Is your A/C repairman qualified?

It doesn’t matter whether you need a heat pump repair or an air conditioning repair. It doesn’t matter if we need to add Freon or replace fuses. The air conditioning repair professionals here at The Empire family of Services are factory trained and then go through regular update courses in our state of art dedicated HVAC classroom.

Motor repair, motor replacement, R22 Freon adding, R410a Freon adding or even working on ammonia absorption chillers, we are qualified. We will adjust the superheat when needed and ensure that your sub cooling is Freon perfect for your product.

The picture shows electrical work performed by the last service technician that worked on this commercial rooftop air conditioner-heat pump. Someone who really didn’t care about what they are doing performed this work. The wires are sloppy, the capacitors (370v and 440v) have exposed terminals waiting to be short-circuited and the ground wire is not connected. This unit is a death trap the way it has been left.

Electrical work within an air conditioning appliance is a specialty and must be learned in the classroom. As far, I know we have the only working dedicated classroom in the county.

A/C repair or A/C replace?

As your air conditioning or heat pump system gets older, it becomes increasingly more important to watch the scope of air conditioner repairs that you opt for. If your air conditioning system can be repaired, it is the obligation of the service technician to let you know what those options are. They should also give you the option to replace your air conditioner whenever repairs are required and the unit is 10 years of age or older.

Why? Because most air conditioners have a useable life span of between 12 and 15 years and most air conditioners that are of this age consume so much electricity a new system can nearly pay for itself through utility savings month after month.

It is your option to replace your air conditioner or fix your air conditioner. Without the proper information you could be making the wrong choice and that is why our employees here at The Empire Family of Services are classroom taught the pros and cons of air conditioning upgrade and air conditioning repair.

The picture show the result of a common minor electrical fire in an outdoor condensing unit. Most often incorrectly referred to as the air conditioner.

 

Dominoes or Cascade Failure

What is depicted in the picture is a cascade failure. This results in the air conditioning system, condensing unit, when a major component short circuits. This is usually a direct short or a compressor failure such as locked rotor. The compressor draws so much amperage that it literally causes many other components to fail at or near the same time. The circuit board can short circuit, the capacitors can blow up, the contactor can catch on fire and occasionally the disconnect box can catch on fire.

This situation is a cascade of different failures. The other type of failure that is more common is the dominoes failure.

Once a major component, like the fan motor dies, the other components in the system are stressed so much that in the coming weeks and months they can start to fail one at a time. The air conditioning components fall to the wayside like dominoes. The compressor blows fuses, the contactor burns up and the circuit breaker starts to trip regularly. These "Dominoes" air conditioning systems and heat pump systems that are older tend to benefit the most by replacing them rather than fixing them. To fix something knowing it is going to break isn't really a fix at all.

Just because a system is old..

Just because a system is older doesn’t mean that it cannot be fixed, most can, and the fix is nearly always more cost effective, at least in the short term, that the replacement.

The system shown in the picture was diagnosed as not repairable by another company. That company, I know them well as they are one of my major competitors, quoted over $8,000 to replace the system. The furnace was only a few years old and was in great shape and the indoor evaporator coil was also only a few years old.

The single mother of the home was in tears when I showed up. Upon opening up the condenser (air conditioner shown) I discover a shocking experience. The unit was still being fed with 240 volts. The problem with unit was a bad capacitor that was shorted out because it was installed improperly. Those are the two items that burned up in the lower left portion of the picture.

I rewired the unit replacing the burned and corroded wires, place a new start capacitor in the protected area where it belongs and the unit fired up. The repair took less than an hour. I called my competitor and emailed this picture over to them for training purposes.