Central Air Units - Need help

In a nut shell I would like to know a fair price to buy central air units; small, medium, and large. What are you paying?



My business plan in the past has either been based on the land/lease agreement (1/3 to the owner and 2/3 for my labor, equipment, and materials) or time and materials. A heating and cooling customer recommended me to other businesses. The regular customer likes to barter but the new businesses want a set amount per unit.

It is evident that time could be invested in weighing all materials and analyzing cost in time and materials. To be honest, I am to lazy. Any help would be appreciated.

to be honest without weighing these units it just takes experience.........I don't do many of these anymore but when I did I could usually estimate their value and pay accordingly

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

to be honest without weighing these units it just takes experience.........I don't do many of these anymore but when I did I could usually estimate their value and pay accordingly

What was the range you would pay?

Originally Posted by Patriot76

What was the range you would pay?

Well when Prices were higher I would start at $5 for a good window unit and have paid upwards of $60 for a large household unit........Thought about getting into commercial rooftop units but never took the plunge and moved on to focusing on ewaste.........Their are some good threads here about chillers and larger units as well (some of these can be worth 1000's of dollars in scrap)......With prices being what they are now I would obviously buy accordingly.......If you run into a few make a fair offer and break them down and determine value considering time, effort etc.......From what I know of you a $100 investment would be worth the education even if you lost a few bucks!!!!........I also know that your scrap prices are lower than mine and your haul to the yard is further (I have currently about 8 yards within 20 miles of my house).............Good money in those units though and I saw where the ADMIN here even had a class recently!!!

I think Member "1956" also deals heavily in commercial A/C units.

Here was a pretty good read of one of his adventures:
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/day-l...nit-today.html

There are 2 threads that come to mind to refer to:

This post by 1956 gives you a rough estimate of what comes out of a 4 ton air conditioner. http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...tml#post151458

Next is processing the sealed units, and this thread from freonjoe - http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/disma...sors-pics.html

Edit - Just found a post from freonjoe about how much you can expect material-wise per ton from units http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...html#post61940

For myself, it has worked out that the price that I get for sealed units is what I would pay per pound for a/c units. Right now, that's at 0.11/lb. Window units and PTACs can take the same amount of time to process as a unit for a home, so keep that in mind. I haven't dealt with anything larger than that, so I have no advice there. Also, aluminum radiators should run about half of what you would pay for Al/Cu ones.

Thank you for the responses. I had done a search and read these articles before posting. Freonjoe and 1956 are definitely the experts in this area. I was just hoping someone might be able to say I pay ? for each unit and it averages out. Thanks again.

Patriot, When I am buying from HVAC companies, I pay 100.00 a net ton for everything but the roof units. For roof units I pay 5.00 a rated ton. Window units I usually pay 2X shred.

one thing to account for is your selling habits. if u remember correctly, you sell non ferrous once or twice a year. and have storage space with no financial need to liquidate

Originally Posted by ryanw

Patriot - The problem with people telling you what they pay is that no one gets the same prices or has the same expenses. Importantly, you need to know how much of each material comes out of a unit, create an equation, and let the price you pay rise and fall with your expenses and the prices you can sell at.

Thank you, your insight is greatly appreciated. I will buy my first scale since my son was wrestling. I hope to provide a more detail of the results in the near future.

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Well when Prices were higher I would start at $5 for a good window unit and have paid upwards of $60 for a large household unit........Thought about getting into commercial rooftop units but never took the plunge and moved on to focusing on ewaste.........Their are some good threads here about chillers and larger units as well (some of these can be worth 1000's of dollars in scrap)......With prices being what they are now I would obviously buy accordingly.......If you run into a few make a fair offer and break them down and determine value considering time, effort etc.......From what I know of you a $100 investment would be worth the education even if you lost a few bucks!!!!........I also know that your scrap prices are lower than mine and your haul to the yard is further (I have currently about 8 yards within 20 miles of my house).............Good money in those units though and I saw where the ADMIN here even had a class recently!!!

I greatly appreciate the education. You are correct, I can afford to invest in my education. My results will be posted in the near future.

Originally Posted by MattInTheHat

one thing to account for is your selling habits. if u remember correctly, you sell non ferrous once or twice a year. and have storage space with no financial need to liquidate

Matt, you are accurate as usual. I am in a unique position, not only do I have time to develop game plans, I also have time to become educated.

Originally Posted by freonjoe

Patriot, When I am buying from HVAC companies, I pay 100.00 a net ton for everything but the roof units. For roof units I pay 5.00 a rated ton. Window units I usually pay 2X shred.

This is the type of information I was hoping for. Your insight as the master of this type of scrap is greatly appreciated.

Update:

Todays pickup included seven central air units, two window units, and six chillers. Based on information provided on this thread and numerous other threads, a deal was made. Long time members will understand my perspective with this deal. Low scrap prices meant I could not make a deal to benefit the customer. The response from the owner was "treat me fair and you will have my business in the future." These businesses were suppose to be more interested in purchase price than anything else. Come to find out, they were human and were willing to barter.

Result: Two companies were provided 16 T-bones (two for each employee) with the understanding that this was a down payment.





So far I have two cases of beer, 16 T-bones, and promises on my reputation invested for 14 central air units, 8 chillers, lots of copper tubing, and 8 condensers. You would need to view my other threads to see the total story.

These deals were obtained because I had time to analyze my situation, expand my network, and see the forest beyond the trees. SMF provided a different perspective because of the input of numerous members. Thank you.