My A/C is still working, but it was noticeably not blowing out very cold air last night. ie. it ran all night at 70 degrees and the place still felt like it was 80 degrees. My guess is that it is running low on Freon. Does anyone know of a good place to get this taken care of? Any other ideas as to why it might not be blowing air as cold as it was prior. Any help appreciated. Thanks.
Can you take the cover off the unit? If so, take it off and see if the grill needs cleaning. If it is clogged up that will cause it to not cool well. Years ago we had a similar problem. I cleaned it with a stiff brush and the garden hose.
Just clearing up a very common misconception here that you may or may not have. But other people will probably read this and it's something you hear a lot. Contrary to popular belief, freon is not like fuel. You don't actually "run out" after a period of time because it lives in a closed system. If it turns out that you are, in fact, low on freon, it's because you have a leak somewhere that needs to be fixed. "Adding more freon" is always an oversimplification of the problem. Now having said that, it is possible you're low on freon, but I would guess that it's more likely that you're losing efficiency in other areas. If your filter is dirty that's a problem, or if you don't change them regularly enough your evaporator coil gets dirty (that's the one in your attic... it looks like a car radiator). Those can be as simple as changing your filter and cleaning the coil. It's also a good idea to clean your coil outside with the sprayer on your water hose. If you're not getting enough airflow you're definitely going to be losing out how efficiency, and eventually your unit will freeze up because it's not able to get rid of all of the cold that's being created. But if you want a real professional opinion/fix, you could call my dad. Gary Hayden 713-946-7149
I had this problem last week. Freon leak. I used Hallmark A/C. They put in more, a temporary fix, but said I needed a new compressor which is going to cost me $2500. I'm going to get a 2nd estimate eventually. RIght now the a/c is running ok.
Are the filter and coil easily removed? Do they pop out, or are tools needed? I'm quite the novice, but if I can do this part on my own first, I'd prefer it, obviously.
The filter he is referring to is the filter that should be changed every month. It should be located inside your house, probably near the furnace and is generally easy to replace. The maintenance I referred to can definitely be done by a novice. Simply remove the cover from the A/C unit and visually inspect the "grill". If it is clogged up (leaves, grass, dust, dirt, pet hair, etc), clean it with a wire brush and garden hose.
He's right. If you don't already know where your filter is, then it's almost certainly a problem because it hasn't been changed in a long time. Since air conditioners recirculate the air in your house, the filter is there to keep dirt and dust out of your coil. And don't EVER get the cleanable kind. They're expensive and they actually don't work very well. They restrict the air and then you're back to the original problem. Usually the cheapest ones you can find are actually the best for your system. Especially if you have an older house, you should be using the old blue fiberglass filters and not the ribbed kind (if you can find them) for the same reason. Ribbed filters restrict more are and therefore the house needs to be designed to have larger vents to compensate. As far as cleaning the coil, you don't want to mess with actually pulling them out all the way. It can be done, but it definitely needs to be done by a professional. However, most units have some kind of an access in the side that you can open up and clean yourself. I used to do it when I was like 10, so it's not ridiculously hard. You definitely need a wire brush, and you might want to consider getting some chemicals (ask for them at Home Depot). If there's any question about where your evaporator is, the best thing to do is to find your blower first, which is usually the same unit as your furnace. (and it will be really noisy) The evaporator will be "downwind" from the blower since it's blowing the air through the cold coils to create cold air. The evaporator is usually a relatively small rectangular box with kind of a trapezoid connection to the furnace. Hope that helps. :\
If you go to the outside unit and cold air is being exhausted rather than hot, does that narrow it down any?
The big question I would ask at that point is whether or not the compressor is running. (you can usually tell because it has kind of a distinctive whiny putter) If the compressor is running and your blowing cold air from the outside, then it's probably low on freon. You might also check the copper tubes going out of the outside unit (the one that's got the insulation on it) and see if it's cold and/or sweating. If it's cold then your compressor is running, and you're probably just low on freon. (and have a leak somewhere) Now, if you're compressor isn't running, then that could be caused by a number of other problems, but you'll need a professional to fix that. Since it's a home unit, you probably don't have a low pressure switch. It could be a bad compacitor, a burnt wire, bad contacter, or the compressor might be dead. (which can be caused by low freon) But that should at least give you a starting point for troubleshooting.
