4 Ways An Air Conditioning Repair Technician Can Troubleshoot Your AC
If your air conditioner stops working, you may wonder what to do. If you're not mechanically inclined, you may not know anything at all about AC equipment, and you may fear you'll have an expensive repair bill. The first steps are things you can do yourself, such as check the circuit breaker and turn it back on if needed, check the filter and change it if necessary, and make sure the AC unit and registers in your home are not blocked since adequate airflow is essential for proper operation of your air conditioner. If these things check out okay, then call an air conditioning repair service for help. Here's how they can troubleshoot your system and pinpoint the problem.
1. Check For Error Codes
If your equipment displays error codes when the AC malfunctions, the repair technician can check these and be led to the area where the problem could be located. Error codes aren't universal, so if you want to check them yourself, you'll need your owner's manual, or you can look them up online. Error codes can help the technician know where to start troubleshooting your system.
2. Use Tools To Check Parts
An air conditioning repair technician can use a multimeter for a number of things. This tool can check individual parts for continuity, and if there is no continuity, it means the part is bad. They can also use a multimeter to track the flow of electricity and low voltage through the system to find out where power is lost. Another important tool for air conditioning diagnostics is the refrigerant pressure gauge. This gauge is used to find out if refrigerant has leaked out of the system.
3. Consider The Symptoms
If your AC is still running, the repair technician may tell if the problem is in the air handler or the condenser by feeling the air coming out of the registers. If airflow is low, they may suspect a problem with the air handler first. The problem might be with the blower or restricted airflow. However, the problem might also be a leak in the ducts.
If the air isn't cool enough, the problem may be in the condenser or with the refrigerant lines and coils. If your air conditioning isn't working at all, the repair technician may consider an electrical problem or an activated safety switch.
4 Do A Visual Inspection
Sometimes, it's possible to tell a part is bad just by its appearance. A contactor or capacitor may look damaged when it's bad. Damage isn't always obvious though, so testing with a multimeter is needed if the part is suspected of being bad. The air conditioning repair technician can visually inspect the thermostat and wiring, blower, evaporator coil, condensation drain, condenser parts, fuses, circuit breaker, and ducts to look for abnormalities that could be clues to the problem with your air conditioner.
For more info about air conditioning, contact a local company.
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