Check The Following Before You Call An AC Repair Company | Fort Worth, TX
Whenever the winter season comes, an air conditioning unit is among the most critical appliances for your home. It ensures that your home is comfortable by regulating the indoor air temperatures to your desired settings. It also plays a critical role in regulating indoor humidity protecting furniture and other items from the harmful effects of moisture. Moisture also facilitates mold growth.
For this reason, you should ensure that you properly maintain your air conditioning unit. You do not have to wait until your current air conditioner breaks down before you call an AC repair company for an inspection. Whenever you suspect a problem with your air conditioning system, you should check a few things to determine exactly where the issue is. Do not rush into calling just any air conditioning repair company. Call one that has licensed technicians or professionals who can find where the problem is and effectively repair it.
However, there are some places or issues that you can check out to ensure you provide all the required information to the technician when they arrive. Several signs indicate your AC unit is not properly working. Some include a bad smell, high energy utility bills, whenever your home is not properly cooled, unusual sounds, and dust on your furniture, among others. Before you contact an AC repair company, check for the following things:
Confirm Whether You Have Electrical Power at Your Home
Has your air conditioner stopped cooling your home suddenly? Although many things could cause this, a lack of electrical power in your home is one of them. There have been various instances where homeowners contact an AC repair company claiming their air conditioning systems have a problem and they aren’t cooling their homes, only for the technician to determine the reason for this to be a lack of electrical power. This could prove embarrassing, couldn’t it? Your air conditioning system runs on electrical power.
Therefore, if there’s no power, it will not be able to cool your home or even regulate indoor humidity. It may sometimes be a power disconnection to your air conditioning system. Therefore, you must check the electrical power at your home and to the appliance before you decide to call an AC repair company in Fort Worth, TX. This could save you a fortune because you will not pay the transport charges that some companies charge their clients and won’t waste your time and that of the technician. Hence, next time your air conditioning system doesn’t cool your home or start, check whether you have electricity at your home before you call a technician.
Does Your Thermostat Have Batteries?
Has your air conditioning system suddenly shut off or even malfunctioned? The air conditioner might malfunction or even go off because the thermostat doesn’t have batteries or they have run-off energy. When last did you change the thermostat batteries? Did you even insert some? If you cannot remember when you last changed the thermostat batteries, the time might be ripe to have them replaced because it could be the reason your air conditioner isn’t cooling your home. Remember, a thermostat is the brain of your air conditioning system. If it isn’t properly functioning, your air conditioner will not effectively or efficiently cool your home.
Therefore, before you call an AC repair company in Fort Worth, TX, check whether the thermostat has batteries. If present and you cannot recall when you last replaced them, then fit new ones. If your AC unit doesn’t still turn on even with the new batteries, it might be the right time to call a technician for a further inspection. This includes routine maintenance by a reliable air conditioner repair professional. A minor component, like a thermostat, can render your entire system inoperable. Can you recall when you last replaced the thermostat battery pack? If you cannot, purchase a new set and replace the old ones.
Check Your AC’s Air Filter
Does your air conditioner take longer to cool your home than before? Is the unit blowing dusty air via the vents? Have you noticed that the furniture gets dusty immediately after cleaning it? All this points to dirty air ducts of air filters. If the filter is clogged, the AC unit will strain to deliver cooled air into your home, resulting in the AC unit using more energy utility bills.
Moreover, the air will carry dust as it blows past the clog, dusty furniture, and other items. If the air filters are clogged, your air conditioning unit will take longer to cool your home. Hence, before you contact an AC repair company in Fort Worth, TX, you might want to check the air filters because the AC unit is taking longer to cool your home. If they are clogged, you should replace or clean them.
The air filter is a critical component of your air conditioning system. Besides keeping the AC unit clean, it is also responsible for the filtration of air blown into your home. It removes all the contaminants like pet hair, dust, pollen, dirt, and other pollutants from the air. Your home will have improper airflow whenever the filter has a problem, like clogging or perforation. As a result, some areas will be cooled more than others, creating some temperature imbalance at your home.
This implies that the AC’s air filter won’t be able to maintain the unit’s cleanliness or even filter the indoor air at your home, which will cause the air conditioner to break down. Fortunately, you can take care of this yourself. You will spend a lot of money if you hire a technician to complete the repairs. Remove your unit’s air filter and give it a good cleaning. The filter should be replaced if it appears to be worn out. Make sure to clean your filter frequently to stop the issue from happening again. If the signs above manifest after you have recently cleaned or replaced the air filters, then immediately call an AC repair company.
