AC Repair in Slidell, 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. Tammany Parish will get in touch.
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Seven months of Louisiana heat wears an AC down
Your air conditioner runs from April through October here, and on a lot of those afternoons it's fighting to keep up with 91°F outside. That's seven straight months of the compressor cycling on and off, hour after hour, day after day. Parts that only rest a few weeks a year elsewhere barely get a break in Slidell.
That kind of run time catches up with the capacitor and the compressor first. You'll notice it as a system that still turns on but doesn't cool like it used to, or one that hums for a second and then quits. St. Tammany Parish has also seen 88 damaging wind events and 24 hail events over the past ten years, and the condenser unit sits outside through all of it. A bent fin or a knocked loose wire from a storm can be the difference between a unit that keeps up with a 91°F afternoon and one that can't.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 24 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 88 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. Tammany Parish home.
Estimates for a typical St. Tammany 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 it licenses them, then keeps a record of who holds one. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same license covers this repair and every other job that contractor takes on.
For an air conditioner repair, the license is what stands behind the work in St. Tammany Parish. If the repair opens the refrigerant side of the system, the technician doing that part also needs EPA Section 608 certification, which is required everywhere in the country and separate from the state license.
Source: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most often the filter is clogged and starving the system of airflow, or the refrigerant level is low from a leak. A dirty filter makes the coil freeze up, and once that happens you get weak or warm air until the ice melts. If the air coming out is warm rather than just weak, that points more toward refrigerant, and only a licensed contractor with EPA 608 certification can legally check that and add more.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Water around your unit usually means the condensate drain line is clogged. As the system runs, it pulls moisture out of the air and that water is supposed to drip through a 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 instead. A frozen coil that's thawing can cause the same thing, so if the system was blowing weak air before you noticed the water, that's likely the cause.
- 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 breaker panel for a tripped breaker, since AC units draw enough power to trip one. If both look fine, the issue is likely something inside the unit like a bad capacitor or a wiring problem, and that needs a licensed contractor to open it up and diagnose it.