We see all kinds of problems and learn to deal with them quickly. Ours is not a climate that forgives lengthy periods with a broken air conditioner, and service technicians learn to spot problems quickly before the sweltering heat makes life unbearable for their customers. Leaking refrigerant ranks among the most common problems we encounter. Refrigerant is the gas that makes air conditioning possible. When it leaks, it slows down the efficiency of your AC unit and can cause more serious problems if left untreated. Here’s a Tampa Bay air conditioning repair tip: signs of refrigerant leaks are easy to spot, especially if you know what to look for.
The first and most obvious sign of leaking refrigerant is a loss of efficiency in your air conditioner overall. You can spot this by noticing if your electric bills go up without any additional use of your household appliances. Along those lines, you may notice that the air blowing into your home isn’t as cool as it once was, and/or that your air conditioner takes longer to cool the house down than you expect.
Another big sign of a refrigerant leak is frost forming on the evaporator coils. It may sound like there isn’t a problem – frost means cold, right? – but in truth the ice interferes with the evaporator’s ability to cool the air. Your unit must again work harder to do its job, increasing stress on the components and adding to the risk of a breakdown. Simply cleaning off the ice won’t fix the problem. You need to seal the leak and recharge the refrigerant, or it will just re-from.
Thankfully, a trained expert can do that for you. Air conditioning technicians know how to hunt down and seal refrigerant leaks, then recharge the refrigerant to maintain optimum levels for your unit. If you see signs of a refrigerant leak and need to contact a Tampa Bay air conditioning repair service, the experts at Forest Air are ready to help. Call us today; we’ll close up that leak and make sure your refrigerant levels are exactly where they’re supposed to be.