When the summer months arrive and the temperatures soar, one of the best ways to stay comfortable is by using your air conditioning unit. But when that unit isn’t running as it should or is showing signs of disrepair, you’ll need to call in a professional for AC repair. Knowing what these signs are can help you avoid any further damage and ensure your comfort levels remain high. Here are some tell-tale signs that indicate you need an AC repair:

1. Warm Air Blowing Out

One of the main indicators that you require an AC repair is warm air coming out of the vents rather than cool air. This could be because of issues with your compressor or other mechanical issues within your system, so it’s important to get this checked out as soon as possible.

2. Strange Noises

If you start hearing strange noises like grinding, squealing or clanking coming from your A/C system, then it’s likely time for professional repairs. It could be caused by a variety of things such as loose parts, worn down belts and motors or something more serious.

3. Unusual Smells

If there’s a funny smell in the room when your A/C is turned on then it could be time to call in a professional for repairs. This could be caused by mold growth in the ductwork or due to dirt buildup in other parts of the system; either way, it’s best to get this checked out right away before any further damage occurs.

4. High Energy Bills

If you have noticed a sudden spike in energy bills even though your usage hasn’t changed significantly then chances are there may be some issue with the efficiency of your A/C unit which will require attention from professionals who specialize in AC Repairs.

5. Refrigerant Leaks

Refrigerants are essential components when it comes to cooling and heating systems since they allow hot and cold temperatures to be exchanged efficiently throughout the system; if there has been a leak somewhere then refrigerants won’t make their way around properly resulting in inefficient operation and higher energy bills for you as well as potential health risks depending on where the leak has occurred or how much has leaked out into your home environment itself due to poor maintenance over time etcetera (e g asthma related ailments). Therefore if ever suspecting such leaks get them looked at immediately by qualified personnel who specialize in AC Repairs lest they become bigger issues down line requiring costly replacements instead!

6. Lack Of Maintenance

Like all machines, regular maintenance and servicing is key for good performance when it comes to air conditioners too! Overlooking regular maintenance can cause wear and tear on various components inside leading them eventually needing repairs or replacement – not only does this create an unnecessary additional financial burden but also shortens lifespan considerably given components were likely manufactured with expected lifespans under typical conditions prevailing during designed use i e when taken care off accordingly through routine servicing etcetera… Therefore its always better catch concerning problems early through regular care & inspection before its too late saving both money & stress!

7 . Poor Airflow

Poor airflow can lead to discomfort while indoors due to lack of fresh air circulating around space effectively meaning uneven temperatures between different spots room might occur leading people feeling hotter than normal even after setting lowest temperature possible through thermostat – this kind situation requires thorough examination all relevant parts assess any damages present (if any) so remedies can implemented promptly ensuring everyone continues enjoying their home comforts without unnecessary hassles associated with faulty units!

Identifying these 7 signs ahead of time will help detect potential problems sooner rather later helping homeowners potentially save significant amounts money stemming from costly replacements had been left unchecked leading neglecting required repairs end up costing more overall long run… In short getting AC repaired whenever needed is a part of being a responsible owner & taking measures to protect family members from uncomfortable experiences indoors – especially during peak summer season!

CJS specializes in getting more years from your air conditioning systems. Routine maintenance for your ac replacement extends your system’s lifespan and helps it continue working at peak efficiency. Scheduling annual system maintenance with CJS allows us to fully inspect and clean your system, make recommendations for small repairs before they turn into expensive problems. That’s how we help keep Air Conditioning systems running longer.

As the fall season fast approaches, homeowners are prepping their homes for the upcoming cold winter weather. While you may be scheduling your normal Heating and Air-Conditioning maintenance service, that’s not all that you should be doing. Rather, you should also be thinking about enhancing your indoor air quality. Your air ducts run throughout all the rooms of your home. They supply warm air and can pick up unwanted airborne particles. These particles will continue to recirculate throughout your home and become dispersed inside of your air ducts. Getting your air ducts cleaned out in the fall is a great way to help reduce the number of indoor pollutants. In fact, there are many great benefits that your family can gain from having an HVAC professional clean your air ducts.

Get Rid of Mold Spores Early

Mold spores can be very dangerous to your body. When they’re inhaled, they can lead to a plethora of respiratory conditions. Unfortunately, your air ducts create the perfect dark environment for mold to flourish. Getting your ducts properly cleaned will work to rid them of mold and mildew so that there are no mold spores in the air for your family to breathe.

Stop Allergens in Their Tracks

If you or another family member have severe allergies, you know how irritating symptoms can be. Unfortunately, your air ducts will pull in germs, bacteria, pollen, and other airborne particles that can trigger allergy symptoms. By having your heating and air conditioning ducts cleaned, you can get rid of these unwanted airborne toxins. In fact, you’ll likely notice a significant decrease in your allergy symptoms while you’re at home.

