AC Repair in Phenix City, AL
Air conditioners here run from May through October. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Russell County will get in touch.
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Six months of heat wears on your AC in Phenix City
Your air conditioner runs from May through October here, six months of the year. On afternoons that average 91°F, the compressor cycles on and off for hours at a stretch to keep the house cool. That kind of run time wears on the parts that keep it going. Capacitors weaken, contactors pit, and a system that used to keep up starts falling behind by mid-afternoon.
Russell County has also seen 15 hail events and 30 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail as large as 1.75 inches. The outdoor unit sits outside through all of it. Bent fins block airflow through the coil, and a hard enough hit can damage the fan or the coil itself. If your system is cooling poorly or not at all after a storm, the outdoor unit is the place to check first.
- 6 months
- May through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 15 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 30 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 Russell County home.
Estimates for a typical Russell 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 issues that license. It covers the contractor, not each job they do, so the same license applies whether the work is a repair, a replacement, or a new install.
An air conditioner repair often means opening the refrigerant side of the system, to check the charge or get to a leak. Any technician doing that, in Russell County or anywhere else, needs EPA Section 608 certification. That certification is federal and comes on top of the state license, not in place of it.
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 choking off airflow, so start there before anything else. A clogged filter forces the evaporator coil to run colder than it should, and ice can form on it, which cuts cooling even more. Low refrigerant from a leak is another common cause, but that needs a licensed contractor to find and fix, since refrigerant doesn't get used up on its own. If the filter is clean and air is still coming out warm, have a contractor check the refrigerant charge and the outdoor unit.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Most of the time this means the condensate drain line is clogged. Your AC pulls moisture out of the air all day during a Phenix City summer, and that water is supposed to run out through a drain line and away from the house. Algae and dirt build up inside that line over time and block it, so the water backs up and drips out near the indoor unit instead. A dirty filter can also cause this by freezing the coil, which then thaws and overflows the drain pan, so check the filter too.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Check the thermostat first, since a dead battery or a setting bumped off cool will stop the system before it ever starts. Next check the breaker box, since a tripped breaker will cut power to the outdoor unit even though the thermostat still lights up. If the breaker keeps tripping when you reset it, stop resetting it and call a contractor, because that usually means something in the system is drawing too much current. When the thermostat and breaker both check out and the system still won't start, a licensed contractor will need to look at the capacitor or the compressor itself.