Knowing When Your Air Conditioner Needs Service

How to recognise your air conditioner system’s state of health?

All air conditioner systems work by compressing a refrigerant medium causing it to rise in temperature, then letting it evaporate, lowering its temperature rapidly. It is this process that gives us comfort by passing warm air over the cooling coil during evaporation, cooling the moving air rapidly before it enters your room.

Consequently, if your air conditioner system has been performing well for a number of years, maintaining comfortable temperatures, its health is probably the furthest thing from your mind. However, as with all mechanical systems, they have a limited life with 10 years being a good life span for an air conditioner.

As a rule of thumb, it is always practical to check the health of your air conditioner system, before the onset of hot summer weather and again before the cooler winter months are upon us. Often, we don’t think about our air conditioner system until it’s too late but here are some tips that might help highlight when attention may be required.

Not heating or cooling properly

If your system doesn’t seem to reach or hold a comfortable temperature, this could be caused by:

• poor airflow through the evaporator coil, most likely due to dirt build up or damage to the coil fins or the cooling fan not operating properly
• Loss of refrigerant gas, compressor malfunction or poor blower fan performance causing the lack of the system’s ability to transfer heat during the evaporation pro-cess.
• Incorrect operation of the evaporation valve preventing the refrigerant from behaving as it should.

Each of these faults are easily diagnosed by Alliance Climate Control technicians, recom-mending repairs or perhaps replacement if repairs may be expensive or the system is ap-proaching the end of its normal life.

Running costs are increasing

High or increasing power bills and other running costs are usually good indicators that something isn’t right with your system. Again, there are many reasons why running costs may be on the increase and may result from:

• Incorrect thermostat or compressor performance causing prolonged or continuous operation
• Dirt build-up at the evaporator coil, blower fans or blocked filters causing the cooling coil to freeze over

Often it can be more costly to replace major components such as compressors. Sometimes repairs to other components might also give trouble in the near future, especially if the system is close to its end of life. An Alliance Climate Control technician can recommend the best course of action for you.

Unusual sounds or smells

Unusual sounds coming from different parts of the air conditioner system or indeed strange smells can often identify a problem of concern.

Strange sounds might be caused by:

• Either the cooling fan at the cooling coil or condenser in the outside unit not working properly, perhaps a mechanical fault or dirt build-up if they haven’t been serviced recently.
• A compressor mechanical fault that might show up as an unusual noise.
• Incorrect operation of other components in the refrigerant circuit may also be the source of unusual noise.

Strange smells might be caused by:

• Dust, mould and dangerous pathogens built up in the filter or cooling coil.
• A blockage in the cooling coil drain tray may give off a “mouldy” odour or in fact over-flow and leak into your home damaging paintwork or furnishing items if left unchecked.

In either of these cases, it is recommended to call Alliance Climate Control before both the summer and winter high usage months and have the technician diagnose and report the fault and recommend a course of action.

Temperature is inconsistent from room to room

Inconsistent cooling temperatures from your air conditioner system or from room to room.

The cause may depend on the type of system installed, whether it be a single or multiple cooling coil system, ducted system or a combination of both.

A multiple cooling coil system is one in which several cooling coils are supported by a single outdoor condensing unit.
Inconsistent cooling may result from:

• One or more of the cooling coil units not working correctly for any number of reasons such a blocked filter, poor cooling coil fan performance or cool air escaping before the room entry grille
• Ineffective operation of any of the major components.
• Where ducting tube is used in the roof cavity, air may be lost from poorly sealed joints or holes in the ducting tube itself

Regular service calls incorporate a performance inspection and an Alliance Climate Control technician can quickly identify where such faults lie and recommend a course of action for you to follow before they cause discomfort to you or your family.

Repair bill is getting high

If your repair bill is increasing sharply, it is probably time to consider upgrading and replacing your system with an up-to-date unit incorporating many improvements in air conditioner tech-nology that have been introduced to the market in recent years.

Variable speed compressors and blower fans keep more constant room temperatures at a level than with earlier systems. It has been proven that persevering with outdated systems is more expensive than upgrading and availing of the reduced running costs of a replacement system.

Alliance Climate Control have the full range of reputable brands and can usually upgrade your system within one working day enabling cost savings of a new system to quickly recover the cost of recent repairs of your old, out-dated system.