AC Repair in Chesapeake, VA
Air conditioners here run from May through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Chesapeake will get in touch.
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Five months of heat, and afternoons that push 87
Your air conditioner works from May through September here, and on the hot afternoons it has to hold the house at 87 degrees outside or better. That is a long stretch of steady running, and the compressor and the fan motor are the parts carrying that load day after day. When one of them starts to go, you notice the air coming from the vents isn't as cold as it should be, or the unit runs longer to get the house where you set it.
Chesapeake has also seen its share of hail and wind, with 58 damaging wind events and hail up to 1.75 inches over the past ten years. The outdoor unit sits outside through all of that, and its thin aluminum fins can bend or crack under hail or flying debris. Bent fins block airflow across the coil, and a unit that can't move air across the coil struggles to cool the house even when everything else is working.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 87°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 13 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 58 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $50 a year off cooling for a typical Chesapeake home.
Estimates for a typical Chesapeake home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Virginia 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.
Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Board for Contractors tests contractors before they get that license, and it keeps a record of who holds one. It covers the contractor as a business, not each job that contractor does. Virginia sets one exception. Work under $1,000 does not need a licensed contractor, so a small repair can fall outside this rule depending on what it ends up costing.
For an air conditioner repair, the license is what stands behind the work. If the technician has to open the refrigerant side of your system to fix it, federal law also requires them to hold EPA Section 608 certification. That certification applies everywhere in the country, and it is separate from what Virginia checks when it licenses a contractor.
Sources: Virginia General Assembly · Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most often the filter is clogged and starving the coil of airflow, or the system is low on refrigerant from a leak. A dirty filter is something you can check yourself, right at the return grille. If the filter is clean and air is still coming out warm, the refrigerant side needs a technician with EPA 608 certification to open it and find the leak.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The drain line that carries condensation away from your indoor coil is clogged or disconnected. That line runs to a drain or outside your home, and algae or dust builds up inside it over a cooling season and blocks the flow. When it backs up, water finds another way out, usually through the access panel or down into the pan under the unit. A frozen coil that then thaws fast can cause the same thing, so a contractor will check both the drain and the coil.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat batteries and the breaker for the outdoor unit, since both cause this and both are easy to check. If those are fine, the capacitor that starts the compressor may have failed, which is common after years of Chesapeake summers pushing the system hard through afternoons near 87°F. A tripped safety switch from a clogged drain line can also stop the system cold. A contractor can test each of these and tell you which one it is.