Air conditioner repair in Smithville

If the air conditioner trips its breaker, reset it once. If it trips again, leave it off and call. Resetting it over and over can finish off a compressor that was only struggling, and a compressor is the most expensive part in the outdoor unit.

The usual causes are a failing start capacitor, a contactor with pitted points, a fan motor that has shorted, or wiring that has chafed or been chewed where it runs into the outdoor cabinet. A compressor that hums, clicks off and tries again is often one of these smaller parts, not the compressor itself. A burning or hot-plastic smell from the vents or the furnace cabinet is a reason to switch the system off at the thermostat straight away and keep it off until someone has looked.

Your air conditioner's indoor coil sits on top of the furnace, and on a humid day it pulls a surprising amount of water out of the house air. That water runs into a drain pan and out through a small condensate line, either to a floor drain or to a little pump that lifts it to a laundry tub. When the line clogs with slime or the pump fails, the pan overflows and you find a puddle beside the furnace or a damp patch on a finished basement ceiling.

Switch the cooling off at the thermostat to stop more water coming, and move anything that could get wet. In newer homes, like the ones along Spring Creek Rd. and in the Marz Subdivision, the furnace is a high-efficiency condensing model that shares the same drain or pump with the air conditioner, so one blockage can stop both. We clear the line, test the pump and check the pan for rust or cracks while we are there.

Water can also come from a coil that has frozen and is now thawing. That points back to airflow or refrigerant, which is the next thing we look at.

If the indoor blower is moving air but it is not cold, go outside and look at the condenser. If its fan is not spinning, or it is silent while the furnace blower runs, the fault is often a capacitor, a contactor or the fan motor. If the outdoor unit runs but the house will not cool, the coil may be packed with grass clippings and cottonwood fluff, or the system may be low on refrigerant because of a leak.

Ice on the copper line at the outdoor unit, or frost on the indoor coil, usually means poor airflow from a plugged filter, closed supply registers or a weak blower, or it means low refrigerant. Topping up refrigerant without finding the leak only buys a few weeks, so we look for where it is escaping before talking about a recharge.

A thermostat that has lost its settings, a dead battery in it, or a furnace door switch that is not closed can also make it look like the air conditioner has failed. We check those first because they are quick to rule out.

Station Meadows and the other established subdivisions in town were mostly built with forced-air gas furnaces and central air, and a lot of those systems are now reaching the end of their service life. The indoor coil is often the weak point. Copper and aluminium coils develop small leaks at the joints and bends after years of condensation and summer cycling, and the system slowly loses its charge.

When we find a leak on an older coil, you get the options in writing: repair the leak, replace the coil, or replace the system. If the outdoor unit is near the same age and uses an older refrigerant, putting a new coil on it may not make sense, and we will say so. If the furnace beside it is also ageing, it can be worth looking at a heat pump that cools in summer and shares the heating with your gas furnace. Manufacturer parts warranties often depend on registration and on proper installation, so keep the paperwork that came with the unit; it can change what a coil or compressor costs you.

Work is performed by 313A refrigeration and air conditioning mechanics. In Ontario, refrigeration and air conditioning is a compulsory trade, which matters because the work involves pressurized refrigerant and high-voltage controls.

We start by asking what the system has been doing and when it started. Then we check the thermostat, filter and breaker, look at the outdoor unit, measure the electrical parts and the refrigerant pressures, and inspect the indoor coil and drain. We show you what we found, explain the fix in plain terms and give you a written price. Nothing is replaced until you have approved it.

Before you call, it helps to check that the thermostat is set to cool and a few degrees below room temperature, the filter is not caked, and the outdoor unit is clear of leaves, clippings and anything stacked against it. If that does not sort it, tell us what you are seeing. For regular upkeep that catches clogged drains and dirty coils early, see furnace and AC maintenance.