Proudly Serving Washington DC and Surrounding Areas Since 2001
As summer winds down, many homeowners breathe a sigh of relief knowing their cooling system won’t be working as hard. But if your air conditioner gave you trouble this season, don’t wait until spring to deal with it. Scheduling air conditioning repair in Washington, DC now is the best way to avoid bigger, more expensive headaches later. Letting your AC sit idle all winter in a damaged or struggling state can cause small issues to snowball into major breakdowns by the time warm weather returns.
When your air conditioner isn’t cooling your home like it used to, a refrigerant leak could be the hidden culprit. Refrigerant is the lifeblood of your AC system—it absorbs heat from inside your home and releases it outside. If your system develops a leak, it loses the very thing it needs to keep you cool.
Unfortunately, refrigerant leaks are not DIY fixes. If you suspect one, it’s essential to call in qualified HVAC professionals—like our expert team—to handle the problem safely and correctly. Do you need AC refrigerant leak repair in Washington, DC? Let’s take a closer look.
Your air conditioner should be felt, not heard. While a soft hum is normal during operation, any strange or sudden noises can be a sign that something’s wrong. Ignoring these sounds could lead to costly damage, reduced system performance, or even a full breakdown. If your AC has started to get noisy, don’t wait—schedule professional central air conditioning repair in Washington, DC as soon as possible.
Your air conditioner’s job is to make things cold. So you might not be shocked or concerned to see that ice has started to build up on the evaporator coils of your indoor AC unit. But we’ve got something important to tell you.
Ice on your air conditioner is bad news. It’s a sign that there’s a problem. Worse, it can cause more problems to occur! What’s going on? We’ll explain.
Pets bring so much positivity into our lives. Simply having them around decreases people’s levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, and increases levels of oxytocin, a hormone that gives people feelings of love and connection. But of course there are downsides to pet ownership as well.
Pet dander can trigger allergic responses in many people. Pet care is a constant need, and trips to the vet can be very expensive. And of course there’s all the cleanup they require, whether you’re emptying a litter box or following a dog around with a baggie at the ready. Pets can damage our homes and possessions, too. Did you know they can even cause problems for your air conditioner? Here’s the scoop.
Ductless AC systems, or mini splits as they are sometimes called, provide impressive comfort while lowering your utility bills. Once you know how well a system like this can work, you understand that you want to keep it working that well. It would be a shame and a waste to have this amazing system and not reap all the benefits.
So how do you make sure you keep getting the best possible performance from your system? We’ll give you our four top tips for making sure your ductless air conditioner will run as smoothly as possible.
You may be thinking that your air conditioner, though struggling a bit, is fine to get you through to the end of the summer season. Maybe you are thinking that you can get away with delaying any necessary air conditioning repairs in Washington, DC until next summer. We are here to advise you against this type of attitude. Simply put, you cannot afford to let your air conditioner limp its way along throughout the rest of the current cooling season. No matter how minor you may believe a problem with your home cooling system to be, it is in your best interest, and in that of the system itself, to have necessary repairs completed ASAP. To do so, just call upon the AC repair professionals here at Polar Bear Air Conditioning & Heating Inc.
We understand that you are likely quite busy. Between work, keeping the house clean, feeding the family, and all of the other day to day responsibilities you have on your plate, it is perfectly reasonable to accept that some things are going to fall through the cracks or be put on the backburner. Just remember that, when it comes to air conditioning repair services in Washington, DC, you cannot afford to bide your time. The longer that you wait to schedule any necessary air conditioning repairs for your system, the worse off it, and your comfort, is likely to be. That is why you should contact Polar Bear Air Conditioning & Heating Inc. at the first sign of trouble with your home cooling system.
Many people are surprised to learn that an air conditioner does not actually create cool air. Rather, it moves the heat from the air in your home back to the outdoors. Your air conditioning system contains two coils that help this to happen—the evaporator coil and the condenser coil. As refrigerant moves to these components, it undergoes phase conversions that allow heat to absorb or dissipate. But these coils, and the rest of your AC system, require cleaning and maintenance to prevent the need for air conditioning repair later on.
Dirty coils are problematic because these parts are so important to the refrigeration cycle. Refrigerant changes from a liquid to a gas at the indoor evaporator coil, absorbing heat as a fan blows the warm air from your home over the coil. The fan then distributes cool air through the ducts. Refrigerant becomes highly pressurized and heated at the compressor outdoors and then moves to the condenser coil, where it condenses into a liquid, giving off heat into the outside air. Refrigerant continues to cycle through both parts of the system, repeating the process over again.
The coils are especially susceptible to dust because fans suck in air to blow over both the indoor and outdoor coils. If a coil is dirty, it means the refrigeration process cannot occur as efficiently as it should. Dirty coils impair their ability to participate in heat exchange, which means that other parts will have to work harder to make up for the deficiency. And as other parts run for longer periods of time, they may begin to wear out, so you’ll have to call for air conditioning repair sooner than is usually necessary. You’ll probably notice reduced cooling capacity when you have dirty coils, or you may even feel warm air from the vents.
Maintenance technicians clean the coils during any maintenance visit as well as other pertinent tasks that help to restore efficiency and keep problems at bay.
Schedule maintenance to prevent the need for air conditioning repair in Washington, D.C. Call Polar Bear Air Conditioning & Heating Inc. for maintenance or repairs today!
The compressor is one of the most important components of your air conditioning system, but it’s also one of the parts that is most likely to fail when your air conditioner runs into problems. If you believe your compressor is faulty, you may hesitate to call an AC technician for fear of costly repairs. However, it is better to get the problem fixed with professional air conditioning repair soon than to risk irreparable damage.
The compressor is responsible for compressing, or adding pressure to, the refrigerant in its gaseous state. Refrigerant must continuously change from a gas to a liquid and back again in order to absorb and release heat from your home, so the compressor allows this process to begin before it changes to a liquid at the condenser.
Compressor problems may be caused by a number of different issues. In general, the best way to keep your compressor free of damage is by calling a maintenance technician at least once a year to inspect your system. But there are many reasons the compressor fails, and the effects may be sudden.
One of the reasons a compressor may become damaged is if there is a refrigerant leak. The components of your system are designed and sized to hold only a certain level of refrigerant. The compressor in particular suffers when refrigerant levels drop due to leaks or incorrect installation, and it may fail if not enough refrigerant can pass through.
Overheating is another common cause of compressor damage. Overheating may result from electrical damage. In general, however, if any component of your AC is damaged, your compressor has to run longer and work harder to compensate, which could cause it to wear out. Of course, a compressor will also become damaged over time, and may simply fail because it is too old to function.
So how can you tell if the air conditioning problem you’re having is compressor damage or not? This is something you should leave up to the experts. While banging noises, hard starting, and a system that won’t turn on are all good indicators of damage, these can point to other problems as well, and you may only need a small repair.
For air conditioning repair in Arlington, trust the trained and certified technicians at Polar Bear Air Conditioning & Heating Inc. Give us a call today!
