HVAC repair cost dataset

Nine faults, and two verdicts each

The ⚠️ marks the 5 faults where the $5,000 rule says replace while cost per year of system bought still says repair — $43 a year against $519 on the reference job. The rule’s flaw is that it does not know what a new system costs where you live, so it returns the same verdict whether replacing is $9,340 or double that. ⚠️ Our column has its own weakness and it belongs here rather than in small print: it assumes the repaired system reaches its remaining design life, which after a compressor failure on a twelve-year-old machine is the optimistic case. One row is excluded from the comparison entirely — a cracked heat exchanger is a carbon monoxide question, and the money does not get a vote.

What multiplies the figure

Every multiplier in this dataset lands on the hours rather than on the parts, which is the honest shape: a capacitor does not cost more on a Sunday, the person fitting it does. The factors themselves are declared model values rather than published ones. ⚠️ The R-22 surcharge is different — it is a real price of a real substance, and it only applies to faults that open the refrigerant circuit. No HCFC-22 has been produced or imported since 2020 under the phaseout schedule at EPA, Phaseout of class II ozone-depleting substances (retrieved 2026-08-24), so servicing continues on recovered refrigerant at a price unrelated to what it once cost. And a sentence that saves more money than any multiplier here: refrigerant is not consumed, so a system that is low has a leak, and topping it up without finding the leak is paying to fill something that will empty again.

Against replacing the whole system

Replacement is $9,340 at these wages, from our HVAC replacement dataset, spread over 18 years of declared design life. Every repair above is cheaper than that today, which is precisely why today’s price cannot answer the question — the comparison that can is cost per year of system bought, and that is what the verdict column runs. ⚠️ Design life is a declared assumption rather than a measurement, and real equipment varies enormously with climate, run hours and whether anybody ever cleaned the coil. The honest signal is frequency rather than age: a system that has needed something every summer for three summers is telling you where it is on the curve more clearly than any rule of thumb, and no dataset can see that.

Line items

77% of the reference total comes from estimated rather than official figures — there is no federal price series for a run capacitor. The reference job is a failed capacitor on a split system, 1 trade hours, in working hours. Faults not selected sit at zero quantity, so the table below is the whole catalogue rather than one job.

The reasoning behind each figure

Diagnostic call-outestimated, ±49%

• Getting a technician to the house and finding out what is wrong. Most companies credit it against the repair if you go ahead, and it is worth asking on the phone rather than at the door.
• ⚠️ Ask for the failed part to be shown to you and for the diagnosis to be named. A capacitor is a physical object with a bulging top when it fails; a leak has a location. Both are showable, and a diagnosis that cannot be shown is worth a second opinion — particularly when it arrives attached to a replacement quote.

Parts — Start or run capacitor has failedestimated, ±67%

• The cheapest real fault there is and by far the most common reason an air conditioner hums but will not start. A capacitor is a part worth tens of dollars. ⚠️ It is also the fault most often used to sell a system: if somebody diagnoses a failed capacitor and the conversation turns immediately to replacement, get a second opinion before agreeing to anything.
• Parts do not carry the system factor or the out-of-hours premium: a capacitor costs the same on a Sunday and the same on a rooftop unit. Those land on the hours, where they belong.

Start or run capacitor has failed — labour

• Modelled at 1 hours for this fault, multiplied by the system factor and, out of hours, by 1.7.
• A packaged unit on a roof costs more in hours than the same fault in a basement, which is the honest place for access to show up.

Parts — Contactor is pitted or stuckestimated, ±63%

• The relay that switches the outdoor unit on. Its contacts burn and pit over years of switching, and eventually it either sticks closed — the unit runs constantly — or fails to pull in at all. Cheap, quick, and frequently replaced at the same time as the capacitor because both live in the same panel.
• Parts do not carry the system factor or the out-of-hours premium: a capacitor costs the same on a Sunday and the same on a rooftop unit. Those land on the hours, where they belong.

Contactor is pitted or stuck — labour

• Modelled at 1.1 hours for this fault, multiplied by the system factor and, out of hours, by 1.7.
• A packaged unit on a roof costs more in hours than the same fault in a basement, which is the honest place for access to show up.

Parts — Thermostat has failed or is wired wrongestimated, ±75%

• Worth ruling out before anything else, because it is cheap and it imitates much more expensive faults. ⚠️ A system that "does not come on" is a thermostat problem often enough that checking it first is free advice with a real hit rate.
• Parts do not carry the system factor or the out-of-hours premium: a capacitor costs the same on a Sunday and the same on a rooftop unit. Those land on the hours, where they belong.

Thermostat has failed or is wired wrong — labour

• Modelled at 1.2 hours for this fault, multiplied by the system factor and, out of hours, by 1.7.
• A packaged unit on a roof costs more in hours than the same fault in a basement, which is the honest place for access to show up.

Parts — Blower motor has failedestimated, ±65%

• The fan that moves air through the house, and its price depends entirely on which kind it is: a simple multi-speed motor is at the bottom of the band and a variable-speed one with its own module is at the top. It is a real repair on a system worth keeping.
• Parts do not carry the system factor or the out-of-hours premium: a capacitor costs the same on a Sunday and the same on a rooftop unit. Those land on the hours, where they belong.

Blower motor has failed — labour

• Modelled at 3 hours for this fault, multiplied by the system factor and, out of hours, by 1.7.
• A packaged unit on a roof costs more in hours than the same fault in a basement, which is the honest place for access to show up.

