AC Repair in Philadelphia, PA
Air conditioners here run from June through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Philadelphia County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Four months of real work, every year
Your air conditioner in Philadelphia County has June through September to get the job done, with summer afternoons averaging 85°F. It runs hard for four months, then sits idle the rest of the year.
That kind of stop and start takes a toll. The compressor and the capacitor that helps start it are usually the first to show wear, and a weak capacitor often means the unit hums but the fan won't turn. Storms add to the load too. Philadelphia County has logged 151 damaging wind events and 16 hail events over the past ten years, and wind-driven debris against the outdoor unit can bend the fins or foul the fan before summer even gets going.
- 4 months
- June through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 85°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 16 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 151 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $30 a year off cooling for a typical Philadelphia County home.
Estimates for a typical Philadelphia County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Pennsylvania 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.
Pennsylvania requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration puts the business on file with the state. Nobody tested the contractor's work and no license backs it up. Philadelphia cannot layer its own HVAC license on top, so the registration is the whole of it here.
For an air conditioner repair, the protection that matters most is federal. Anyone who opens the refrigerant side of your system, to recover it, recharge it, or fix a leak, has to hold EPA Section 608 certification, and that rule applies the same in Philadelphia as anywhere else in the country. Pennsylvania's registration does not test for that. The certification is what says this person is allowed to handle the refrigerant in your unit at all.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- The most common cause is a dirty air filter choking off airflow across the coil. When that coil can't get enough air moving through it, it can ice over and blow room-temperature air instead of cold air. A low refrigerant charge from a leak causes the same thing, so does a failing compressor. Check the filter first, and if it's clean, a contractor needs to check the refrigerant charge and the compressor.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Most of the time this means the condensate drain line is clogged and water is backing up instead of draining outside. Algae and dust build up in that line over a cooling season and block it. A frozen coil that then thaws can also dump more water than the drain pan and line are built to handle at once. A contractor can clear the line or find out if the coil itself is icing up and why.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat batteries and the breaker for the outdoor unit, since both are common causes and both are easy to check. If those are fine, the capacitor that starts the compressor may have failed, or a safety switch has shut the system down to protect it. Any of these takes a contractor to diagnose safely, since testing a capacitor or a safety switch means opening the unit.