Do I think a new AC unit will be more reliable?
Here's our story:
We bought all new appliances when we got married 23 years ago.
When we moved to a rural home with a septic system, we replaced our working (and never broke down)18 year old top load washing machine with a front load washer to reduce the amount of water going into the septic system. In the last 5 years the "new" washer has broken down or tore door gaskets at least 8 times.
We replaced our working 20 year old electric range with a new electric range because we wanted an oven with convection. After 2 years the "new" range control board failed, sending the oven to over 650 degrees when the display showed 350 degrees.
Finally, we replaced our working, never broken down, 23 year old side-by-side refrigerator with a new french-door refrigerator because some of the plastic drawers in the old fridge had broken. When the new fridge was 2 months old, a "communications error" code appeared on the display and the fridge shut all systems down. Fortunately, it happened just after a 2-week trip and we were home. The warranty service took 2 weeks to get the fridge running again because parts were hard to get on such a new fridge. The new controller and display were installed, whereupon the same error code came up when powered up. The repairman called the factory and it turned out the icemaker was at fault because it wasn't communicating properly with the controller. We are still waiting for the new icemaker to be installed. Fortunately at least the fridge works now because he unplugged the icemaker.
Keep the old AC unit.
Steve
