What Makes Our Air Conditioning Repair So Quick And Effective? Experience And Technology | The Woodlands, TX
There are two things that we bring in our Mr. Reliable Heating & Air repair vehicles to every air conditioning repair call that make us different from other companies. We carry a full supply of most repair parts, of course, but we also have test and repair equipment, and the training to use them, along with years of experience in air conditioning repair that makes us experts at diagnosing and repairing your problem in The Woodlands, TX. It’s a given that we arrive on time, we’re known for our reliability, and once we do you’ll see an expert at work with his or her tools, many of which you’ve probably never seen before. Waving the magic wand over your AC’s evaporator and condenser coils can detect leaks, for example, and other gadgets can help us scientifically make sure one bedroom isn’t a lot colder than the other. There are a lot of routine air conditioning repairs that don’t require much science to figure out, like noticing a lot of accumulated dirt, dust, chemicals, mold, grease, and so on in your ducts, and recommended a duct cleaning service. Likewise, cleaning out your outdoor AC unit after a rough winter can be a great idea, part of annual maintenance service, even. You never know what — or who — you’ll find in there! It wouldn’t be the first time we found teeth marks on the contactor wires.
Checking the Airflow Can Save You a Lot
Replacing your air conditioning system can get your house cooler, but sometimes so can removing your kid’s laundry from the air intake. We start with the simple things when indicated by our tests or experience, to make sure we make the right air conditioning repair for your situation. If your air intake is blocked, your system doesn’t have enough air flowing through to carry all the cooling that it’s doing, and your efficiency and effectiveness will be reduced, sometimes significantly. It’s a lot like having a really dirty air filter, and in both cases, you can actually wind up with more repairs, as the fan motors and belts can wear prematurely trying to get air to move, while the evaporator coil, starved of flowing air to keep the moisture it removes from freezing, starts to ice up. Now that’s a reason to have your kids clean their rooms! It’s just one of many airflow issues that we frequently sort out as part of our air conditioning repair process.
Rivers and Streams of Air
If the vents into your rooms are blocked by furniture, clothes, books, pets, or whatever, you’ll get reduced airflow into that area. The air pressure has to go somewhere, though, so you’ll get more coming out in another room, possibly reducing the temperature more than you want. Doubly so if the thermostat is in the warm room, as the system will keep pushing cool air to bring the temperature down, and the blocked vent will divert all or some of it to that cold room and make it even colder. Don’t worry if you can’t quite describe the problem when you call us, just tell us what you know, like “my bedroom is freezing cold by itself and I don’t know why.” We’ll figure out the mystery. One way that we detect trouble that’s not as visible as a blocked vent is by using air flow meters that tell us how the air pressure is doing in different parts of your vent system or room. These devices, plus our experience, help us accurately balance the distribution of cool air, and scientifically get your home more comfortable.
Vents Are Like Plumbing, But They Leak Cool Air
Our air conditioning repair team in The Woodlands, TX pays a lot of attention to your home’s vents because they’re the delivery system for the work your AC does. If the vents have been damaged or are getting older and leak, you’re losing cool and air pressure at the same time, an AC performance problem that can be easily fixed in most cases by a simple repair. When we perform regular duct cleaning service, we not only remove all the mess that’s accumulated in there from the air that blows through, we also take a look at the ducts and notice any issues that need attention. One problem that some homeowners experience is malfunctioning dampers in their ducts. Those are little doors that some systems use to divert airflow, often located along the main line which runs in your attic or other inconvenient location. If a damper door gets stuck, it can cut off airflow to some areas of your home. The same thing happens if it’s not responding to your AC system’s commands to open or close. Our air conditioning repair experts will get a feeling when they suspect that a damper door is messing up your flow, it’s a lot like when a clog appears in your pipe, and air measurements will provide good evidence.
Cool Gadgets and Pretty Pictures of Your Ducts
Another way to diagnose problems when hot or cold air or water is flowing is infrared imaging. Those are the colorful pictures that, interpreted by our air conditioning repair experts, indicate areas where temperature changes are occurring that might indicate trouble. A quick dropoff might mean a leak, while a slower one might indicate the cool air in your uninsulated attic duct is getting warmed along the way. Infrared imaging can also identify heating and cooling problems of other kinds, such as issues along your refrigerant lines and in the coils that show hot or cold spots where repairs are needed. For the big picture, energy efficiency experts use this technology to take pictures of your entire home and reveal where the insulation is missing or too thin in the walls and roof. As you can tell, a big part of our air conditioning repair team’s objective is to make sure you get the most out of your AC system as well as keep it functioning. In fact, a system that has tight ducts, solid refrigerant lines, and is in generally great shape can help your AC system work less and last longer while still keeping your home nice and cool.
