You will probably get specific reccomendations on the intire replacement which is fine if you are prepared to see them through.
What I have to say is,I'm glad you asked before haveing the new equipment installed then asking how to make it work. I reccomend you let your insuarce decide how they want to handle the replacement as far as the discontinued status. Don't try gathering information to relay to the installing contractor. If you tell the insuance company and installer what you need,who is responsible if it doesn't work right? Just make certain both understand you want the house to cool evenly and reasonably economily when finished. The insurance and contractor must please you prior to you sighning off on it. If the contractor knows how to desighn and install,he will catch the problem with the third floor and include it in his estimate. If he doesn't,shame on him for taking people's money for work he isn't compitent in. If you aren't confident in your ability to hold all parties accountable,let one of these guys help you write a scope of work to be included with the contract.

I would call Trane dealer who installed this system and see what they recommend. There are still R-22 HP condensers available in marketplace. I don't believe it's been too long since the R-22 Trane XB13 HP condenser was discontinued. I would not have a mismatched system though. If you can't get a Trane or AmStd R-22 HP condenser that matches to air handler, I would replace everything.

Sorry for your trouble.

Good Luck!
IMO

Very helpful both! Thank you.

If you want to stay with R-22 then the condenser would have to shipped with no refrigerant. The R-22 refrigerant would have to be added when it is installed. I am not sure that is the best option.

Whatever you decide to do, I suggest getting a check from the insurance company and using the funds to buy a replacement that fits your needs. You may want to add money to upgrade to a better model.

Who can I trust to help me determine what is best since I don't really know anything about heating and cooling? If I talk to a dealer, how do I know they aren't trying to sell me something I don't need? I do plan to try to find out who installed the unit as I bought the house new. I want to find out why they didn't put adequate vents on the third floor. I have heard there are other homeowners who have the same problem as me with the third floor being too hot. I heard that one homeowner installed one of those models that hangs on the wall in addition to the heat pump. I guess I'm feeling a little vulnerable right now after being burglarized. Its hard to trust anyone these days when a lot of money is at stake.

Trust is such an important thing but sometimes hard to obtain. We have done quite a few of these insurance claims in the past few years. Depends a lot on what insurance company you have. Some will gladly pay for entire system if a R-22 system can not be found. Some will only pay value of outside unit that was stole with you having to pay for remainder.
That being said, That unit is still available in R-22. As mike said it will come as a "dry 22 " unit(no R-22 in unit. Probably a good time to upgrade entire system though in my opinion.

The problem with your 3rd story is really common with 1 unit doing 3 stories and is not easily fixed after house is built but not impossible. Good Luck!

Well, your advice was SOOOO helpful as my insurance company agreed with no questions to replace the entire unit with the upgraded model that doesn't use R-22! So now I will have a 10 year warranty as well. Believe it or not, the contractor who installed the unit before I bought the house admitted there was no record of my unit being balanced. So they will bring a hood and balance it. The newer model may help a little as well since its more efficient. I'm not really expecting a huge increase in the output since I really believe its due to only having one vent in the master bedroom. But you've helped me know what to ask and how to deal with both the insurance company and the contractor. I am so appreciative!!!! If you think of anything else I should ask, please let me know. You guys are the BEST!

I think your system may not have a return up on the third floor. Cold air is heavier than warm air so all the cold air is stacking on the first floor. Without a return up top that warm/hot air will just lay up there and depending upon where the t-stat is.....

Let us know how the system balancing goes for you.

With respect to evening out your cooling, consider better (ceiling) insulation and windows on the third floor. In addition to that, ask your contractor about mini splits if you have a small home and especially if you live in a predominately cooling climate. That way, you have a lot of independent zones.

Hmm, I will check. As I recall the return in is in the stairway just above the second floor. There may be one in the ceiling over the steps on the third floor but I will check. Thank you.

So I had my new system installed this week and it went well, except they forgot to bring the hood to balance the system. The company assured me they will return to do it later at my convenience. The were two returns on the top floor but the serviceman did say that the room really needed more than one vent because of the size. There was also a large return on the bottom floor and they reduced the size of it to help push more air upstairs.

The only thing that makes me very nervous is that there is now a bright shiny copper pipe on the exterior of the outside unit. Hopefully no one will just come along and whack it off. The old one had turned colors and it wasn't so evident that it was copper. BUT I now have a strong lock on the electrical box. Shame on me for not doing that before. I'd probably not had a theft if I had just taken that precaution. Thanks again for all the help.