Question About Air Conditioning Service (Has This Happened To Anyone Before?)

So, I woke up this morning and noticed the house was a little warm. Got up to check the thermostat and noticed the temp in the house was 75 degrees. Had it set at 70 yesterday but before bed turned it to 68 to cool things down because I noticed it felt a little warm. I usually do this and get up during the night and turn it up a bit. Well, the temp is slowly raising and on top of that the air is not turning off. There is air coming out of the vents but it is not very cool. Today is gonna be a scorcher and I dread how warm the house is gonna get.

Now,about 4 years ago we had some work done. New furnace,water heater,etc.We have the name of the company who did the electric and plumbing and heating. I called the emergency number but they did not consider this an emergency. They could not even answer if they were the ones responsible because it was an answering service and they do not have access to their records til business hours,which would be Monday morning. I think we have some kind of warantee since it is less than 5 years old. I need to get someone in here.

Does anyone know how I would go about getting someone to look at this if another company is responsible? I'd hate to call someone to come out and service it if another company would take care of charges providing I wait until Monday. Just curious if anyone has been in a similar situation. Any suggestions or advice are appreciated. Thanks all!

and husband went out and changed the fuse. If you can do that or find a neighbor or friend that can, that would be an inexpensive first step, and could be the last.

Good luck! :hi:

We called this morning the company who put it in and their answering service did not consider air conditioning an emergency. So,I went to their website and their own site considers AC an emergency so I called her back and she was very cold but told me she would contact a technician.Hopefully,that is all it is.Thanks for the reply!

My doctor's answering service told me they were closed on July 5th. The nurse informed me that they were not closed and thanked me for bringing it to their attention as they'd had issues in the past with the answering people.

under warranty but the emergency call might. You may want to check on that, see if they say on their website. And hell yeah, AC is an emergency in these high summer temps we've been experiencing this year!

Luckily I live with McGuyver so we've had no such emergencies. :rofl:

Hope you have air today and soon! :hi:

Service guy just called and was useless. I did all the talking,explained the problem and all he said was,"Huh!".Suggests I call Monday morning. I told him they worked on this back in December 2006 January 2007 and asked if this would be covered under a warranty. He said if it has been 4 years it won't be.He did manage to slip in they charge about $95 an hour. I said thanks and hung up.Will more than likely have to wait until Monday. I don;t even know if this company is responsible or this other electric company is. He could not check the records until Monday and our contractor gave us no info regarding this. (We've had more problems with the house since this idiot contractor worked on it)Anyway,thanks for the replies! So far they have been the best part of the day!

If not, I agree with the fuse theory. There may be a dedicated box where the A/C unit enters the wall from the outside. If so, it's a pretty easy fix.

I am gonna check the fuse now. The AC runs and does not shut off. It's not warm air,it is cool but not very cool. Our AC is great. Cools the house fast and have had no problems til now.Thanks!

probably the compressor or the freon.

The easiest fix would be to give your unit a rest for a couple hours, then try it again. The compressor may be frozen. Shouldn't take long to unfreeze if your heat is anything like we're having in Ohio.

Often when they run but the air isn't cold or as cold as it should be they are low on freeon. Hubs worked on ACs for many years.

Underneath my thermostat there are two switches. One switches Heat-Off-AC the other turns the fan on even if the selector switch is on Off. Check to see if you have the same setup. It's worth a try since sometimes I accidentally hit the wrong switch by feel in the dark.

If you lived around here, I'd have you call a friend of mine. He runs an appliance repair business-mostly commercial kitchens-but he does things like AC and heat. He's very good, extremely thorough and charges us poor folks a very good price.

WOW! Thanks for the all help. I feel like you all are now gonna send me a bill(LOL)

One thing I forgot to mention. Our brilliant contractor installed a new thermostat but it is very loose.Sometimes I have to jiggle with it but have had no problems. We are gonna buy a new digital thermostat and he of course bought the cheapest one he could find. I do not think there is a connection but will check what you said just one case. Freon or compressor. Ugh! We are gonna have to call a plumber before too long due to this idiot contractor but the AC I thought was priority. I am gonna try all the things suggested.Everyone here is more helpful than the serviceman,who just does not want to work on a Sunday. Thanks again everyone!

Check your circuit breakers, one may be tripped. My system has two breakers, one for the main unit outside, and one inside on the normal breaker panel. If either one trips, the fan will blow but the compressor will not run, so no cooling.

Check your air filter, if it is clogged, it will cause the compressor to run too hard, and the breaker will trip.

GOOD LUCK!

Could be low coolant if you have leaks, though.

If you're in luck, it could be something simple. In my case, turns out the internal float shut off the in-house unit. Frosted up and wouldn't cool. I have a heat pump.

Had a HVAC buddy stop by and check the pressure and everything was OK then used a shop vac to suck the drain lines clear from outside the house as it was barely dripping. It worked.


edit - as for local fix-it companies - you're on your own - it's a crapshoot, ask around and see who's reliable

Thanks again everyone. Went out all day and came home. House is not too bad but will have to make some calls tomorrow. I am hoping it is not something major.This is fairly new and I noticed there is no air filter down in there at all. We had some new ones wrapped in plastic,but with our old furnace it slipped right in. This new one I can not find where it would go so I guessed.Lots of extra space and it was not a tight fit,so that could be the problem. Looking for the manual now. I will check the breaker,but it does come on. If it wee the breaker wouldn;t it not function at all? Also what disturbs me more than the coolish air coming through the vents is the fact the AC won't turn off. It runs constantly. It usually runs for about 8-10 minutes,shuts off for about 8-10 minutes and kicks back on. This summer in Connecticut has been brutal and we have had it on I think the entire month of July. We turned it off a few nights ago because we had a mini cool front and now it is humid and hot again.I am hoping it is the air filters. Thanks again everyone. You all have been so much more reliable than the service man!

you'll have to turn it off. So long as the air temp doesn't get down to the thermostat setting, the thermostat thinks it should keep the A/C running to try and reach that temp.


Last time this happened to me it was a capacitor on the outside unit. It's not a hard thing to replace yourself, but an A/C technician diagnosed it for me and told me where to go purchase it; it's not something you can buy at home Depot.

And I realized the outside heat pump was not running at all. So I called the service guys - they were here in 2 hours!

Some little lizard or frog had crawled into the contacts and fried itself. Fortunately, it did not damage anything, but it kept the switch from making contact. When the tech cleared out the tiny fried bones, the system worked just fine. Good thing since July in Florida is no time to go without AC.

It still cost my about $100, but it was worth it.

Does your system have two separate units? If so, check to see if it is the inside unit that is running. You probably don't have the split system that is popular here in the South. Heat pumps work great until the temps get below about 40 F. After that the supplemental heat strips suck energy big time.