Do you hear a strange noise? Or perhaps you’ve detected an odd odor? Maybe you’re just not happy with the performance of your air conditioner now, at the end of a long summer of Florida heat. But the summer is ending. You won’t be requiring so much from that air conditioner. Is it worth it to have AC repairs done now, at the end of the season, or can you put that off until next spring? Here’s our advice.
AC Problems Start Small
When an air conditioner issue first begins, chances are, it isn’t because one thing has gone very catastrophically wrong. It’s probably something minor. Perhaps there’s a misalignment or a loose screw. Maybe the condensate pan isn’t draining as well as it should, so some mildew has been able to grow. Or maybe a storm-blown branch hit a refrigerant coil and caused a small spot to be damaged.
If you ignore this small issue, it’s not going to get any better on its own. Instead, what you’ll experience is a small issue growing larger until you have a very serious problem indeed. That misalignment or loose screw could lead to something inside your air conditioner coming free entirely and crashing into other—perhaps more costly or harder-to-repair—components.
The little bit of mildew in your condensate pan could grow into a clog that prevents it from draining entirely, leading to overflowing and water damage in the wall around your indoor AC unit. The refrigerant will drip from the impacted spot on the coil, causing your system to have insufficient cooling, and putting more and more strain on the compressor.
AC Problems Impact Efficiency
Whatever problem an air conditioner has, it is almost guaranteed to have some impact on the efficiency of the system. It might be that the air conditioner has to strain harder to pull air through. It might be that it has to run more and more of the time to compensate for a problem. This will simply cause it to use more and more electricity.
It may turn itself off to prevent worse issues, like overheating, and start up again almost immediately. This is called short cycling and can happen as a result of many different AC problems. Because starting up uses more energy than anything else the air conditioner does, going through that process much more often means using a huge amount of electricity, causing a severe spike in your utility bills.
Disuse Can Worsen Issues
During the winter months, your air conditioner will be vulnerable to other damage, like that storm-blown branch mentioned above. It will collect dust, and the lubricant will dry up. If the air conditioner is already suffering from problems, these issues of disuse will worsen them.
Don’t let problems worsen during the last of the cooling season and cause you to spend extra on electricity during this time! Don’t allow a small problem to compound itself, becoming a very costly repair need! And don’t let the winter further complicate your concerns. Get air conditioning repair in Orlando, FL while your problem is still small.
Contact Gary Munson Heating & Air Conditioning for HVAC repair in Orlando, FL. You’ll be more comfortable with the best!