.
Evaporator coil replacement cost$900 to $2,800per eachAn evaporator coil costs $900 to $2,800, or $600 to $1,300 if the part is under warranty. Coils built between about 2005 and 2015 fail from formicary corrosion more often than they should, and many fail inside the warranty.
HVAC tune-up cost$85 to $250per eachA tune-up costs $85 to $250 a visit. It is the cheapest thing you will spend on the system and the one most often sold as something it is not. A real service is an hour of measurement; a $59 special is twenty minutes and a sales conversation.