Think you need an emergency air conditioning repair?

April 29, 2016

Think you need an emergency air conditioning repair?

Maybe you do, but check these things first.

You’re hot, you’re sweaty and all you want to do is sit back and chill with your favorite beverage before dinner. You’re in no mood to wage a battle with your air conditioner – much less face an emergency air conditioning repair.

But it looks as though you might be pushed to the front lines after all because when you turn on your air conditioner, it doesn’t respond – or once it finally does, you can barely feel any cool air streaming from the registers.

You don’t know whether to press that cool glass against your forehead or throw it across the room in frustration. But take it from Charlie’s Tropic Heating & Air Conditioning: set the glass down and run through a few troubleshooting steps before calling us. You might need an emergency air conditioning repair. But you also would be surprised by how many dozens of times Charlie’s has spared our customers even a service call by instructing them to do a few indoor and outdoor “three-steps” first.

Do an indoor three-step

  • Check the filter. Slide it out of the compartment, hold it up to a light and if you cannot see through it, replace it. The filter is designed to trap dust, dirt and other airborne particles. Once the filter is saturated, incoming matter has nowhere to settle – except on the mechanisms that are vital to the smooth operation of your air conditioner. As a result, you’ve got an air flow problem; at the worst, the blower motor might become so compromised that it falters and fails. It’s vital to check your filter once a month during the hottest months of a Florida summer. Keeping a reasonably clean filter is the single biggest precaution you can take against an expensive, emergency air conditioning repair – right next to scheduling an annual air conditioning maintenance check with Charlie’s. We are so determined to keep our customers mindful of this crucial maintenance step that we even launched a filter delivery service. (How’s that for customer service?) We’ll put the link in here.
  • Conduct a “register check” in every room in your home. As funny as it may sound, blocked registers are a frequent cause of why cool air doesn’t flow as it should through a home. Check that furniture, window treatments, clothing and toys haven’t found a resting place on top of these pivotal junctures.
  • Follow the trail of duct work in your home and look for loose connections or crumbling mastic tape. You can repair these flaws easily enough, but if you see cracks or holes, call Charlie’s so that we can assess the full extent of the problem and repair it. Scheduling a duct inspection is almost always money well spent; the U.S. Department of Energy says that most American homeowners lose 20 percent of the cool air they pay for through leaky duct work.

Do an outdoor three-step

  • Clear any grass, weeds, leaves or branches that may have infiltrated your compressor and may be choking the air flow. Open the unit and check for and remove nests made by insects, birds and other wildlife who may have sought refuge in the warm confines of your compressor.
  • Check for a buildup of dirt on the aluminum fins surrounding the coils. Dirt can seriously undermine your air conditioner’s efficiency. Wash the coils with a light stream of water from a hose. Be sure to use a light touch; a forceful stream of water could damage the fins, which are more delicate than they may look.
  • Create a 2-foot “clear zone” around the unit and an 8-foot clear zone above it. It pays to stay vigilant about keeping your compressor free of obstructions, especially those that grow rapidly throughout the summer.

Most air conditioners are built to last between 10 and 15 years, though they may need more frequent repairs after the 10-year mark. This may be one of those times for you, but try not to sweat it. Charlie’s skilled technicians know that for every air conditioner problem, there is a solution. We will find yours and fix it today – so that you can return to your favorite end-of-the-day chill-out routine tomorrow.

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