Call Us TodayIs My HVAC Air Compressor Damaged?
If you’re like most homeowners, you rely on a home cooling system to keep you and your family comfortable throughout the hot summer months. While you likely don’t give it much thought, every one of the components inside of your system must function optimally for cold air to be produced. Unfortunately, one component of your air conditioning system that can experience a problem that will stop your unit in its tracks is its compressor.
What Is an AC Compressor?
Before we dive into what an AC compressor is, it’s first important to understand how your air conditioning system works. All air conditioning systems have a substance known as refrigerant inside of them. This refrigerant works to absorb heat from the inside of your home and transport it to the outdoors so that it can be dispersed into the air.
By removing heat, the remaining cold air gets circulated back throughout your home to keep you and your family comfortable. Refrigerant flows from an indoor air handler unit to an outdoor condenser unit. Once it absorbs heat from the air inside your home, the cold liquid refrigerant turns into a low-pressure warm refrigerant gas. The compressor pump is responsible for moving that refrigerant to the outdoor unit. As it moves the gas, it compresses it to create a high-pressure hot gas refrigerant.
Once the refrigerant gets to the outdoor condenser unit, it flows through a condenser coil. Air from outside is blown over the condenser coil, and the heat from the refrigerant naturally moves into the low-pressure outdoor air. Heat always wants to move to a low-pressure substance.
Once heat escapes into the outdoor air, you’re left with a high-pressure cool liquid refrigerant. The compressor pump works to move this refrigerant back toward the indoor air handler unit. As it goes through the line, the refrigerant travels through an expansion valve which is responsible for lowering the pressure of the refrigerant. This resets the refrigerant so that it can go back to successfully absorbing heat from inside your home.
Top Signs of a Failing Air Compressor
Just like any other component inside of your air conditioning system, its compressor can experience problems from time to time. In some cases, the problem may be overly obvious as your system simply won’t start. However, in others, there may be key warning signs that can indicate that your compressor is on its last leg. It’s important to understand what these signs are so that you can get repair service sooner rather than later.
Warmer Airflow
One of the more challenging signs of a failing AC compressor to pick up on is warmer airflow. As your compressor starts to fail, it’s going to struggle to be able to adequately move refrigerant throughout your air conditioning system. This will provide less cooling for your home, which will show up in the form of warmer air moving through your supply vents. Instead of simply turning down your thermostat, it’s best to have a professional evaluate the state of your AC compressor.
Higher Electricity Bills
One really frustrating sign of a failing AC compressor is excessively high energy bills. Because your compressor will be less efficient as it operates, it’s going to have to run for much longer to get your home to your desired temperature. The longer your system runs, the more energy it consumes and the higher your bills will be.
Leaking Refrigerant
As we went over above, your AC compressor is responsible for moving refrigerant throughout your entire air conditioning system. If you start to notice a liquid leaking out of your outdoor condenser unit, it could be the result of loose compressor bearings that are allowing refrigerant to seep through. Refrigerant can be very dangerous to your health so you want to ensure you call an HVAC technician to remedy the problem as soon as possible.
Lack of Hot Air at the Condenser Unit
As your air conditioning system is working, it is constantly dispersing warm air out of its outdoor condenser unit. This is the warm air that it extracts from your home. A key sign that your compressor is not functioning like normal is that you don’t feel much heat radiating from the outdoor condenser unit. This is because the compressor is struggling to adequately pull heat out of your indoor air so it doesn’t have much to disperse outside.
Compressor Not Running
When your air conditioning system kicks on to cool down your home, you’ll hear the fan running indoors. At your outdoor condenser unit, you’ll be able to hear both the blower fan and the compressor pump running. When your compressor stops working, you’ll notice that hot air seems to be blowing out of your vents inside. When you head to your outdoor unit, the only sound that you’ll hear will be the blower fan running. You won’t be able to hear the compressor pump running when it’s faulty.
Other Reasons Your Compressor May Not Be Working
When your AC compressor is not working, it’s important to look a little deeper to determine the actual root cause. In some cases, the compressor itself may be faulty and need to undergo replacement service. However, in other cases, the problem may lie with another component that’s keeping your compressor from turning on.
One of the most common reasons that your compressor may not turn on is that there’s no power at your outdoor compressor unit. It’s important to remember that the indoor unit is separate from the outdoor unit. Just because your indoor unit has power does not mean that the outdoor unit does. It’s best to check the panel box for the condenser unit to ensure that it didn’t trip.
To get your compressor up and running and provide continuous power, your system relies on capacitors and starter relays. When your air conditioning system first kicks on, the starter relay is responsible for sending a large dose of energy to the compressor to get it going. Then, its run capacitor will be responsible for providing a steady amount of electricity to keep the compressor running as long as necessary. If the starter relay fails to fire, the compressor won’t start up. Conversely, if the run capacitor fails, your compressor will shut off immediately after it starts.
If you notice that your AC compressor seems to work for a while and then shuts off while the rest of your system is still running, it’s a key indicator that the compressor is overheating. The most common reason that AC compressors overheat is due to dirty coils. When either the evaporator or condenser coil gets too dirty with debris, heat won’t be able to transfer in or out of the refrigerant inside the coils. Which puts the compressor under too much pressure and will cause it to overheat. Typically, having a professional clean the coils on your system will help to remedy this overheating problem.
Reliable AC Repair Service
Hoff Heating & AC offers reliable AC repair service for the O’Fallon, MD area. We can assist with all your heating, air conditioning, new construction, geothermal, indoor air quality, and ductless mini-split needs. Book an appointment with one of our friendly staff members today by simply calling our office.
