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The A/C Guy of Tampa Bay Inc. Blog

How You Can Help a Struggling Air Conditioner

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One of the difficulties we face with air conditioners in Florida is that they don’t get lengthy breaks. The standard for air conditioners in most of the country is a steady summer of use, shorter periods of use in spring and fall, and then a winter where they may not turn on at all. But we need to have our ACs ready to work all through the year, and this means they take on a lot more stress. 

As winter gets nearer, you may run into an air conditioner that’s starting to struggle to keep the house cool on warm days. This might be the result of the strain on the air conditioner, or it could be a malfunction. We’ll look at what you can do when you have an AC that isn’t living up to expectations.

Check the air filter

We give out this advice often: when your AC isn’t working well, check to see if its air filter is clogged up. Sometimes it only takes around a month for the filter to pick up enough dust, lint, and other debris that it will begin blocking airflow and impede the air conditioner’s cooling capacity. At three months, it’s almost certainly clogged. If you fall out of the habit of regularly changing out the filter, it will eventually mean poor AC performance. Put in the new filter and see if this fixes the trouble.

Don’t push the thermostat lower

When you notice that your home feels hotter than normal while the AC is running, you might think you can fix this by pushing the thermostat setting lower. Please don’t do this—it won’t improve the situation and it is more likely to hurt the AC. A lower thermostat setting doesn’t make the air conditioner push out more cool air; it only makes it run longer, putting extra strain on it. You need to solve whatever is limiting the AC rather than try to work around it with thermostat settings.

Check for blocked room vents

All the vents for the HVAC system need to be unobstructed to allow for airflow. Blocking or closing a vent isn’t an effective way to create “zone cooling,” and it can end up damaging the ductwork. Blocked vents can affect more than the comfort in a single room: the increase in pressure in the HVAC system can restrict the AC’s cooling capacity. Make a tour of all the rooms to see that the vents are all open and clear. 

Clear the area around the condenser

The condenser is the outdoor cabinet of the air conditioning system, and it must have a foot of clearance on all sides for it to effectively vent heat from the house. Clear away from brush, branches, leaves, or other debris that might be blocking the condenser. 

Schedule professional AC repair

If you can’t get better cooling from your air conditioner with the above methods, the next step is to call us for AC repair in Dunedin, FL. Please don’t try to open the AC and tinker with it on your own, and don’t allow amateurs to tackle the work. Our pros will find the solutions you need and get the job done fast and right. 

The A/C Guy of Tampa Bay Inc serves our Tampa Bay Family with Integrity and Honor. Call us when you need air conditioning repair.

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