Can you help me with my home AC?

[Stillbrewin]

I recently bought a new house, Last August. I like to joke that I have a 40's cadillac as a furnace and a broke down 69 VW as an AC : )

Anyway it is hot, and I need to uprade the AC.

I had thought that the AC was a self contained unit that sat outside your house and when you turned it on it made you cool.

I have since been told that the outside part is just a condensor. From looking at it myself this seems to be the case. As far as I can tell the outside unit has 3 connections. #1 an electrical conduit. (for the fan) #2 and #3 copper lines in and out. Both of these lines have shut off valves right before they connect to the unit. My assumption is that this is to cool the coolant. I expect that on top of my furnace there is another condensor that uses that coolant, and that that condensor is the one that air passes over before reaching the vents.

While I generallly understand the idea of condensors, I am a bit confused as to how to proceed. I think that I could if needed replace the outside condesor myself. I am geussing that it is probably time to also to replace the coolant itself. I understand in therory how to do this, but lack the tanks/regularors etc. to actually do this. So what do you all suggest. All help is appreciated.

[Prairiepiss]

Unless you have a friend that's an AC guy with gauges and freon. Your gona have to call an AC guy. It's not something the average Joe can to get. And more expensive then hiring someone. That's if you could even find it. Depending on what freon it is. Normally you have to have a licence to buy it. I would say from the way you worded it. You shouldn't mess with it. No offence its just not an easy task. I'm sitting in the same boat. I have AC training. I know how to do it. I can get the freon. But I'm not going to. I will wait till I can afford for a licensed heating and cooling guy. So I can get a warranty on it. And not have to deal with it. I just stuck a window unit in. Not 20 minutes ago.

[acfixer69]

Get some one who know what there doing. There's way more going on then yo think. Fixin fuckups is much more costly then fixen first.
AC

[Dnderhead]

most places you have to recover the freon,,and to git rid of junk parts you need a certificate to do so.

[Tater]

Get some one who know what there doing. There's way more going on then yo think. Fixin fuckups is much more costly then fixen first.
AC

+1 Ive been fixing them 30 years and acfixer just gave ya some sound advice.