Check Whether Your AC Condenser Unit Has a Blockage
Because of its location and the very nature of its work, your condenser unit might turn into a breeding ground for dirt and debris. As long as the air conditioning system is installed outside your home, it will likely accumulate lots of debris and dust. Hence, you must check the air conditioning unit for anything that obstructs the flow of air and causes a blockage. You can clean the outdoor condensing unit properly and remove any item or material causing a blockage before you call the AC repair company. However, if the condenser unit was recently cleaned, the reason for the malfunctioning might be the fan. If that is the case, contact an AC repair company for a further inspection. The blower is critical to your air conditioning system and should always remain clean.
Check Your Air Conditioner’s Circuit Breaker
Before contacting an AC repair company in Fort Worth, TX, for assistance, you should also check the circuit breaker. Even though fuses are no longer often used, you may be familiar with them as fuse boxes. Your air conditioning system won’t even turn on if the electrical circuit within the breaker box has tripped. Resetting the breaker is the best option. However, you should know that circuit breakers usually trip for security reasons. You should probably call an electrical technician to check the issue if the breaker keeps tripping.
However, remember that a circuit breaker is an electrical component. Hence, you shouldn’t go ahead to poke the wires. The only thing to check is whether the breaker has tripped. If it has, call an electrician or an AC repair company to come over for a further inspection. There may be an underlying problem within the AC unit or your home’s electrical wiring that keeps making the breaker trip. Many things could make a breaker trip, including electrical overloads, when the AC is overheating, dirty condenser coils, refrigerant leaks, malfunctioning fan or blower motor, compressor failure, clogged air filter, and power surges in your locality, among many others.
Check Whether the Return Grill Has a Blockage
Your air conditioning system will only work correctly if the right amount of air flows continuously from your indoor settings to the outside. The air flows out through the return grills. If the grills are blocked or clogged, the air will be trapped within and will not flow outside. As a result, the indoor temperatures at your home will increase besides the air conditioner being on. Before you can an AC repair company in Fort Worth, TX, ensure that the grills are clear and not clogged. To correct the situation, the only thing that you can do is clear your AC unit’s return grill. This allows enough or adequate air to start flowing out.
Verify that nothing is preventing the air from leaving correctly by checking the return grill. Additionally, ensure nothing, including furniture or other objects, is blocking the return grill. To allow hot air to depart the space and maintain a cool environment, ensure that you keep them at some distance. However, if your AC unit doesn’t effectively cool your home after doing all this, you should immediately contact an AC repair company for a further inspection. The technician has enough knowledge to inspect the system and determine where the problem lies. They also have better cleaning tools that can unclog the grills to ensure that your unit cools your entire home properly.
Check Thermostat Settings
As mentioned above, your AC thermostat is like its brains. For the air conditioning system to effectively cool your home and eliminate the humidity from the air, the thermostat should be efficiently functioning. Any thermostat malfunction could make the air conditioning unit start functioning erratically. Therefore, before you contact an AC repair company, check the thermostat settings. You might have set the thermostat at a higher or too low.
Every time you turn on your AC unit, the fan turns on. Therefore, you must ensure that the thermostat is set to cool mode before you call a technician and confirm its temperature settings. The temperature settings should always be lower compared to your room temperatures. Nowadays, homeowners are installing programmable and smart thermostats that don’t need frequent manual operations.
These thermostats can be programmed or even learn your daily routines to ensure that they cool your home per your schedule. Smart thermostats can start cooling your home a few minutes before you arrive back home. They also have a self-diagnostic feature, which will diagnose any issue with your AC unit and alert you on time to call an AC repair company. Hence, check the thermostat settings before contacting a technician or having them install these intelligent thermostats.
Check the AC Unit’s Drain Line or Condensation Pump
Before calling an AC repair company in Fort Worth, TX, check whether the drain lines are clogged. The majority of HVAC systems contain water safety switches that are intended to turn them off in the case of a water leak. If you inspect and discover water in a drain pan under the unit, your condensate drain lines are clogged. It only requires that you empty the drain pan and flush the drain line to clear it. Your AC system should start operating properly after doing this. Otherwise, immediately contact an AC repair company for a further inspection of the unit.
Contact Us Today!
An air conditioning system is critical for your home, especially when the summer season comes knocking. It ensures that your home is comfortable by providing cooled or conditioned air and eliminating the humidity from the indoor air. However, it will run into issues from time to time. However, as explained above, there are several places to check before you call an AC repair company. Has your AC unit run into an issue? Contact us at One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth, your reliable AC repair company in Fort Worth, TX.
