AC Repair in Leesville, LA
Air conditioners here run from May through October. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Vernon Parish will get in touch.
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Six months of heat, and storms in between
Your air conditioner runs from May through October in Leesville, and on those 92 degree afternoons it doesn't get a break. The compressor cycles on and off for six months straight, and that kind of run time wears on the capacitor and the fan motor. A weak capacitor can't give the compressor the jolt it needs to start, and the unit hums but never kicks on.
Vernon Parish has also seen 39 damaging wind events and 25 hail events over the last ten years, with hail up to 1.75 inches. Wind can knock the outdoor unit out of alignment or bend the fan cage, and hail that size can dent the fins on the condenser coil. Once those fins are crushed flat, the coil can't shed heat the way it should, and the house stays warm even when everything else is working.
- 6 months
- May through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 92°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 25 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 39 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $70 a year off cooling for a typical Vernon Parish home.
Estimates for a typical Vernon Parish home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Louisiana fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when a part like a capacitor or contactor has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the compressor has failed or the system uses R-22 refrigerant, which is no longer made.
Louisiana requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The state board tests contractors before they're licensed and keeps a record of who holds one. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same license that covers a new install covers a repair call on your air conditioner.
For this job, that license is what stands behind the person working on your system. If the repair means opening the refrigerant side of the unit, whoever does that also has to hold EPA Section 608 certification, which is required for that work everywhere in the country, not just in Louisiana.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most of the time the filter is clogged and starving the system of airflow, or the refrigerant is low from a leak somewhere in the line. A dirty outdoor coil can cause the same thing, since it stops the unit from shedding heat the way it needs to. With summer afternoons here hitting 92°F, a system running low on refrigerant will struggle even harder to keep up. A contractor with EPA 608 certification will need to check the refrigerant charge, since that means opening the sealed side of the system.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The drain line is probably clogged, or the condensate pan has rusted through. Your AC pulls a lot of moisture out of the air over a cooling season that runs six months here, and that water has to go somewhere. If the drain line backs up, the pan overflows and water shows up where it shouldn't. A frozen evaporator coil that then thaws can also flood the pan faster than it can drain.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the breaker, since those are the most common reasons a unit stays silent. If the breaker keeps tripping, something inside the unit is drawing too much power and it needs a contractor to find out what. A capacitor that has gone bad will also keep the compressor or fan from starting even though power is reaching the unit. Storms here bring damaging wind often enough, 39 events over the past ten years, that it is worth checking the outdoor unit for debris or damage before assuming the problem is electrical.