Dpends how cold of a place you live and how much you will be using the room. IF you have mild winters a heat pump is a good choice, if you have really cold winters those units wont heat well, there really designed for mild climates, those heaters are commonly referred to as "chill chasers".

rosweet what size are you replacing? any problems on heating and cooling your condo? these are my minimum specs for a new HP system. both outside and inside units should be replaced to have a properly matched system. 15 SEER, 12.5+ EER, 9 HSPF best matching VS air handler full BTUs in both cooling and heating for your rated size R-410a refrigerant(same as Puron) scroll compressor preferred electronic demand defrost preferred thermostat with "dehumidify on demand" feature staged backup heat strips new and correctly sized refrigerant lineset you want a thorough inspection of your ductwork system. size, overall condition, supply and return lines, insulation qualities, leak test, etc. any hot/cold spot issues in your home should be addressed. I would only use authorized dealers for the various brands that provide quotes. see mfg websites. I would look at Trane/AmStd,Rheem/Rudd,Carrier/Bryant. I would not purchase a new HP system that did not have electronic demand defrost. California is an expensive HVAC market, more so than other areas of the country. It's just an expensive place to live. minimum cost est $2500/ton. that would not include any crane lift. with a system that old, you would see some good operating cost savings. If not a var speed air handler(which I would recommend), at least get a high eff air handler since Cali has such high electric rates. If you are willing to accept current operating costs and a breakdown with associated downtime to either have system repaired or replaced, then wait before replacing. don't kid yourself. there is no such thing as free maintenance. you want at least a strong warranty and perhaps consider purchasing the manufacturer's ext warranty on labor for additional protection. that's usually around 10% of purchase cost. IMO

It is a federal law to reclaim refrigerant properly. It cannot be released into the atmosphere intentionally, so they would have to recycle it. I question the $700 figure. You need to get more estimates, because the repair cost sounds high--I don't care how much refrigerant they have to recover. And no, you don't want to reuse contaminated refrigerant in a system. It needs to be clean, new refrigerant.

A load calculation is time they aren't selling a system, and once you have a good one, you don't need another. Some installers assume someone else will do it, some dislike wasting their time because it's not even close to even money they'll get your business unless they have a long history with you. These kind of calculations are often considered "unnecessary" once you say the old system worked OK. The problem is, you aren't qualified to know what OK really is. Also, a load calculation is malleable, which means that by adjusting assumptions, you can make it say whatever you want it to say. Mike and Tiger can certainly point you in the right direct for what assumptions should be made on your load calculations, but you'll need to read and understand it yourself. People will freak out and say, "Oh my God, my air conditioner is running all day" on the hottest day of the year...when that's exactly what it should do. I'm disappointed that no suggestion was made to you and/or that not even a cursory investigation was made regarding the too warm third floor. In addition to a load calculation, you need a plan for addressing the third floor issue from any installer. To make that plan, the bidder needs to know what is currentl;y installed, so anyone that bid without looking around a bid should be a red flag. The good news is you are already looking at matched systems and asking good questions. If you've been reading this forum long, you know the concerns about Lennox systems.