Serving The Chicagoland Area Since 1998
If you have been asking yourself “How old is my AC unit?” or “Why is my AC always breaking down?” then it is a good idea to start seeing whether or not you need an AC repair or an upgrade. That said, you need to be certain because air conditioners are expensive.
Here are four things you can look at to help you decide.
Uh-oh! Did your air conditioner just give out? Or maybe it has been struggling more than usual lately? If you don’t have a reliable air conditioning system, things will get pretty uncomfortable this summer, even if your system sounds like it’s running. When your air conditioner is on its last leg, you are going to want to schedule an air conditioner replacement in Winnetka.
If you need to get a replacement service, you should contact the team at ServiceMax to ensure the job gets done right. Our trained technicians can help you identify when you need to retire your old unit, and we can even assist in the selection of your new one.
Let’s take a look at what you need to consider when it comes to replacing your old cooling system.
All the components in your home’s AC are important. If one or more isn’t working correctly, it affects system performance.
The compressor, however, has special importance. Think of it as the engine for the entire air conditioner. It consumes the most power, and if it doesn’t work, the air conditioner cannot do its job. Period. Plus, the compressor costs more to replace than other components, so a failed compressor is a Very Big Deal.
A few weeks ago, we looked at a common problem homes have with central air conditioning: uneven cooling, with some rooms much warmer than others when the AC is running.
Today, we’re going to look at the most common cause of uneven cooling for homes. In two-story homes, often the upper floor is hotter than the lower floor. This is normal when there’s no central cooling or heating system running because heat naturally rises. However, a well-designed and installed HVAC system can overcome this. If you’ve discovered during this summer that the upper floor of your house isn’t getting the same level of comfort as the lower, there are some potential solutions.
You can have a working air conditioning system sending out cooled air to your house, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have a house that’s cooled evenly throughout. You can expect rooms with more sunlight exposure to feel warmer, for example. However, a well-installed and designed HVAC system should be able to give you a distribution of conditioned air around the house that will maintain comfort levels, no matter how hot it gets outside
If you’ve already enjoyed a few years of quality performance from your home’s AC, what does it mean when you start to notice hot spots around the house? Uneven cooling can come from simple problems, but it can also indicate a need for air conditioning repair in Chicago, IL or even that it’s time to arrange to have a new AC put in place.
You’ve probably experienced a car that has trouble getting started on a chilly winter day. The engine grinds, but it takes a few times before it turns over. This is an example of “hard starting.” It can happen to any type of machinery that uses motors, no matter if it’s powered by natural gas, petroleum, or electricity.
Hard starting is a problem you might encounter with your air conditioning system. Although a hard-starting AC can continue to work at providing cool air to a house, it’s not good for the system, it drains excess power, and it can eventually deal a fatal blow to the air conditioner. A hard-starting AC will make noises at startup and have trouble at how fast it can cool down the house.
If you enjoy “do-it-yourself” projects around the home, there are probably a few big jobs you’re itching to see if you can handle on your own. What about installing a new central air conditioning system? That sounds like it might be a genuine adventure, and you’ll end up saving money on labor costs when you make the project your own.
Hold it right there! We understand your enthusiasm—but central AC installation must only be done by licensed HVAC professionals. This rule applies both to DIY attempts and allowing unlicensed amateur “handymen” to take on the work. A bad air conditioning system installation has many consequences that will cost you in comfort, money, and time.
It’s not polite to ask people their age—unless they’re children, in which case they’ll probably tell you their exact age to half a year without you having to bring it up.
You never need to worry about offending your air conditioner by asking its age. But you may not know how to go about “asking.” This can be a problem if you’re debating whether to replace the system before next summer. An AC’s age is a vital piece of info for choosing “repair vs. replace.” If you didn’t originally install the air conditioner, you may have no idea how long it’s been in your home.
We can help. Discovering the age of a cooling system is simple once you know how. (Figuring out what to do afterwards is the tricky part!)
The question in the headline may sound a bit melodramatic. But when it comes to home heating and air conditioning in Wilmette, IL, you don’t want to take chances. The summers are too hot, and the winters to intense, for you to end up with a subpar comfort system in your home. You’ve probably lived most of your life in homes that use a combination of an air conditioner and a furnace. Perhaps you’re accustomed to a boiler for winter heating and window units for cooling. Whatever the situation, you used two separate appliances for heating and cooling. A heat pump changes that—it’s a single appliance that provides central both heating a cooling. That’s a big change, and you don’t want to make the leap to using one unless you’re certain it’s the best move for your home.
One day in the future, consumers may have access to HVAC systems equipped with powerful artificial intelligence programs capable of diagnosing malfunctions early and altering homeowners to the problem—along with instructions of exactly what’s wrong and how to call a technicians to ask for help.
But we’re not quite there yet. Air conditioning systems can’t self-diagnose, but they do have ways of telling homeowners that something has gone amiss so they know to call for professional assistance. HVAC technicians use good old fashioned “organic intelligence,” i.e. their extensive training and experience, to find out what’s wrong and how to fix it. One of the ways air conditioners tell homeowners there’s a problem is unusual sounds from the system.
