This is a question is touched upon in the FAQ section of the website “Why is my air conditioner blowing hot air”, but I’ve decided to take a question a week, and expand on it, give you more information.  The answer I gave in the FAQ is that it could be a number of things.  I’ll give you the answers from my perspective.  The good news is—it’s blowing, the bad news is, it’s not cold air coming out of the vents.  This would work better with a flow chart but that’s not possible so let’s proceed.  One of the questions I will ask if you call is:  Have you ever had refrigerant added to this system?  If the answer is yes then I would ask you how long ago.  Last year, you say.  “I have to add it every year”, is another familiar response.  YOU HAVE A LEAK.  Your air conditioning system is comparable to the human body.  The refrigerant is like the blood in your body.  You don’t add blood once a year unless you are bleeding.  Same thing with your A/C unit.  You don’t need refrigerant every year unless you are leaking. 

I’ve heard it all, starting with, “The last company came out and fixed my leak and charged me so-and-so dollars, but now it’s not cooling again.  I tried to call them but they’re out of business.”  Yep, sounds about right.  It’s very rare that a freon leak can be FIXED.  More times than not, the leak is in an area that can’t be repaired and the leaking piece of equipment must be replaced.  Another one I get is, “the last company put some stuff in my system to stop the leak, kinda like the stuff they add to leaking radiators.”  If someone tells you this, RUN!  Don’t let an A/C technician add anything to your system except refrigerant.  It doesn’t work and it can cause more severe damage to your system.  It can cause early failure of your compressor.  Acme has been around for almost 30 years.  We fix things and fix them right, the first time.  Our customer reviews will verify that.  Our customers depend on us to give them honest advice and make the repair they know is necessary.

Sometimes leaks start out small and refrigerant is only needed every couple of years.  Just keep in mind, adding refrigerant to any leaking system is throwing money away.  Some people think it’s okay to let them run low on refrigerant and just add when it gets really hot outside and the A/C system can’t keep up.  Just know that the cool refrigerant coming back to the compressor from the evaporator coil is what cools the compressor.  If the air conditioning system is running low on refrigerant then the compressor is not getting the same amount of cooling refrigerant and this will cause the compressor to run hot, which in turn can cause compressor failure.  It’s a domino effect, as with most problems in the air conditioning system.  A small problem dominos into a big one if not immediately addressed.  When you know your system is not cooling, immediately TURN IT OFF.  I’ve been to so many houses where the customer knows the air conditioning unit is not cooling and leaves it running, I arrive, say the condenser fan motor is out, and the unit is just running and running. 

Keep in mind, the compressor and the condenser fan motor don’t talk, the compressor doesn’t know the condenser fan motor is not running, it only knows that it’s getting hotter and hotter by the second until finally, an internal switch notices this and shuts the compressor off.  in wall ac unit reviewsBut not before it got really hot.  how do you clean a window ac unitThen the compressor is off long enough to cool and guess what, it comes back on, runs until it gets hot, shuts off, cools, comes on, gets hot….you see my point.  list of ac unit brandsIt’s hard on a compressor to do this.  The same thing can happen when a compressor runs low on refrigerant…gets hot, shuts off, cools off, starts back up.   The best thing is to have your system serviced each Spring before the really hot weather hits and make sure your system is running properly and full of refrigerant. 

If you know you’ve got a leak, stop throwing money away and have the leak located, repaired or replaced. What is the best way to locate the leak?  We use a “sniffer” type refrigerant locater.  Some companies use dye that is added to your system and then use a UV light.  As I stated earlier in this post, adding anything to your system other than the refrigerant is tricky and we just won’t do it.  Also, you can use soap bubbles to suspicious joints and try and find leaks that way.  It’s just the choice of the contractor, what they feel is the best way to locate the leak.  The most common place we find refrigerant leaks are in the evaporator coil.  One of the problems with evaporator coils is that they condensate.  As they condensate year after year, they will start to rust, as they rust, the rust will flake off causing pinhole refrigerant leaks, and lots of them.  Another problem with evaporator coils is the coil itself.  Like a radiator on a car, the coil has many pipes in a continuous pattern, back and forth. 

On each end of the back-and-forth pattern is a U-bend.  Each u-bend represents a weld.  The cheaper/lower quality of the coil, the cheaper the metal and workmanship in this coil and the quicker the coil will develop leaks within it. Since low refrigerant levels are so common and a problem at probably 90% of the air conditioning service calls in Plano, Tx or Allen, Tx that we address, or any of the cities we cover, I thought I’d give more information this Friday morning about refrigerant leaks and the problems we encounter.    Home   >   Survival Skills   > There are all kinds of DIY air conditioners you can make at home. Some are easier to make than others, but they all work quite well. The 5 we came up with will keep you cool, and they only cost a few cents per day to run. Most of them can be made for $15 or less. Here’s what one of our readers had to say about one of the AC’s below “I know from personal experience. Using this little contraption in place of our AC last Summer saved us $$200 a month”

These are meant to be room, or space coolers. Some of them can be used in your car if the AC is not working, or to keep your pets cool if they ride with you. You could can even hook some of them up to a solar panel and save even more! We scoured the internet looking for the best of the best DIY homemade air conditioners that we could find. We came up with top 5 that we felt were the best. We based the selections on the following: We list them below in descending order (#1 being the best) with our comments, and the video showing how to make each one. We hope you can use these to keep cool this Summer, or drastically reduce your AC bill. Please leave us your comments below as to which one is your favorite. #5-$8 Homemade Air Conditioner – Works Flawlessly! We really like this one. It works well, and is very inexpensive, and easy to make. You could substitute PVC pipe for the dryer vents and reduce costs even more. The video says $8 to make which is possible. We rated this one at #5 because it’s a little flimsy, and cutting the Styrofoam gets kind of messy.

This DIY AC comes in 4th place. It works well and costs about $40 in parts to make. We ranked it in this position because it’s a little tricky to make if you’re not handy. While it can be moved from room to room you can’t put in in your car, or take it camping. It is pretty sturdy, and we’ve seen demos where some pretty cool air is thrown off by it as low as 58 degrees F. You will be incredibly surprised at how well this one works. Similar to number 5 above, except you use PVC elbow joints instead of dryer vents. It is not the sturdiest AC on the list, but it will due. Very easy to make. You don’t need to be handy at all, and you only need a few simple tools.Produces very cold air 40F in a 84F room. Put a big block of ice in the chest, pour some salt over the ice block (to keep the ice cooler longer), and you’ll get hours of use. It was a tough choice between #’s 2 & 1. This 5 gallon bucket air cooler is the Grandaddy of all the DIY air conditioners. At the time this was made the house temp was 84F, and the air blowing out of this DIY AC was a chilly 45F.

You do need some tools, and do need to be a little handy or know someone that is. You need to get a Styrofoam bucket liner which some people seem to have trouble finding. However a Google search for Styrofoam bucket liner will yield some results. Home Depot type stores normally carry them. Also your local Sherwin Williams paint stores have them. If they are out of them you can get them from their website. They are very cheap. This is a great DIY AC, and you won’t go wrong with it. Simple Trick Reveals How To Bring Any Old Or Dead Battery Back To Life Just Like New Click Here Now To See How It’s Done This brings us to #1. This has all the advantages of #2. It combines the durability of #2 with the extra cooling power of the Styrofoam ice chest type coolers. This threw out very cool air 42F in an 80F room with 4% humidity. With a big block of ice it can last up to 5-8 hours. Pouring salt on the ice block will get you even more time. We ranked this at #1 because you don’t need the Styrofoam liner, and it’s easy to transport.