Air Conditioner Not Cooling Properly? Here Are 3 Common Explanations

If your air conditioner breaks down completely, it’s obvious that there’s a major issue that needs to be taken care of by a certified HVAC technician. But a slightly more perplexing problem is when your air conditioner is blowing air but that air is not cold enough. Today we’re going to talk about why your air conditioner might not be cooling properly and what you can do to take care of the problem!

3 common reasons why your air conditioner is not cooling properly:

1. Dirty cooling coils. Your air conditioner has a set of indoor coils that absorb heat from your home’s air, as well as a set of outdoor coils that transfer heat from your home to the air outside. If either of these coils have a layer of dirt on them, it becomes much more difficult for heat to transfer between the coils and the air that’s blown over them. This can greatly reduce your system’s ability to remove heat from your home, and the air that comes out of your vents will be warmer than it should be.
2. Refrigerant leak. Refrigerant is what flows through your indoor and outdoor coils in order to actually move the heat from inside your home to the outside condenser unit. If your system has a refrigerant leak, there will not be enough refrigerant to adequately move heat out of your home. As a result, your air conditioner might be running but it will not be cooling your home properly.
3. Old system. When an air conditioner reaches the end of its operating life, it will not be able to cool your home like it used to. This is just a natural fact of an air conditioner’s lifespan, which is why it’s important to replace your system when it is no longer able to perform efficiently or effectively. The natural life of a modern air conditioning unit is 12-18 years, depending on annual use and the environment around the unit.

Unfortunately, none of these have do-it-yourself solutions and require a qualified technician to remedy them. Take a look at the certified technicians listed on this website and call them to help solve your cooling problem.