Here at Mouritz, we are your local professional air conditioning servicing experts. As such it’s not unusual to find us extolling the virtues of regular servicing for your heating and cooling equipment. An AC system is a complex piece of equipment with mechanical, electronic and electrical components and it can fail. This often occurs at the most inconvenient times, and it’s a smart idea to have your system looked at before a busy cooling or heating system starts. To illustrate this, we will look at a simple refrigerant leak that would be easily spotted by one of our technicians. If left unattended this issue can cause a lot of problems, and a loss of performance if it’s not spotted and fixed.
What is a Refrigerant Leak?
The liquid refrigerant in your air conditioning system circulates and helps to remove heat outside and thus keep the home cooler. The refrigerant is under constant high pressure, and the lines that carry out can become degraded over time. This means that the system can easily spring a leak, but this may not be immediately obvious, and the leak could be in an area where it cannot be seen. If the AC system has a refrigerant leak, it will need to be found and repaired quickly. Then the system will have to be recharged with refrigerant to restore the pressure and get the system working again.
How Can You Tell if You Have a Refrigerant Leak?
As we’ve discussed earlier, it may be hard or impossible to find a refrigerant leak in your home. Luckily there are six common warning signs that will indicate that you may have a leak somewhere in your home.
- Poor Cooling Performance
You may notice that there is a sudden loss of cooling performance in your AC system. Perhaps it can no longer work effectively during the hottest parts of the day? This is a classic sign that there has been a loss of refrigerant in the AC system.
- An Increase in Indoor Humidity
An AC system will dehumidify your home as it removes the warmer air and dumps it outside. When there is a refrigerant leak, this functionality is compromised along with the cooling performance. As a result, the air will feel more damp and humid throughout the home.
- Abnormally Long Cooling Cycles
It can be hard to notice that your air conditioner is lagging behind your thermostat by a couple of degrees. However, the sound made by air moving in your vents for longer abnormally long cooling cycles can be easily heard. This is a good indicator that there may be a refrigerant leak to blame.
- Increased Energy Bills
If you haven’t noticed any other issues, you may notice a sharp increase in your energy bill. A lack of refrigerant will cause your AC system to be both ineffective at cooling and inefficient in its use of energy.
- Strange Noises
A lack of refrigerant can create strange hissing or bubbling noise in your AC equipment. Listen out for these sound in your external unit when the system is not running.
- Frozen Evaporator Coils
Frozen evaporator coils and ice in your outdoor AC unit is a sure sign that the system has a lack of refrigerant.
All of these signs can be detected by someone with no technical knowledge, but why take the risk? A regular scheduled AC service will detect a lack of refrigerant before it can become a major issue in many cases. Smaller problems can easily snowball into expensive repairs and increased energy bills if they are not dealt with quickly.
If they are looking for a local air conditioner service, Perth residents and business managers should contact us here at Mouritz. We supply, install and repair a wide selection of heating and cooling equipment for domestic and commercial clients. We also provide a comprehensive evaporative air conditioning service to ensure that your system is working effectively and efficiently. Our team members are standing by to discuss your specific needs in further detail, and they would be happy to answer any further questions that you may have.