Don’t Go Sniffing for Refrigerant Leaks, Let Us Do It!
Refrigerant leaks can smell sweet or something like chloroform if you’ve ever smelled that. That odor is toxic, and using your nose isn’t the best way to find problems with your AC or any other refrigeration system. Our air conditioning repair experts have a sniffer device that can help them find even pinhole leaks in your refrigerant lines and coil systems, helping you to avoid recurring repair like annual refrigerant recharging that’s costly for you, especially as refrigerant costs rise, and often bad for the environment as well. As your refrigerant disappears, so does the efficiency of your AC system, and your system’s compressor won’t be happy, either. In fact, if you hear a loud squeal from your system outside, it’s time to hit “pause” on your AC and call our air conditioning repair team, as it’s quite possible that low refrigerant is damaging your compressor and you don’t want that to continue at all.
When It’s Time for a Refill, and Other Refrigerant Line and Coil Issues
Our air conditioning repair experts can add refrigerant in most cases, or replace it with an equivalent type. Some have fallen out of favor due to problems with the environment or other issues, so it’s important to let our experts figure out the right way to approach a low refrigerant problem. We’ll put the right kind in there and make sure we capture any old refrigerant that needs to be removed. This cooling material makes the magic of compressor-based AC work and also makes heat pump possible flow into your home, through evaporator coils, back out to the condenser coils, with a kick by the compressor along the way. When your system does dual duty, there’s a special valve that reverses the process for heating and cooling, but our air conditioning repair team experts and their mobile parts supply are right for heat pumps, too!
Electrical Testing and Diagnosis
While refrigerant and compressor technology are at the heart of your AC system, electrical equipment manages the operation. Our air conditioning repair team in The Woodlands, TX finds trouble with the thermostat more often than you’d think, a simple and essential repair that can get your system going again. If there are other AC noises, smells, or leaks that you’ve been concerned about, make it a dual-purpose trip and ask about those once the system is running again. There are several key components in the outdoor cabinet of your AC system that we typically service, the capacitor and contactor. Years of solid service can wear them out, but also dust, dirt, and other materials blown in can disrupt their operation. Even the invasion of little critters building nests during the winter can cause all sorts of havoc inside the cabinet and require an air conditioning repair visit to get your system ready to run. In fact, checking for these kinds of problems is part of your annual AC maintenance visit, so make sure yours is scheduled ahead of summer cooling season in the Woodlands, TX!
When Motors Stop, Cooling Doesn’t Flow
Another advantage of AC maintenance service is testing electrical equipment, including motors, using standard and more advanced electrical test gear. We can inspect your wires, then measure to make sure they’re properly connected, check relay coils and other components, and most of all check motor operation. An aging motor will show up differently on our test gear than a new one, so we can recognize when your fan motors are getting close to failure and replace them at maintenance time, rather than on an emergency visit when they’re working hard during the summer. Preventive maintenance is powerful! Our expert air conditioning repair people know where to look to find developing problems as well as current ones, which can save you a lot and keep you comfortable as well.
Motor Wear and Coil Icing from an Unchanged Air Filter
It’s always worth mentioning that reduced airflow from your fan motors trying to pull air through a clogged air filter can cause many problems. In fact, even blocked intakes around your house can contribute to that. When the air filter is clogged, usually because it hasn’t been changed in a couple of months, the motor and fan belts wear more as they work hard. The air passing through the evaporator coils keeps the moisture they condense from freezing, so when airflow is low, you can get icing on the coils. The ice can disappear when the unit’s not operating, but you should probably have our air conditioning repair team check out the root of the problem. It’s also important to leave coil deicing to them, otherwise, you may get into the realm of needing that leak sniffer device to find small pinhole damage from deicing, or even wind up replacing an expensive coil unit. And yes, don’t forget to change that air filter!
Air Quality Technology
Your standard air filter protects your system from damage by removing airborne particles, fur, dirt, dust, and other debris that’s big enough to make a mess in your coils and other locations in the system. They don’t take care of everything airborne, as shown by how dirty the ducts get in a couple of years. We provide duct cleaning but also specialized HEPA sub-micron filtration, air purifier systems, germicidal UV lamps, humidity control, and other indoor air quality features attached to your duct system for great indoor air. Ask our air conditioning repair team about them!
Air Conditioning Repair in The Woodlands, TX
For the experience and technology you need for reliable air conditioning service, trust Mr. Reliable Heating & Air and our expert team. We keep your HVAC system in The Woodlands, TX running reliably and efficiently. Call us today and see!
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