Central air conditioners
Rheem RA13NY24AJ1NA Air Conditioner
Prices are the outdoor condenser only, before an indoor coil or install labour. This differs from the heat-pump category's equipment_system default because the real market for central-ac specifically skews toward condenser-only replacement — the existing indoor coil or air handler is frequently kept if compatible. Where we only found an equipment-system or installed price, the bridge above is a national planning estimate, so treat those rows as rough. Get contractor quotes for the install itself.
Single-stage cooling-only condenser, SEER2 13.4 — just above the current federal minimum, Rheem's builder-grade entry tier.
Our take
This is the baseline: 13.4 SEER2 is barely above what DOE allows you to legally sell. Sensible for a rental property or a builder-spec home where first cost is what matters; a poor match for anyone running the compressor hard through a long, hot summer.
Best for
Rental properties and builder-spec homes where minimum first cost is the priority and cooling-season runtime is moderate.
Watch out for
At the efficiency floor of what's still legally sellable — a hot-climate owner-occupant running this hard all summer will likely spend more on electricity than a modestly pricier two-stage unit saves back.
What sellers are actually charging
Real listings, read on the date shown. Prices change — click through to check before you act on any of them.
| Seller | What you get | Price | Seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| SkipTheWarehouse.com
online retailer |
Rheem Endeavor Classic 2-ton single-stage condenser
RA13NY24AJ1NA |
$2,811 | 2026-08-16 |
Equipment price is not installed price. The listings above are what the hardware costs. Installation — labour, electrical, refrigerant lines, permits, removing the old system — is typically a similar amount again, and varies more between contractors than between brands. Where we have an installed figure it is labelled as such and comes from someone who actually installs.
What owners and installers report
Collected from trade forums, owner communities and video reviews. Every report links to the original. We synthesise and quote briefly — we don't republish other people's writing.
Reliability and failures
What breaks, when, and how often — from people several years in.
Thin evidence — too few independent reports to call this a pattern. Shown because it may still be worth asking your contractor about.
Category-wide finding, not specific to this product: a builder-grade condenser developed a refrigerant leak from cracking copper coils after 7 years, with the HVAC tech quoting roughly $3,000 to repair versus $4,000-5,000 to replace outright — an early-teardown decision point that a durability-focused shopper should budget for on any entry-tier single-stage unit.
“it would cost ~$3000 to repair the coils and such with an all-day kind of repair” — s0me0nesmind1 (homeowner) homeowner, 2016
AC has a freon leak · Owner/trade forums (misc.) · 2016-09-09 · read it in context
Brand-level signal, not a match to this specific model: a refrigerant leak from a hole in the copper manifold surfaced 18 months after install; parts were covered under warranty but the owner still paid $680 in labor and refrigerant, and the problem recurred on a second unit.
“a hole in the copper manifold...parts were covered but I had to pay $680 in labor and new refrigerant” — forum participant homeowner
Rheem reviews · ConsumerAffairs reviews · read it in context
Brand-level signal, not a match to this specific model: an owner reported heavy rust and corrosion on the evaporator coil tubing well before the unit's expected service life was up.
“ENORMOUS RUST and CORROSION on evaporation tubes” — forum participant homeowner
Rheem reviews · ConsumerAffairs reviews · read it in context
Sources are linked so you can verify any of this yourself. We don't mirror content — Amazon in particular permits no republication of review text, so where we use retailer data we show the aggregate rating and link out. How we collect and weight this →
Compare against
Carrier Infinity 24ANB1 Variable-Speed Air Conditioner
Variable-speed cooling-only condenser, SEER2 up to 21, designed to pair with a gas furnace.
Trane XV20i Variable-Speed Air Conditioner
Variable-speed cooling-only condenser rated to SEER2 20.5, built around Trane's Climatuff compressor.
Bryant Preferred 148TAN04800W Air Conditioner
Two-stage cooling-only condenser, SEER2 18, EER2 14, built on the same Puron Advance platform Carrier sells as its own mid-tier line.
Lennox Merit ML14KC1-018 Air Conditioner
Entry-tier single-stage cooling-only condenser, SEER2 up to 17, sized for a small home or condo.
Before you buy this
Ask the contractor for the AHRI certificate number for the specific indoor/outdoor combination being installed — ratings apply to matched pairs, not to the outdoor unit alone. Ask whether they will perform a Manual J load calculation rather than sizing off the equipment being replaced. And check your state and utility incentive programmes: there is no federal tax credit for a 2026 installation, so those programmes are now the only incentive money available, and many require approval before installation.