If you’re sitting in your home on a Saturday afternoon, listening to the whir and hum of your air conditioner as it vents air through the rooms, but you keep thinking to yourself that you’re far warmer than you should be… you may have trouble with your AC. Check on the thermostat to make sure that it’s set right. If the house still doesn’t feel as cool as it should, or if the stuffiness seems to increase, then you should call for air conditioning repair from Westlake, OH specialists as soon as possible.
At Westland Heating and Air Conditioning, we have over 25 years of experience handling air conditioning systems that have started to lose their normal cooling power. Below are three of the most common reasons that your AC might start to malfunction and leave you with an unpleasantly warm house during the summer:
1. Loss of refrigerant charge
The lifeblood of an air conditioner is the refrigerant, a chemical blend that moves through the system and shifts heat from the indoors to the outdoors. Refrigerant remains at a set level, known as its “charge,” as long as the air conditioner is running normally: refrigerant does not become “used up” during the cooling cycle. However, leaks can occur that will lower the charge, and should this happen, an AC will begin to lose the ability to absorb heat from the indoor air. This is a serious problem, because if left without repairs lowered refrigerant will cause damage to the compressor, possibly leading to it overheating and burning out.
2. Clogged air filter
The air filter in an AC protects the interior of its evaporator cabinet from debris that comes in through the return vent. After a month, the filter will start to become clogged with the contaminants trapped inside it, and this will cut down on the airflow into the air conditioner. This will cause the AC to struggle to remove sufficient heat from the air, and will result in a drop in cooling ability. Make sure you change the filter once a month during the summer to prevent this from occurring. Should a clogged filter affect cooling ability, you should call for repairs to make sure the system has not suffered serious damage.
3. Failed outdoor fan
The fan draws warm outside air across the condenser coil, causing the hot refrigerant inside to release heat. Without a properly working fan, the refrigerant won’t cool down enough; when the refrigerant enters the indoor cabinet through the evaporator coil, it will not be able to draw enough heat from the air to provide the level of cooling you want. Fans can fail for a variety of reasons; technicians can replace the motor, capacitor, broken fan belt, or whatever has caused the fan to stop working.
Don’t attempt to troubleshoot AC repairs on your own; the work requires highly trained specialists. Our technicians at Westland Heating and Air Conditioning have over 100 years of combined experience fixing malfunctioning cooling systems, so when you need air conditioning service in Westlake, OH, pick up your phone and give us a call today.
