Situations That Can Lead To Emergency Heating And AC Repair Calls | Richardson, TX
Lack of heat during a cold snap and AC trouble during the heat of midsummer aren’t the only reasons you may need to call for emergency heating and AC repair. When that odd sound starts to get louder or the system springs a leak, or even when your ducts are blowing unusual smells around your home or your carbon monoxide alarm is going off, you’ll need emergency heating and AC repair service to check out the cause and keep your family and your home safe. At One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Dallas, our HVAC team is licensed and insured, experienced and well-qualified, and we go the extra mile with ongoing training to produce the top emergency heating and AC repair and diagnostics technicians in the area. We arrive on time, and we also work efficiently for results you’ll appreciate in Richardson, TX, whenever you need us for urgent care and ongoing maintenance. If you wind up thinking about replacement, count on us to help you weigh your options with valuable information about your current system’s condition and anticipated lifespan, and how energy savings and performance improvements of a new system can make a difference. There are many situations to cover that can lead to emergency heating and AC repair, so let’s consider some and how they can be addressed.
Even a Clogged Air Filter Can Result in an Emergency Heating and AC Repair Call
You’d be surprised how many emergency heating and AC repair calls in Richardson, TX are the results of a clogged air filter. From fan motor and belt wear that results from working against the clogged filter to icing on your AC evaporator coils resulting in a lack of cooling, blocked airflow has side effects as well as failing to properly circulate cool or warm air as needed. If we catch the problem early, it might just be an air filter replacement call, but often we have to replace fan motors or belts, especially if they were already near the end of their service lives. You might have heard squealing, and during maintenance visits, our technician can test the motors to determine their condition. For iced coils, it’s important to allow our technician to de-ice them because the coils are delicate and replacement can be costly if they’re damaged. Refrigerant replacement may also be needed in that case. How does poor airflow lead to icing? Warm air from your home passes through the coils to get cooled and circulated in your rooms, with moisture draining off as part of the cooling process. When the warm air doesn’t pass through, the coils keep cooling and removing moisture from the nearby air, but the warmth isn’t there to keep the moisture from freezing to the coils. Icing results, along with an emergency heating and AC repair call to resolve the situation and its causes.
Air Circulation Works Hard to Keep Your Heat and AC Flowing
Your air circulation system is a complex, carefully balanced system that pulls air in from locations in your home and distributes warm or cool air, depending on the thermostat setting, throughout your home. The air distribution fans and belts work hard and need routine service, sometimes emergency heating and AC repair since when the airflow stops, your house doesn’t benefit from your heating and cooling. Even distribution of your comfort requires that your intakes and vents that serve your rooms don’t have furniture or rugs blocking them, or other obstacles to free airflow. If you have a room that’s not as cool or warm as others, obstructed airflow might be the reason. Damper doors inside the ducts can also stop operating and cause airflow problems, and even clogged ducts that haven’t been cleaned in years can slow things down. If your airflow problems affect the room where the thermostat is located, you might find that your system is working harder and the other rooms are getting hotter or colder than expected. Fix the problem near the thermostat, and everything will balance again.
Duct Problems Can Detour Your Comfort
Have you thought about a duct cleaning service? It might seem like an odd concern since only air flows through your ducts, right? Actually, dust, dirt, allergens, pathogens, even airborne chemicals, and grease all circulate through your ducts. Over the years, ducts actually narrowed!
Thermostat Issues Are Surprisingly Common
Older thermostats eventually may malfunction and either fail to throw the switch when heating or AC is needed, respond inaccurately so you arrive at the wrong temperature, or simply break from years of use. Newer thermostats also have their reliability issues, but there are also programming issues to consider that can produce unexpected effects like if your thermostat’s clock is set incorrectly, you could be in “night setback” mode and not getting the heat you expect for a pleasant evening. Our emergency heating and AC repair experts may find that your thermostat is the source or part of the problem when your system isn’t working right, but we make sure we cover all the bases to be sure we found the real issues.
Heating Reliability Concerns to Avoid False Starts and Eventual Failure
Modern furnaces have a multi-stage startup process and a somewhat involved ignition sequence that can sometimes be affected by ignitor problems, pilot light issues, or other problems that keep it from responding promptly when your thermostat says it’s time for more heat. Our Richardson, TX emergency heating and AC repair experts can check each stage of the furnace’s startup sequence and correct any problems that are making it unreliable before they turn into complete furnace failure situations.
Fuel Supply Issues that Choke off Your Furnace’s Energy
When your furnace doesn’t get the fuel it needs, it can be erratic or even simply fail. Our emergency heating and AC repair experts can check the fuel lines, sources, filters, and other components and find the source of the trouble. Once the fuel is flowing freely, you should be back to normal operation. Don’t forget, one sign of furnace problems is continuous operation as your system tries to make the thermostat setting, without any way to actually do so.
