Will your air conditioner breakdown this summer? Here are the Top 3 Reasons it just might.
Your Air Conditioner is not prepared for the heat
Air conditioners work hard in the summer, creating cold air, removing humidity so you don’t feel clammy, and circulating all that comfortable air around your home. The many moving parts required to do this need to be properly cleaned and lubricated and the pressures in all the liquid lines checked. If you haven’t done the following this spring, you are certainly headed for a breakdown:
- Changed the filter- If you can’t think of the last time you did this, it’s time.
- Cleaned the outside unit- If it’s covered in grass clippings or other leaves from last fall, it could be choking a bit.
- Unclogged the drain- When air conditioners remove humidity from your air, they have to be able to drain it. If the drain is clogged, then that water is going to go somewhere you don’t want it to go.
- Had it maintained by a professional- If the above seems exhausting to you, call professionals like us. We not only do the above things, but more and can help you head off potential problems before its 100 outside.
There is an Electrical Problem
If your air conditioner has tripped it’s breaker recently, you might have an electrical problem. When air conditioners get strained, they use more power, much like your heart when you run instead of walk. Your circuit breaker tripping is trying to protect your home, so if you flip that switch back on without making and appointment with a service technician, you might very well be ignoring an electrical issue, or your air conditioner trying to tell you it’s over worked and overheated. It’s heading for a breakdown.
Your AC is old and using out of date refrigerant
An air conditioner is a machine, and like all other machines, they get old. Old air conditioners lose efficiency and start costing you more on utility bills, even when they are properly maintained. Perhaps worse, however, is air conditioners get out of date. Efficiency standards have been increasing like mad the past ten years and the refrigerant called R-22 has been phased out. It gets more expensive every year and soon will be quite difficult to find in addition to outrageously expensive. If your unit is older than ten years, it more than likely uses R-22. Now is truly the time to looking in to replacing your R-22 system with a new one. Not only will any repair you might need be much more expensive on an older system, but ultimately you won’t be able to repair it. Don’t wait for an emergency and be left without air conditioning for weeks, instead look into replacing it now when heating and cooling dealers like us aren’t as busy and our prices are lower.
Solution: Be Pro-Active!
- Have a service tech give you an honest opinion as to whether it is running smoothly or perhaps needs replaced. If you aren’t sure of their opinion, go ahead and get a second opinion. New air conditioners and air conditioning repairs can be expensive! A second opinion can be a good investment.
- Get pricing on a new unit. The best time to find out how much a new air conditioning system costs is BEFORE it breaks. And it’s free to get an estimate, so why not?
- Explore all the new accessories that have happened since you purchased your last air conditioner, like wifi thermostats that you can control from your smart phone or advanced air cleaners that cut down on allergens. It will be hard to concentrate on such matters if you are being forced to buy an air conditioner by an untimely breakdown, but if you’ve done your research you can still get the exact system to fit your needs- even if the final decision is made at the last minute in a hot house.
- Find out your financing options. If you don’t have thousands of dollars sitting around this summer to spend on unexpected household expenses, explore your financing options. Home equity lines of credit were invented for purchases like this. But if that isn’t available right now and you don’t want to do all the paperwork, we offer some really good choices, both short term 0% interest loans and longer term with lower payments.
