It’s mid-August, and that means we’re coming closer to the end of summer. The air conditioner that works to keep your home cooled down has probably done a significant amount of work during the last few months, and that’s why it’s a wise idea to pay close attention to it during this time of year. Even with regular maintenance in spring to tune-up your air conditioner, all the strain of the summer workload can turn into malfunctions. The sooner you catch the problems, the less likely that you’ll end up trapped in the late summer heat with a busted AC.
Red Rock Mechanical, LLC Blog: Archive for the ‘Air Conditioning’ Category
The Hard-Starting Air Conditioner (And How We Can Fix It)
Monday, August 1st, 2016
During the summer, the average air conditioning system handles an enormous workload. Just like a car that racks up many miles over a road trip, an air conditioner can suffer from extreme stress on its components over the hot season. That’s why you need to keep an eye on the system to watch for indications that something is wrong with it. The sooner you call on HVAC repair experts to investigate the problem, the easier it’ll be to fix and the less likely the AC will suffer a catastrophic breakdown.
One common air conditioning malfunction is when the compressor begins to hard-start.
Will High Levels of Summer Heat Damage My Air Conditioning System?
Monday, July 18th, 2016
Your air conditioning system does the lion’s share of its annual work during the summer; the heat of the middle of the year is the reason you have an AC in first place! But when the heat crests to its highest seasonal levels, will it possibly cause the AC to overheat, or suffer other types of damage to its components? This is a question we sometimes hear from our customers, and we’d like to address it.
How Old Is “Too Old” When It Comes to Air Conditioners?
Monday, July 4th, 2016
This is a good question to ask whenever the hot weather starts up and you turn on your trusty ol’ cooling system for comfort. Because once an air conditioner is “too old,” it won’t stay trusty much longer. You could end up with a busted AC on the hottest day of the year, waiting for repairs to arrive and hoping that the system can be fixed. If your air conditioner has been with you long enough that you’re starting to wonder if it is past its prime, put serious consideration into replacing it.
The Different Air Filters for Your HVAC System
Monday, June 13th, 2016
If your home’s HVAC system is like most in the region, it consists of an air conditioner and furnace installed within a single cabinet that connects to ductwork and uses the same blower fan. Air enters the cabinet through a return air duct, and between this duct and the cabinet sits a special filter. The filter protects the internal components of the AC, furnace, and blower from dust that can lead to stress on the mechanical parts.
Reasons You Never Want Amateurs to Install Your Air Conditioning
Monday, June 6th, 2016
We live in an era when “Do It Yourself” projects are more popular than ever before. It can be fun to tackle some household ventures on your own, but it’s important to know where to draw the line between jobs that an amateur can figure out… and jobs that must have a professional.
Ways You Might Damage Your AC Over the Summer
Monday, May 23rd, 2016
We hope that you make every effort to keep your air conditioning system in good shape during the summer. It’s in your best interests to see that the AC makes it through the season without mishap or a drop in efficiency.
Why Is My Air Conditioning System Making So Much Noise?
Monday, May 16th, 2016
As the weather warms up through the spring, and with summer just over the horizon in June, you’ll begin to run your residential air conditioning system more and more often. It’s important to pay attention during this time to any warning signs that the AC isn’t performing as well as it should, or that it may need immediate repairs so that it won’t fail when temperatures rise even higher.
Can I Take Care of Air Conditioning Maintenance on My Own?
Monday, May 2nd, 2016
Have you already arranged for an air conditioning maintenance visit from a professional HVAC technician? If you have, that’s great: you’ll have the best preparation possible for the coming summer, as well as a system that will operate at its peak efficiency level.
A Hissing Sound from Your Air Conditioner: What It Might Mean
Monday, April 25th, 2016
We are getting closer and closer to the time when you’ll need your air conditioning system working steadily to provide your family with pleasant indoor temperatures. As the cooling system starts its regular operation for the middle of the year, make sure that you pay close attention to unusual sounds coming from the cabinets. This is one of the ways that a refrigeration device like an AC warns that something is wrong with it that requires the attention of professionals.
One of the common warning sounds from an air conditioner is a hissing, like gas escaping. We’ll look into what this might mean.
Brief hissing sounds
Your air conditioner will sometimes make hissing sounds as part of its regular operation. The expansion valve, which lowers the pressure of the refrigerant gas as it moves from the condenser coil, creates brief a hissing that lasts only a few seconds. If you hear periodic hissing and don’t notice other signs of problems with the AC (a drop in cooling capacity, ice along the evaporator coil) it’s usually nothing to worry about.
Sustained hissing sounds
This, however, is something to worry about. There are a number of different causes for continuous hissing noises coming from an air conditioner. The most common is that holes have opened along the copper refrigerant line, allowing the high pressure refrigerant gas to leak out. Loss of refrigerant will not only lower the cooling power of the AC, it can cause damage elsewhere to the system as the pressure levels decline. The leak could also be in the compressor valve, which is designed to control the pressure levels of the refrigerant.
Worst of all is when the hissing sound is due to a malfunction in the compressor itself: the pressure levels inside it are rising too high. Permanent damage to the compressor is one of the most expensive repairs that an air conditioner may need, so get on the phone right away to have professionals look into the problem and prevent it from getting worse.
Need air conditioning repairs? Call Red Rock Mechanical LLC in Burlington, VT.
