AC Repair in Nashville, TN
Air conditioners here run from May through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Davidson County will get in touch.
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Five months of Nashville heat wears an AC down fast
Your air conditioner runs from May through September here, and on the hardest afternoons it is working against 88 degrees outside. That is five months of the compressor cycling on and off, day after day, to keep up. The parts that start and run the compressor take the wear, and a unit that has done this for years starts to struggle right when you need it most.
Davidson County has also seen 462 damaging wind events and 64 hail events over the past ten years, with hail up to 2.5 inches. The outdoor unit sits outside through all of it. Wind can bend the thin fins on the condenser coil, and hail that size can dent the cabinet or damage the fan. Either one makes the unit work harder to move air, and you notice it as weaker cooling or a system that runs longer than it used to.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 88°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 64 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 462 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $40 a year off cooling for a typical Davidson County home.
Estimates for a typical Davidson 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 the filter is clogged enough that air can barely move through it, and the coil behind it ices up as a result. It can also mean the system is low on refrigerant, which points to a leak rather than something that just runs low over time. If the air coming out is warm or barely moving at all, turn the system off and let any ice melt before a contractor looks at it. Running a frozen coil for days on end asks more of Nashville summers, where afternoons sit near 88°F for five months, than the system can give back.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The drain line that carries condensation away from the coil is probably clogged or disconnected. That line grows algae over time the same way a shower drain does, and it backs up until water has nowhere to go but out of the unit. A cracked drain pan or an iced-up coil that's now melting can cause the same thing. Either way, water around the indoor unit means something needs a look before it stains a ceiling or a floor.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it has power, is set to cool, and is set below the room temperature. If the thermostat looks fine, check the breaker, since a tripped breaker is one of the more common reasons a system won't start at all. Nashville sees a fair number of damaging wind events each year, and a power surge from one of those is a real way to trip a breaker or knock out a system's control board. If the breaker keeps tripping once you reset it, stop and have a contractor find out why instead of resetting it again.