How long does an air conditioner last?

How long an air conditioner lasts

Published service life: 7–15 years. Roots plans for: year 11.

Service life is a planning horizon, not an expiry date. It tells you when to start budgeting, get a second quote, and stop paying for repairs on something near the end — not the day it stops working.

What changes this

Coastal salt air and year-round run time both push this to the low end. The refrigerant a system uses can also force the decision early: servicing an older R-22 unit gets steadily more expensive.

Sources

• InterNACHI's Standard Estimated Life Expectancy Chart for Homes, cross-checked against the NAHB/Bank of America Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components (February 2007) (Air Conditioners (room 10, unitary 15)).

Service-life figures are typical estimates drawn from published industry references. Where a second reference covers the component, the figure is cross-checked against it and any disagreement is set out above; where only one reference covers it, that is stated. Actual life varies with installation, water quality, climate, and maintenance, and these figures shouldn't be relied on for insurance, lending, or warranty decisions.

Maintenance is what decides where in the range you land

The published range is wide for a reason: two identical units, installed the same day, routinely fail years apart. What separates them is upkeep.

For an air conditioner, the tasks that matter most:

• Schedule AC tune-up — Spring service catches refrigerant and coil problems before the first heat wave.
• Flush AC condensate drain line — A clogged drain overflows into ceilings/closets or shuts the system down mid-summer.
• Clear 2 ft around outdoor AC unit — Leaves and grass choke condenser airflow and strain the compressor.

Roots tracks the age of every component in your home alongside the upkeep that extends it, so the replacement is a planned expense instead of an emergency.