Enjoy Dusting Less Often

When your ducts and air is packed full of particles like pet dander and dust, it can redistribute those particles onto the various surfaces throughout your home. You may find yourself having to dust constantly every few days to get rid of the excess particles. When you have your ducts cleaned by a licensed professional, you’ll notice that there will be less dust to clean on a regular basis.

More Efficient System Operation

Over time, the gunk that gets stuck inside of your ductwork, think pet hair and dustballs, will restrict the free flow of air. This will make your heating and air conditioning system work much harder to try and force treated air throughout your ducting. When you get your ducts cleaned, there will be no more debris restrictions. This means that your system can work more efficiently to heat your home since it doesn’t have to contend with blockages in your ducting.

Say Bye Bye to Unpleasant Odors

As airborne debris gets sucked into your ducting, its odor will start to radiate throughout your home. Most homeowners will notate a musty or mildew-like smell coming out of their vents and registers. If you’ve cleaned everything else in your home and have had no luck with removing an unpleasant odor, it may be radiating from the inside of your ducting. When a professional comes to clean out your air ducts, they will remove all the stinky substances that are creating those unpleasant odors.

Increase the Lifespan of Your HVAC System

Another reason that you should highly consider hiring a professional to clean out your ductwork is to help enhance the overall lifespan of your HVAC system. When your ducts are packed full of unwanted debris, your heating and cooling system has to work harder to force air through your ducting. This puts a big strain on your HVAC system’s components, which can cause them to prematurely wear out.

Lower Utility Bills

When your HVAC system is working harder than it needs to, you’ll notice an increase in your monthly utility bills. You’re essentially getting less bang for your buck than when your system is working optimally. Fortunately, when you get your air ducts cleaned by a professional, your HVAC system will go back to working efficiently. The more efficient your HVAC system is, the lower your monthly utility bills will be.

Eliminate Pest Infestation

Your ductwork does make a great hiding place for unwanted pests like insects and rodents. They’ll have no problem crawling into your ductwork during the colder seasons to stay warm. When you have your ducts cleaned, you can be assured that there are no rodents or insects hiding away inside your ducting.

Getting your ductwork cleaned this fall season can provide you with all the many benefits that we went over above. Experts recommend having your ductwork cleaned on a regular basis of every two to five years.

As the winter season is fast approaching, it’s time to ensure that your HVAC system is ready to take on the wintertime chill. As a homeowner, it’s necessary to ensure that you get your HVAC service scheduled and that you properly keep up with your heating system’s needs throughout the chilly winter season. Otherwise, you risk dealing with an unexpected repair when your system decides to go on the fritz due to a lack of proper maintenance.

Clean Vents, Ducts, and Filters

To ensure that your furnace is adequately delivering heat to the various rooms throughout your home, you’ll need to prep your airflow. In most heating systems, cool air is brought into the ductwork and run through your air filter. Then, the air is heated, forced through the ductwork, and out into your rooms via vents.

If there is any obstruction in the path of your system’s airflow, it will drastically reduce the effectiveness of your heating system. It’s best to take some time to clean off the vents in your home and ensure that they have adequate open space around them to perform at their best. Your air filter should be replaced every couple of months. Additionally, you’ll want to have a professional clean out your ductwork every two to five years.

Seal Up Drafty Areas

One component of furnace health that many people don’t pay attention to is how drafts affect it. Whenever there are drafts around the doors and windows of your home, those drafts can drastically drop the temperature. This makes your heating system have to constantly run to try and keep up with the cold drafts coming into your home.

Before the winter season hits, it’s a great time to seal up any of those drafts throughout your home. The most common places that you’ll find drafts include around doors and windows. You can use a door sweep or weatherstripping to help block those drafts from coming into your home. The less drafting your home receives, the less your heating system has to work to maintain an adequate temperature.

Schedule Professional Furnace Maintenance

If you didn’t opt for heater installation, then you need to get your existing furnace serviced by a licensed professional. This service will entail many features, like cleaning your heat exchanger, properly venting your exhaust fumes, tightening loose wires, and so forth.

A licensed HVAC professional will have the tools, equipment, and knowledge to adequately prep your heating system to run as efficiently as possible this winter season. It’s highly recommended to schedule your HVAC service appointment during the fall months before you need to be using your heating system on a regular basis.

Program in Your Thermostat Settings

If you’re like most homeowners, you’ve invested in a programmable or smart thermostat. These are perfect for helping you to ensure that you’re running your system as efficiently as possible to save on wintertime heating bills. After you switch your thermostat from cooling to heating mode, it’s time to plan out your schedule.

It’s best to turn your heater down about 10 degrees when no one is going to be at home, such as when you’re away at work. Then, program your heater to kick back on about an hour or so before you plan to arrive back home. This will give your heater adequate time to warm your home back to a comfortable level before you walk through your door. You may also want to automatically have the temperature lowered a few degrees in the late evening hours when you go to bed.

