AC Repair in Montgomery, AL
Air conditioners here run from May through October. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Montgomery County will get in touch.
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Six months of Alabama heat wears on your system
Your air conditioner works from May through October here, and on afternoons that hit 91°F it runs long stretches just to hold the house steady. That kind of runtime adds up on the compressor and the fan motor, the parts that carry the load every time the system cycles on.
Montgomery County has also seen 34 damaging wind events and 11 hail storms over the past ten years, with hail up to 1.75 inches. Hail that size can bend the fins on your outdoor unit or dent the cabinet, and wind can knock loose the electrical connections or debris into the unit itself. If your system is cooling poorly or short cycling after a storm rolls through, that outdoor unit is the first place to check.
- 6 months
- May through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 11 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 34 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $70 a year off cooling for a typical Montgomery County home.
Estimates for a typical Montgomery County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Alabama fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when a part like a capacitor or contactor has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the compressor has failed or the system uses R-22 refrigerant, which is no longer made.
Alabama requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Contractors tests and licenses the contractor, not the individual job. That means the company sent to your house has been through the state's process and has a record with the board, but the license itself does not inspect the repair being done on your air conditioner.
For an air conditioner repair, the license tells you the contractor is accountable to the state. The part of the job that goes beyond that is the refrigerant. Any technician who opens the refrigerant side of your system, to recover it, recharge it, or fix a leak, has to hold EPA Section 608 certification, a federal requirement that applies in every state regardless of what Alabama does for licensing.
Source: Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- The most common cause is a dirty air filter cutting off airflow across the coil, which can make the whole system freeze up. A refrigerant leak will also cause this, and so will a failing compressor. With six months of cooling season here and afternoons hitting 91 degrees, it's worth checking the filter first since that's the one thing you can rule out yourself before calling someone.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Usually the condensate drain line is clogged and water is backing up instead of draining outside. It can also mean the drain pan has rusted through, or the coil has frozen and is now melting and overflowing the pan. A clogged line is the most common of these and often the easiest to clear.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat batteries and the breaker panel, since both are easy to check and both cause this. If those are fine, the capacitor that starts the compressor may have failed, or a safety switch has shut the system down because of a clogged filter or a full condensate pan. Montgomery has seen 34 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and a power interruption during a storm can also trip a breaker without it being obvious.