Parts — Control board has failedestimated, ±61%

• ⚠️ The one to check availability on before agreeing. Boards are model-specific, and on equipment more than about twelve years old they are frequently discontinued — which turns a repair into a replacement whether or not anybody wanted it to.
• Parts do not carry the system factor or the out-of-hours premium: a capacitor costs the same on a Sunday and the same on a rooftop unit. Those land on the hours, where they belong.

Control board has failed — labour

• Modelled at 2 hours for this fault, multiplied by the system factor and, out of hours, by 1.7.
• A packaged unit on a roof costs more in hours than the same fault in a basement, which is the honest place for access to show up.

Parts — Refrigerant leak, found and repairedestimated, ±61%

• ⚠️ The fault where the wrong answer is most often sold. Refrigerant is not consumed: a system that is low has a leak, and topping it up without finding the leak is paying to fill something that will empty again. Federal rules govern who may handle it and require recovery rather than venting. Ask for the leak to be found and named, not just for a charge.
• Parts do not carry the system factor or the out-of-hours premium: a capacitor costs the same on a Sunday and the same on a rooftop unit. Those land on the hours, where they belong.

Refrigerant leak, found and repaired — labour

• Modelled at 3.5 hours for this fault, multiplied by the system factor and, out of hours, by 1.7.
• A packaged unit on a roof costs more in hours than the same fault in a basement, which is the honest place for access to show up.

Parts — Evaporator coil has to be replacedestimated, ±52%

• A major repair, usually the result of a leak that cannot be repaired in place. On a system past ten years it is close to the point where the arithmetic on this page stops favouring repair — and if the outdoor unit is the same age, replacing only half a system is rarely the bargain it looks like.
• Parts do not carry the system factor or the out-of-hours premium: a capacitor costs the same on a Sunday and the same on a rooftop unit. Those land on the hours, where they belong.

Evaporator coil has to be replaced — labour

• Modelled at 6 hours for this fault, multiplied by the system factor and, out of hours, by 1.7.
• A packaged unit on a roof costs more in hours than the same fault in a basement, which is the honest place for access to show up.

Parts — Compressor has failedestimated, ±49%

• ⚠️ The most expensive repair on the page and almost always the moment to run the comparison below rather than to say yes. A compressor failure on a system past its early teens is, in practice, the end of that system — and the repair usually carries a short warranty on a machine whose other parts are the same age.
• Parts do not carry the system factor or the out-of-hours premium: a capacitor costs the same on a Sunday and the same on a rooftop unit. Those land on the hours, where they belong.

Compressor has failed — labour

• Modelled at 8 hours for this fault, multiplied by the system factor and, out of hours, by 1.7.
• A packaged unit on a roof costs more in hours than the same fault in a basement, which is the honest place for access to show up.

Parts — Cracked heat exchanger in the furnaceestimated, ±49%

• ⚠️ This one is not an economic decision. A cracked heat exchanger can put combustion products, including carbon monoxide, into the air the house breathes. A technician who finds one should red-tag the furnace and shut it off, and the answer is a new furnace rather than a repair on almost any system old enough to have cracked one. If somebody offers to weld it, get somebody else.
• Parts do not carry the system factor or the out-of-hours premium: a capacitor costs the same on a Sunday and the same on a rooftop unit. Those land on the hours, where they belong.

Cracked heat exchanger in the furnace — labour

• Modelled at 7 hours for this fault, multiplied by the system factor and, out of hours, by 1.7.
• A packaged unit on a roof costs more in hours than the same fault in a basement, which is the honest place for access to show up.

Recovered R-22 refrigerant, for a system that predates the phaseoutestimated, ±60%

• ⚠️ Production and import of R-22 in the United States ended under the EPA phaseout schedule, so what goes into an old system now is recovered or reclaimed refrigerant at a price that bears no relation to what it cost fifteen years ago.
• It applies only where the fault involves opening the refrigerant circuit — a leak repair, a coil or a compressor. A capacitor on an R-22 system is just a capacitor.
• This line is the reason the arithmetic below usually favours replacement on an old system: a leak that is recharged will leak again, and each recharge costs more than the last.

Full service and clean while the technician is thereestimated, ±60%

• Cleaning the condenser coil, checking the charge, clearing the condensate drain, changing the filter and checking the electrical connections — done on a visit that is already happening.
• A dirty condenser coil makes a system work harder for the same cooling, and a blocked condensate drain is one of the commonest causes of water damage from an indoor unit. Both are cheap on this visit and expensive on their own.

Full service and clean — labour

• Modelled at 1.2 hours, and not multiplied by the out-of-hours premium: this is added to a visit that is happening anyway rather than being the reason for it.

Not included in this dataset

A new system

Priced on our HVAC replacement, furnace, air conditioner and heat pump pages, and compared against this repair above. The comparison is the point of this page, and it is a calculation rather than an opinion.

Ductwork

A system that never cooled the back bedroom properly is often a duct problem rather than an equipment problem, and no repair on this page fixes it. Our ductwork replacement page prices that side of it.

What your warranty covers

⚠️ Worth checking before agreeing to anything: many systems carry a ten-year parts warranty that survives a change of owner if it was registered, and it usually covers the part and not the labour. That distinction is exactly where a quote can be misread, so ask which half you are being charged for.

Whether the system was the right size to begin with

An oversized system short-cycles and wears out its own contactor and compressor; an undersized one runs constantly. Neither is a fault and neither is repairable — it is a sizing question that only gets answered when the system is replaced.

Air quality equipment

Filters, purifiers and humidifiers attached to the system are separate items and are frequently sold during a repair visit. Some are worth it. None of them fix the fault you called about.