Heat Exchanger Damage Is a Safety Emergency
The heat exchanger provides a safe way for the heat from your furnace to reach your ducts and get circulated throughout your Richardson, TX home. The furnace vent is designed to remove dangerous exhaust fumes from your home to the outside, but the heat exchanger ensures that these combustion products, especially potentially lethal carbon monoxide, don’t have any way to get into your duct system. If there’s a crack in the heat exchanger, that’s a real emergency heating and AC repair situation, which our periodic maintenance will uncover, and your carbon monoxide sensor may provide an alert as well. We’ll respond quickly to make repairs, so you can shut your heat off and stay safe until it’s fixed.
When Your Furnace Blower Starts, Then Everything Shuts Down
One common furnace situation that people mention when they call for emergency heating and AC repair is that the furnace starts up, they can hear a motor running inside, but then it stops and nothing more happens. That can be part of the standard furnace startup sequence, where a fan operates to clear the air inside before ignition happens, but sensors have indicated that your furnace did not get properly prepared for starting. For safety reasons, this status prevents your furnace from proceeding to light and operate the burner, and you won’t get heat until our emergency heating and AC repair team takes a look and solves the safety problem, or fixes the sensor if it’s malfunctioning. It’s an important protection, so be glad it’s stopping operation for your benefit!
Heat Pump Emergency Repairs
If your home’s heat comes from a heat pump, our emergency heating and AC repair team can respond with the right components, including the special valves that make reversible heat pump systems that provide both heat and AC using the same process. Of course, all the air circulation problems and compressor, refrigerant, and coil issues that occur with AC can also be a concern during the heating season as well.
AC Compressor and Refrigerant Failures
Loud squealing from your outside AC unit is an urgent reason to call for emergency heating and AC repair, as it often indicates a refrigerant problem affecting the compressor and potentially causing significant damage. Refrigerant loss can occur from coil damage, refrigerant line damage as it runs into and back from your house, and even problems introduced by small visitors to your AC unit such as rodents nesting there. Our emergency heating and AC repair team can respond quickly, so feel free to shut the unit off until we can correct the problem.
Your AC’s Contactor and Failures to Start
When the thermostat says “go” to the AC or heat pump system, electrical components including the contactor set the operations in motion to get you comfortable. There are other components such as wiring and the capacitor, even the cooling fan, that are present in the outdoor AC or heat pump system and could be involved in startup problems, and we’ll give the unit a careful checkup. Sometimes, the problems are routine issues in an aging AC unit, while other times, damage occurs from materials blown into the unit during storms, or small animals that are collecting wire insulation and other pieces of the unit to make a nest.
Animal Nesting Is a Common AC Problem!
If the housing of your outdoor AC or heat pump unit is loose or has even small gaps where small rodents can enter, you may find nest builders entering and causing chaos inside, especially in AC units that sit idle through the winter. Our maintenance team often has to clean out the unit and even make repairs, especially to the wiring, to get ready for the summer. Blown-in dirt on the coils can significantly reduce your system’s efficiency, so we’ll carefully, professionally clean that too. Remember, coils are delicate so it’s best left to us to avoid costly repairs.
Icing, Leaks, and Damaged Coils
Condensation is a by-product of cooling, and as we mentioned it can turn into ice on your evaporator coils in your indoor AC unit if the airflow is blocked, especially by a clogged air filter. When condensate is flowing normally, the path away from your AC system needs to be clear to avoid the accumulation of water that often grows algae and produces a peculiar odor. If your AC unit is located in an attic, closet, or finished basement, condensate system backup can cause damage if it overflows and spills to the floor, even staining the ceiling below if it occurs in your attic. Cleaning the condensate system is a usual part of AC system maintenance, or you can call us for service at any time.
Punctual Care Is a Sign of Our Excellence
When our team arrives promptly, it’s a sign of our professional values that guide us on all of our visits to serve you. Those values also include ongoing professional development, service excellence, customer service standards which ensure that we’re serving you well and communicating clearly, cleanliness of our workplace, and respect for you and your home. We’re here to make keeping your comfort systems running smoothly easy!
Your Emergency Heating and AC Repair Team in Richardson, TX
One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Dallas has been serving Richardson, TX, and the Dallas area since 1988. Our roots go deep in our community, and our friends, neighbors, and newcomers to the area have trusted and relied on us for emergency heating and AC repair, sometimes for generations. Our punctual service, fast emergency response, and well-stocked vehicles that provide the parts we need to get the job done add up to great customer satisfaction, especially when your heat or AC needs expert care. Call us today for HVAC repairs, installations, and maintenance, and keep our number handy for heating and cooling emergencies!