AC Repair in Round Rock, TX
Air conditioners here run from April through October. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Williamson County will get in touch.
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Seven months of Texas heat wears on your AC
Your air conditioner runs from April through October in Round Rock, with summer afternoons averaging 95°F. That is seven straight months where the compressor barely gets a break, cycling on and off all day to keep up. That kind of run time wears on the capacitor and the contactor, the parts that start the compressor and keep it running. When one of those fails, the outdoor unit hums but won't start, or it stops cooling mid-afternoon when the heat is worst.
Williamson County has also seen 130 hail events and 58 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hailstones up to 4 inches across. Hail that size can bend the fins on your outdoor coil or crack the fan blade, and a bad storm can knock the unit out of alignment. If your AC has run rough or quit since the last storm rolled through, that is often where it started.
- 7 months
- April through October, your air conditioner is on duty
- 95°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 130 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 $70 a year off cooling for a typical Williamson County home.
Estimates for a typical Williamson 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. It is tied to the contractor, not to each job they do.
For a repair like this, that license is what stands behind the work. Fixing your air conditioner means opening the refrigerant side of the system, and whoever does that also has to hold EPA Section 608 certification. That is a federal requirement, the same in every state, and it covers anyone who handles refrigerant. In Texas the two sit side by side. The state license accounts for the contractor. The federal certification accounts for that part of the job.
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 charge is low from a leak. A dirty filter makes the coil freeze up, and once that happens you get warm air or no air at all until the ice melts. Low refrigerant almost always means a leak somewhere in the line set or coil, and that needs a contractor to find and seal before adding more. With Round Rock summer afternoons running near 95°F, a system already low on refrigerant or short on airflow falls behind fast.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Water around your unit usually means the condensate drain line is clogged. Algae and dust build up inside that line over time and back the water up until it overflows the pan instead of draining outside. It can also mean the coil has frozen and is now melting, which points back to weak airflow or low refrigerant. Either way, a contractor needs to clear the line or find why the coil froze, because water damage to the floor or ceiling below the unit gets worse the longer it sits.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat batteries and the breaker before assuming the worst. If those check out, the capacitor may have failed, which is a common reason the outdoor unit won't start even though the thermostat calls for cooling. It can also be a tripped safety switch, often the float switch near the drain pan, which shuts the system down on purpose to stop a leak. A contractor can test which of these it is in a few minutes with a meter.