AC Repair in Morgan City, LA
Air conditioners here run from April through October. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers St. Mary Parish will get in touch.
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Seven months of cooling in Morgan City heat
Your air conditioner runs from April through October here, with summer afternoons averaging 90°F. That is seven straight months of the compressor cycling on and off most days, and it does not get much of a break to recover.
St. Mary Parish has also seen 16 damaging wind events and 6 hail events over the past ten years, one leaving a hailstone 1.75 inches across. Wind can bend the thin fins on your outdoor unit or knock debris into it, and hail that size can dent the coil or the cabinet around it. Either one restricts airflow, and the unit works harder to cool the same house.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 90°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 6 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 16 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 St. Mary Parish home.
Estimates for a typical St. Mary 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 get that license, then keeps a record of who holds one. It's the contractor who's licensed, not the specific repair, so the same license covers whatever HVAC work they take on in St. Mary Parish or anywhere else in Louisiana.
For a repair like this, that license is what stands behind the person working on your system. If the job involves opening the refrigerant side of your AC, which most repairs do, the technician also needs EPA Section 608 certification. That's a federal requirement in every state, separate from Louisiana's license, and it covers the handling of refrigerant itself.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- The most common cause is a dirty air filter choking off airflow, so start there before anything else. A clogged filter can freeze the coil, and once that happens you may feel warm air until the ice melts. Low refrigerant from a leak is another common cause, and that requires a licensed contractor since only someone with EPA Section 608 certification can legally open the refrigerant side of the system. With summer afternoons here averaging 90°F, a system that runs low on refrigerant will struggle to keep up most of the day.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Water around your unit usually means the condensate drain line is clogged. Algae and debris build up in that line over time and block the water that the coil pulls out of the air, so it backs up and finds another way out. A dirty air filter can also cause this by freezing the coil, which then leaks water as it thaws. If the drain pan itself is cracked or rusted, that water damage will keep coming back until the pan is replaced.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Check your thermostat first, since dead batteries or a setting that got bumped are common and simple to fix. If the thermostat looks right, the next place to check is your electrical panel for a tripped breaker. Storms here have knocked out power before, including 16 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and a system that lost power sometimes needs the breaker reset before it will start again. If the breaker keeps tripping or the thermostat has power but the unit still won't run, that points to a problem inside the system that a licensed contractor needs to diagnose.