wrote:

We had a new Carrier air conditioner installed less than 5 years ago.
This year it stopped working. One of their service people looked at
it and said that the compressor needed replacing. The part was
covered under the parts warranty but they said the labor charge would
be US$1000 and the new compressor would only have a 1 year warranty
and they cost US$1200.

Aren't Carriers warranted for a minimum of 5 years for parts, at least
for the sealed portion? I would write down the model and serial
numbers and phone Carrier about this.

If it takes about as much labor to change a compressor as to change an
outdoor expansion valve, then $1,000 seems sky-high because the TXV in
our packaged Heil was replaced and the system recharged in just a few
hours. OTOH $1,200 for a compressor may not be ridiculous because
that TXV was $477, the condenser fan motor (previous replacement was
less than three years old) another $477, and a double capacitor was
$180! It's possible that those prices were high because all the parts
were OEM or covered under the factory extended warranty, and W.W.
Grainger or Johnstone Supply may sell them much cheaper.

We haven't had good luck with air conditioners. The original one
developed pinholes in the evaporator in its tenth year of life, and
the current unit, now over eight years old, has needed repair about
every two years. Those repairs have totalled about 90-100% of the
unit's original cost but have been covered by an extended factory
warranty. A/C is one of the few products for which I'd always buy an
extended warranty.