By: Brian Schutt
I’m sorry. I am. We don’t want it to, but it’s going to happen. That heating and cooling system you haven’t thought about since moving into your home is just going to stop. So before it happens, we wanted to give you some of the reasons why an air conditioning breakdown happens, so you’ll be aware.
- A leak in your refrigerant line has developed and your system can’t cool anymore.
- You have a blown capacitor.
The motors on your air conditioning system each have capacitors that help transfer electrical current to those motors to get them started. During the summer, the compressor capacitor often fails as a result of overheating, electrical overload, or other part failures causing a short in the wiring. - You have compressor failure.
Many times compressor failure will result from issues 1 or 2. When a refrigerant leak develops or a run capacitor fails, your compressor will continue to operate. However, it’s not operating optimally. With a refrigerant leak, the system might be exposed to outside elements that can cause the refrigerant to change consistency, which can lead to overheating. Similarly, if the compressor is receiving an oversupply of electrical current, the system can short out. A compressor failure is many times catastrophic for a system over 10 years. Less than 10 years and it might still be under warranty.
This probably has nothing to do with what you did or didn’t do, this just happens sometimes. When the copper lines are connected to the air conditioner and coil, they are welded in with fittings. It’s often at these joints that over time the cracks can develop, and under the pressure that your system operates refrigerant is lost. If it’s not at one of the joints, bad news, it might be in your coils – which is bad news.
While other air conditioning breakdown issues occur, these are the ones we run into the most. Want to avoid these scenarios? First, change your filter regularly. Second, call us out for preventative maintenance on your a/c. And continue to read our blog for helpful tips throughout the summer to save on operating costs, and prevent issues with your system.
