AC Repair in Clarksville, TN
Air conditioners here run from May through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Montgomery County will get in touch.
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Five months of Clarksville heat wears an AC down fast
Your air conditioner runs from May through September here, and on the hottest afternoons it is fighting against 88°F outside. That is five straight months of the compressor cycling on and off, day after day, to keep the house at a normal temperature. The longer and harder it runs, the sooner a weak capacitor or a low-on-refrigerant system shows itself. You notice it as air that is not as cold as it should be, or a unit that runs longer than it used to just to get there.
Montgomery County has also seen 103 damaging wind events and 18 hail storms over the past ten years, with hail up to 3 inches. Wind and hail hit the outdoor unit directly, bending the fins on the coil or damaging the fan. A coil that cannot move air the way it was built to makes the whole system work harder, right in the middle of the months you need it most.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 88°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 18 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 103 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 Montgomery County home.
Estimates for a typical Montgomery County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Tennessee 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.
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most of the time this comes down to a dirty air filter, low refrigerant, or a frozen coil. A clogged filter chokes airflow across the coil until it ices over, and once that happens the air coming out feels warm no matter what the thermostat says. Low refrigerant almost always means a leak somewhere in the system, not just a system that needs a top-off. With summer afternoons here running near 88°F, an AC that's already struggling to keep up will make the problem obvious fast, so it's worth having a contractor check the filter, the coil, and the refrigerant charge before the next hot stretch.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Your AC pulls moisture out of the air as it cools, and that water is supposed to drain out through a condensate line. When that line clogs with algae or dirt, the water backs up and drips out wherever it can, often near the indoor unit. A dirty filter can also cause the coil to freeze up, and the water shows up when it thaws and overflows the drain pan. Either way, the fix is to clear or repair the drain, and a contractor can tell which one is happening in your system.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the breaker, since a dead thermostat battery or a tripped breaker will stop the whole system cold. If those check out, the capacitor that starts the compressor and fan motor may have failed, which is one of the most common reasons an AC won't start at all. With 103 damaging wind events recorded here over the past ten years, power surges and outages are a real cause of tripped breakers and failed capacitors, so it's worth checking the electrical panel first. If everything there looks fine, a contractor will need to test the capacitor and the electrical components directly.