AC Repair in Laredo, TX
Air conditioners here run from March through October. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Webb County will get in touch.
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Eight months of Laredo heat wears an AC down fast
Your air conditioner runs from March through October here, and on summer afternoons it is working against a average high of 98°F. That is not a few weeks of strain. It is most of the year, day after day, with the compressor and the fan motor rarely getting a real rest.
Webb County has also seen 48 hail events and 31 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 3.25 inches recorded. That kind of storm bends the thin aluminum fins on an outdoor unit and can crack a fan blade or dent the cabinet. A unit that took a hit like that may still run, but it will not move air the way it used to, and you will notice the house taking longer to cool down.
- 8 months
- March through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 98°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 48 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 31 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $100 a year off cooling for a typical Webb County home.
Estimates for a typical Webb County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Texas 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.
Texas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation issues that license, and it tests the contractor rather than any single job. The license sits with the business, so it stays in place across every repair that business does in the state, and TDLR keeps the record of who holds one.
For a repair on your air conditioner, the license is what stands behind the person in your driveway, but the refrigerant work itself has its own check. Anyone who opens the refrigerant side of your system, to recover it, add to it, or reclaim it, has to hold EPA Section 608 certification, and that rule applies in every state regardless of what Texas requires on top of it. Between the two, your air conditioner gets a contractor the state has tested and a technician certified by the EPA for the part of the job that involves refrigerant.
Source: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most of the time the filter is clogged and starving the system of airflow, or the refrigerant is low from a leak somewhere in the line. A dirty outdoor coil can cause the same problem, since it stops the unit from shedding heat the way it needs to. With summer afternoons here running around 98°F, a system that's low on refrigerant will struggle hard and may ice up the indoor coil instead of cooling. A contractor can check the charge and airflow and find which one it is.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The drain line that carries condensation away from your indoor unit is clogged, or the condensate pan has rusted through. Algae and dust build up inside that line over a cooling season and block it, so the water backs up and finds another way out. A frozen coil that's thawing can also flood the pan faster than it can drain. Since cooling runs here from March through October, that drain line gets eight months of steady use and is worth having checked when this happens.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Check the thermostat first, since dead batteries or a setting that got bumped will stop the system before it even tries to start. If the thermostat looks right, the problem is likely a tripped breaker, a blown fuse at the outdoor unit, or a failed capacitor that the compressor needs to start up. Laredo has seen its share of damaging wind and hail over the past ten years, and either one can knock out power to the unit or damage the outdoor components. A contractor can test the electrical side and tell you which part failed.