5 common central AC problems

There could be over a hundred reasons that your central air conditioning system isn’t working right, not turning on, not cooling etc. Most people are just very quick to go out and call a professional HVAC technician to come out and fix it for them, and also pay a big fee for something that could be as simple as changing an air filter. So that’s why this topic I am going to go through my top five central air conditioner problems.

My central air conditioning isn’t cooling what should I do ?

1. The first thing that you should do is check your air filter. If you are a home owner this is most likely a given and you already know this but if you are still young in your teenage years and finally got your own apartment, and have no basic knowledge on how air conditioners work then you must realize you have to check your air filter at least once a month. If the AC is on and no air is blowing out that means no air is getting sucked into the coiling coils because either the air filter or the coiling coils are clogged up. So check your air filter first, if you have trouble locating where the air filter is it is right next to the inside air conditioner unit, or air handler or evaporator whatever you want to call it. Sometimes the air handler is in the attic, in this case the filter is most likely located in the ceiling right by it, or the air handler could be located in a closet, if this is the case the filter should be right in front of the coils. Okay so let’s say that the air filter was the problem and it was heavily clogged, you remove it now there is air blowing out through the vents and you can feel the place start cooling. You need to replace that filter with a new one, if not dirt and dust is eventually going to clog up the evaporator coils and you and that’s just going to cause future problems.

2. You check you air filter and your evaporator coils and they are both clean. You’re outside condensing unit could be low on refrigerant. Now unless you are HVAC certified you cannot check the refrigerant pressure on the condensing unit, you would also need gauges to do this. But what you can do is go outside where your condensing unit is and put your hand over the fan while it is running. You should be feeling warm air if the condensing unit is working properly, because remember, the way that air conditioning works is it pulls heat from inside the home and shoots it out of the outside unit. If your outside unit is shooting out cool air then your unit probably needs a refrigerant charge.

3. AC will not turn on at all. 1st thing you check is the breaker panel to see if a breaker has been tripped. There’s many reasons why a breaker could trip, so just simply reset the breaker, if it trips instantly after you reset it you have a faulty ground somewhere in the electrical distribution system and will need to call an electrician, or if you have common electrical knowledge just shoot me a comment and I can try to help you fix the problem.

4. If the thermostat isn’t working at all you could have a tripped float switch. A float switch is a safety device that’s installed on most newer air handlers, its designed to shut off all the power to the thermostat if the condensate line gets clogged up from too much slime sludge built up in the piping. Basically the evaporator produces condensate and it falls in the drip pan on the air handler, the condensate then drain outside via pvc piping. After a while the piping will build up slime sludge and eventually clog the line leaving the condensate nowhere to drain. So instead of the condensate flooding your home it pushes up on the float switch and shuts the24volt power off to the thermostat. So make sure that you vacuum out and clean your condensate line twice a year.

5. Your outside condensing coils could be clogged up or dirty. If you have a lot of leaves and loose dirt around your outside AC unit it could get sucked into the coils and eventually clog it up causing the AC to work harder and less efficient. You can clean the coils by buying a coil cleaning solution from a local HVAC supplier or Home Depot. Or you can secure the power to the unit and spray the coils with a high pressure water hose, although I don’t recommend this technique, but it does work
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Now there’s many other things that could be preventing your air conditioner to be working properly but the problems above are the most common that I’ve ran into and most can be easily fixed without calling a professional. So if you have any questions about your central air conditioning not cooling fire away and I will do my best to answer them in the comments section.


central air conditioning, AC problems, HVAC