AC Repair in Shreveport, LA
Air conditioners here run from May through October. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Caddo Parish will get in touch.
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Six months of Shreveport heat wears an AC down early
Your air conditioner runs from May through October here, and on afternoons that average 93°F it doesn't get much of a break in between. That kind of run time adds up on the compressor and the capacitor that helps start it. When the capacitor weakens, the outdoor unit hums but the fan won't spin, or the compressor tries to start and can't.
Caddo Parish has also logged 279 damaging wind events and 101 hail events over the past ten years, some with hail up to 3 inches. Wind can bend the thin fins on the outdoor coil, and hail can dent the unit's housing or damage the fan blade. Either way, the coil can't shed heat the way it should, and the air coming from your vents runs warmer than it used to.
- 6 months
- May through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 93°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 101 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 279 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $60 a year off cooling for a typical Caddo Parish home.
Estimates for a typical Caddo 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 Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors tests HVAC contractors before they can hold that license, and it keeps a record of who holds one. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same license that covers a repair down the street covers the work in your home.
An air conditioner repair almost always means someone opens the refrigerant side of the system, and federal law requires that person to hold EPA Section 608 certification no matter what state they work in. In Louisiana that certification sits alongside the state license rather than replacing it, so a contractor working on your air conditioner answers to both.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- The most common reason is a dirty air filter choking off airflow across the coil. A clogged filter starves the evaporator coil of air, and the coil can ice over so what little air comes through feels warm. It can also mean the refrigerant charge is low, which means a leak somewhere in the system, or the outdoor unit's compressor has failed. Since summer afternoons here average 93°F, a system running low on refrigerant will fall further behind on hot days. A contractor licensed by the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, with EPA 608 certification to handle the refrigerant, can find out which one it is.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Water around your unit usually means the condensate drain line is clogged. Your AC pulls a lot of moisture out of the air over six months of cooling season here, and that water is supposed to run out through a drain line to the outside. Algae and dirt build up in that line over time and block it, so the water backs up and drips inside or pools near the indoor unit. A frozen evaporator coil that then thaws can also flood the drain pan faster than it can drain. Either way, a licensed contractor can clear the line or find where else the water is coming from.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the breaker before assuming the worst. Check that the thermostat is set to cool and below the room temperature, and check your electrical panel for a tripped breaker, since a system that won't start at all often just lost power. With 279 damaging wind events recorded here over the past ten years, a breaker tripped by a surge or a brief outage is a real possibility. If power and settings both check out, the problem is likely inside the unit, such as a failed capacitor or a bad contactor, and that calls for a licensed contractor to diagnose.