What Are Signs Of A Choking AC?

“Please help me! I’m choking.” Those are the words you might hear if the air conditioner in your Fort Wayne, Decatur, Angola, Indianapolis, Greenwood, or Mishawaka, IN home could talk. Your friends at Masters Heating & Cooling can’t emphasize enough how critical adequate airflow is to prevent a choking AC. The best way to maintain airflow is with proper air conditioning maintenance by you and regular seasonal maintenance by the HVAC pros from Masters.

Inspect Your Outdoor Condenser Regularly

How many times a day do you walk past the outside air conditioning unit? Now how many times do you actually look at it? It’s amazing how much junk can collect around the base of the compressor. It can be leaves, grass clippings, landscaping shrubs, flowers, or despite your best efforts an occasional weed. Any and all of them can cause a choking AC by restricting airflow. The compressor needs to have at least 18-inches of clear space (3 feet is preferable) around it. Unrestricted airflow is what allows the compressor to transfer the heat removed from inside the house to the outside air.

A Choked Off Evaporator Coil

This type of AC choking is most often caused by a dirty or clogged HVAC filter. The evaporator coil, often called the A-coil, is indoors located inside the air handler. It also requires unobstructed airflow. This coil gets very cold when the refrigerant flows through it. A fan blows warm air from the house across the coil which removes heat from the air. When the filter is dirty there isn’t enough airflow to provide efficient cooling. In extreme cases the lack of warm air flowing across the coil causes it to get too cold forming ice that freezes up the system. Bottom line: Air conditioning maintenance should always include changing the filter.

You Can’t do it Alone

Preventing a choking AC also requires regular seasonal maintenance by a professional. Problems with fans and fan motors in the compressor and/or the air handler can also cause severe airflow problems. Those are things only a trained HVAC technician is able to diagnose and repair. Summer has arrived in Fort Wayne, Decatur, Angola, Indianapolis, Greenwood, and Mishawaka, IN and the last thing you want to hear is a choking AC crying out for help by breaking down on the hottest day of the year. Call Masters Heating & Cooling now to schedule your air conditioning maintenance. For more great HVAC information like this be sure to like and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.