Put Fresh Batteries in Your Alarm and Detectors

If your heating system runs on anything other than electricity, it’s necessary to have active carbon monoxide detectors in your home. These are safety measures to alert you if there is any carbon monoxide present within your home, which indicates inadequate exhaust venting or a leak somewhere in your heating system.

Additionally, you’ll want to have fire detectors as a secondary safety measure. These should be placed on each floor of your home. Make sure that you put in fresh batteries at the start of winter so that you’re assured that your detectors and alarms are active to keep your family safe and healthy.

Keep Your Furnace Surround Decluttered

Throughout the summer months, it can be easy to stack up boxes or other materials near your furnace since it isn’t running. However, as we approach winter, it’s necessary to clean out the clutter around your heating system and give it space to breathe. It’s a good idea to keep items at least 10 feet away from your furnace to greatly reduce your risk of a fire hazard. Throughout the chilly season, make it a rule not to place any items near your heating system.

Inspect Your Exhaust Flues

Most heating systems will use the process of combustion to create heat for your home. While this is a very efficient source of heat, it does produce toxic fumes. These need to be adequately vented to the exterior of your home. If left to vent indoors, this could lead to serious medical problems for your family, even resulting in death.

It’s best to head outside and check your exhaust flues. It’s not uncommon for leaves, branches, and other debris to get stuck in these flues and prevent proper venting from occurring. Before you turn your heating system on, you’ll want to clear out any debris in these exhaust flues.

Test Your Thermostat Every Couple of Months

Over time, it’s not uncommon for your thermostat to lose its calibration. When this happens, the temperature on your thermostat will read differently than the actual temperature of your home. When this happens, your heating system may constantly run because it isn’t sensing that it has reached your set temperature.

It’s good practice to test your thermostat reading every couple of months to ensure that it’s calibrated correctly. You can easily do this by using an independent thermometer inside of your home. Place it near your existing thermostat for a couple of minutes. If the reading on your thermostat is five degrees above or below the reading on your thermometer, it’s time to call in an HVAC professional to recalibrate your thermostat.

Inspect Your Exposed Ductwork

It’s highly likely that you have exposed ductwork in your basement, crawlspace, or attic. At the start of every cold season, you should plan to take some time to inspect all the exposed ducting in your home. Over time, your ducting can develop leaks, and joints can pull apart.

If you find leaks or gaps, be sure to use foil tape or ductwork sealant to cover them. Keeping your ductwork properly closed will ensure that more of the heated air makes it to the rooms throughout your home. Additionally, fewer leaks will help to decrease the amount of dirt and debris that are sucked into your ducting.

Clear Your Drainage Tube

If you have a propane or natural gas heating system, then it produces a small amount of water during operation. In many systems, this water is diverted to the drain pan for your centralized air conditioning system. Over time, this drain tube can get clogged with debris and hard water scaling.

You should use a mixture of vinegar and water to pour down the drain tube to remove this debris and scaling. It’s vital that this tube remain clear. Otherwise, it will back up water into your manifold and cause your flame sensor to shut down. This can lead to a headache of a heating system failure during the coldest of winter days.

Clean Your Flame Sensor

If you rely on natural gas to heat your home, then your heating system utilizes a flame sensor. This is a safety device that monitors when a flame is present and will shut off your gas supply when your flame goes out. Unfortunately, when this flame sensor gets dirty, it can falsely tell your natural gas valve that it needs to shut because there isn’t a flame when there really is one that it just can’t sense.

It’s very easy to locate and unscrew this sensor from your furnace. Using an emery cloth, you’ll want to carefully clean the sensor while you hold its bottom. Once cleaned, simply screw it back in and close up the access panel to your heating system. This needs to be done at least once a year to ensure that your flame sensor works correctly.

Check Fuel Levels and Re-Order When Necessary

Depending on the type of fuel that your heating system utilizes, you may need to store it on-site. This is most common for heating oil and propane. You’ll want to check your storage tank during the fall to see if it needs to be refilled. Make it a priority to check your tank once a month or schedule to be on a professional delivery route so that you don’t run out of fuel during the cold winter months.

Call for Repairs in a Timely Fashion

While not all heating systems warrant an emergency repair, that doesn’t mean that you should let the problem persist. Whenever you notice an issue with your heating system, you should have a professional come in and check it out sooner rather than later. Letting issues like weird noises or smells persist, can end up causing more expensive damage to your heating system in the long run.

As a homeowner, it’s your responsibility to ensure that you prep and properly maintain your heating system throughout the colder months of the year. By following the tips that we went over above, you’ll be on the way to a nice and toasty home while drastically reducing your risk of an unexpected breakdown.

