Freon (a brand name of refrigerant) is the blood of your air conditioner. Without enough refrigerant, your AC can’t cool your home properly, leaving you sweaty and uncomfortable. Not only that, but a low level of refrigerant can severely damage your air conditioner, just like a low blood count damages your body. We’ll explain why in more detail. Here are the signs your AC is low on refrigerant...and what you need to do to get things back to normal. Freon (a brand name of refrigerant) is the blood of your air conditioner. If your AC is taking longer than normal to cool the home, you may be low on refrigerant. Because refrigerant is what absorbs the heat in your air. So without enough of it, your AC can’t absorb enough heat to cool the air well. In other words, think of refrigerant like a heat sponge: the smaller the sponge, the less it can absorb. If you’re really low on Freon, you’ll notice that your supply vents are blowing lukewarm/warm air.

Now it makes sense why your home is taking forever to cool off! Due to lack of refrigerant, your AC runs much longer than needed to cool the home, increasing your energy bills as a result. Go to your outside AC unit (the one with the spinning fan). If you see ice building up on the copper refrigerant line, then you may be low on refrigerant. When low on refrigerant, the inside AC unit’s evaporator coil (the part that cold refrigerant flows through) gets too cold, causing cold liquid refrigerant to flow back the refrigerant line. This causes the surrounding moisture on the refrigerant line to freeze up. Eventually the liquid refrigerant will make its way to the outside unit’s compressor (the “heart” of your AC). This flowback of refrigerant will damage the outside unit’s compressor. You see, liquids can’t be compressed, so when the refrigerant flows into the compressor, it’s quickly converted into thousands of pounds of hydraulic pressure, and something (valves, rods, plates) will break.

Compressors are extremely expensive to replace and, if yours doesn't have a valid warranty, you’ll probably end up replacing the entire outside AC unit since it’d be more cost efficient. The only reason you’d be low on refrigerant is due to a refrigerant leak (refrigerant isn’t used up like gas in a car, so escape through a leak is the only conclusion). And if you have a bad refrigerant leak, the refrigerant makes a hissing or bubbling noise as it escapes. If you suspect you have low refrigerant (and thus a refrigerant leak) call a professional AC technician for a diagnostic check. If they find a leak, they should repair it (if possible) before adding more refrigerant. Adding refrigerant without fixing the leak will cause the refrigerant to escape again, and you’ll have this problem all over again. And older R-22 refrigerant is super expensive now. If you have any other questions about the refrigerant in your air conditioner, ask one of our experts for help.

If you think your system needs refrigerant and you want a refrigerant leak check, schedule an appointment time online with Cool Today. Cool Today provides award-winning air conditioning service to Sarasota, Florida and the surrounding cities and counties.Enter Search Terms Below and press 'ENTER' Top 14 Things You Should Know About Your Air Conditioning Systemhow much to move ac unit two easiest and most importantbest way to clean outdoor ac unit We accept cash, check, and all major credit cardscentral air conditioner unit installationNow that we have seen how an air conditioner does the work, let's look at the mechanics involved. We can see that there are two main systems in a roof top air conditioner, the sealed refrigeration system, and the air handling system.

In addition to these systems, there is, of course, the control system (thermostat and fan switches).For the sealed system, all brands, Coleman, DuoTherm, Carrier, Intertherm, and others, work the same, using the basic principals of refrigeration. In the sealed system, the main component is the compressor- which, by itself, is not serviceable, but there are some components that are external to it which are serviceable. For now, let's look at the most common and easily repaired problems. The one major compromise that roof top air conditioners all have in common is the fact that they all have to route both the return and supply air through a standard 14" by 14" cutout in the roof. This is even more amazing when you realize that the average 13,500 btu air conditioner has just over 1 ton of cooling capacity- a 15,000 btu model is around 1 1/4 tons. A motor home or large trailer that has two 15,000 btu air conditioners has 2 1/2 tons of air conditioning- or enough capacity for many houses.

The two most common complaints are "Not cooling enough" and leaks. Let's look at "not cooling" first. Not blowing cold air. The first thing to determine is if the compressor is coming on. If it isn't, it is likely a control problem with the thermostat or relay board (if you have a wall mounted thermostat). If the compressor is coming on, then you need to look into the airflow of the unit. Whether or not the compressor is coming on, you need to check the voltage. Like every appliance on board, the air conditioner needs adequate power to operate. If the voltage is 110 volts a.c. or below, the effectiveness of the unit will start to suffer. After verifying correct voltage, we need to look at how the air conditioner does it's job- it requires adequate air flow over both the inside (evaporator) and outside (condenser) coils. If the air filter is clogged refrigerant will not be able to pick up enough heat from the inside air, and if the condenser coils are blocked by leaves, it will not be able to give off enough heat to the outside air.

Most RV rooftop air conditioners have washable filters, which can be vacuumed or rinsed off in a sink to clean. If you are in summer weather where the air conditioner is running 24 hours a day, the filters should really be at least vacuumed once a week. Note that if the filters have been neglected, the evaporator coils probably need cleaning as well. These can be seen when you remove the air filters, and possibly the inside air box. Likewise, the condenser coils can be seen after removing the upper shroud. Note that some air conditioners draw air in from the back, and some blow air out the back. You will need to determine which your is, or just check both sides of the condenser. An unavoidable drawback to being able to mount an air conditioner in a 14" by 14" roof vent cut out is that both the supply air and the return air are in very close proximity to each other. This can be a problem if the two are not sealed well from each other- if the cold supply air can recirculate into the return side, the evaporator coil can easily freeze up, plus that is cold air that is just going to waste.