How much an AC repair job costs depends on what needs to be repaired. Simple AC repairs can be cheap on time and money, while extensive replacements can cost more than a new AC unit.

Fuse or Circuit Breaker Replacement

On average, this costs between $15-300. It’s a fast job that should be done within two hours.

Thermostat Replacement

This costs between $60-440. Again, it should be done in just a couple of hours.

Standard Troubleshooting

The hourly cost of diagnostic work depends on the season and location. In the winter, it can be $75. In the summer, it can go up to $300. Annual tune-ups cost about $100, but they can prevent more costly AC repairs in the future.

AC Recharging

Recharging costs vary based on the unit’s size and the type of refrigerant you need. The general range is between $100-600 and can go higher if you need fewer common refrigerants. This takes about two hours to finish.

Inverter Repairs

Inverter AC repairs range between $150-250 unless the condenser needs to be replaced. On the other hand, they can save up to 60% on your energy bills.

Capacitor Repairs

This job takes about an hour to finish, but it’s more expensive, $120-475. 

Circuit Board Repair or Replacement

Circuit board repairs or replacements depend on whether your AC unit is still under warranty. If it is, then this AC repair should range between $100-300. If not, it can go up to $600.

Drain Pan Replacement

This might sound easy, but the part itself can be quite expensive. Costs range from $200-600, and the time it takes depends on how easy it is to get to the pan.

Freon Leak Repair

This depends on the size and location of the leak. Cheap fixes can cost $225, but large leaks can cost up to $1,600 and take eight hours to fix.

Blower Repair or Replacement

A blower repair can cost as little as $150, but a replacement can cost upwards of $800-2,000, depending on the unit. A replacement can take three hours to finish.

Compressor Replacement

Compressor replacement is usually a better long-term option than cheap AC repairs, but it’s also fairly expensive at $1,000-2,800. It takes a few hours to finish.

Condenser Replacement

Replacing the condenser can cost between $1,000-4,000. It can take four hours for a professional to do it. If a condenser can be fixed, choose that option instead.

Air Handler Replacement

$1,000 is the low end for replacing an air handler, but it can cost up to $6,000 for some models.

Air Duct Replacement

The installation alone costs $2,000. On average, you’ll be paying $25-40 per square foot of ductwork, leading to total costs of over $12,000 for a standard-sized house. It can take several days to complete.

If you take a moment to consider the complexity and sophistication of modern HVAC systems, it’s a wonder they malfunction as rarely as they do. When HVAC problems do crop up, they’re usually accompanied by a variety of distinctive smells. Here are a few unusual odors to look out for that may signal the need for a minor or significant HVAC repair in the immediate future.

Wet Newspaper

 One HVAC smell you’re guaranteed to encounter at some point is that of mold and mildew. More often than not, this lovely odor is caused by a backed-up condensate drain line. If the condensate line doesn’t drain properly, mold can rapidly proliferate throughout the HVAC system. Clearing the condensate drain line won’t always solve the dilemma. You may need to thoroughly clean ducts to get rid of the smell.

Auto Exhaust

 Modern HVAC units rely on a variety of fluids to deliver superior heating and cooling. If one of those fluids is leaking, you’ll be able to smell it in short order through the vents. A smoky HVAC smell associated with leaking fluids can indicate that indoor air is contaminated with harmful particles. Furthermore, an exhaust smell is a good sign that a major repair is needed.

Burnt Plastic

 Once you’ve smelled a failing electric motor, you’ll never forget the odor. It’s an HVAC smell that’s unlike any other you’re likely to encounter. The smell of burnt or burning plastic can indicate a variety of complications. Broken wire insulation resulting in a short circuit could be one culprit. Failing motor bushings could be another. Long story short, these smells should be investigated by a competent HVAC professional.

Expired Eggs

 Generally speaking, the smell of sulfur is never a good sign, even if you encounter it far away from HVAC hardware. Rotten eggs are an HVAC smell that often points to a natural gas leak. If you smell rotten eggs, killing the gas and turning off the power is a good idea. Contacting an HVAC specialist to troubleshoot the issue as soon as possible is an even better idea.

Chemicals of Any Kind

 A malfunctioning HVAC system will emit a variety of unusual smells when something is wrong. If your central HVAC unit or the air coming from the ducts smells like a high school chemistry lab or a garage, you need to address the trouble ASAP. You might smell turpentine or formaldehyde when a major issue crops up, depending on the make and model of your HVAC unit.

What to Do When You Detect a Potential HVAC Smell

 Unless there’s a plausible alternate explanation for any of the smells mentioned above, you probably have an emerging HVAC issue that requires your attention. Do yourself a favor and call in an HVAC specialist quickly to size up the problem. By getting ahead of the situation, you’ll potentially save yourself thousands in repairs in the long run. When it comes to an awful smell, the nose never lies.