Is Your Air Conditioner Running but Not Blowing Cold Air?

Flipping the switch to turn on your air conditioner can be a sign that welcome relief is on the way, but when your system turns on and fails to deliver the cool and refreshing air you’re counting on, frustration can set in pretty quickly. What can cause this to happen? Does that mean your air conditioner has given out for good? Well you might be surprised to learn there are actually many different reasons this can happen, and fortunately some of them don’t require an extensive repair.

On this blog, we’ll explore just a few of the reasons why your air conditioner may not be producing any cold air and talk about how you can fix it.

Broken Compressor

Your air conditioner is full of important components, but there are perhaps none more important than your expansion chamber and your compressor. Your compressor has the important job of making your refrigerant absorb heat by compressing it into a high-pressure gas. When your compressor breaks, the refrigerant can’t absorb high amounts of heat, which prevents it from being cooled by your outdoor coils, and thus negates the role of the expansion chamber.

Usually a broken compressor is accompanied by an immense noise, such as a screeching or grinding. However, a trained McKinney air conditioning professional can truly help you identify if this is the true source of your problem.

Refrigerant Leak/Low Refrigerant Levels

Your air conditioner works by circulating a fluid known as refrigerant through a closed system. This fluid is extremely good at absorbing and transferring heat, allowing it to both retain or give off heat easily, which makes your system more efficient. Your system needs to be full of this fluid within a certain range in order for your compressor and expansion chambers to sustain an appropriate amount of pressure. If there’s a leak, even a small one, the pressure will slowly recede, which means your system won’t be able to sustain the refrigerant flow, which will stop your system from cooling your home.

An air conditioning repair professional has the tools that can detect leaks in your refrigerant lines and even pinpoint the location of the leak so you can get it repaired quickly and effectively. In some cases these repairs are simple, but in others they could require a pretty substantial amount of work.

Dirty Outdoor Unit

Your outdoor unit is where your system takes the heat it has absorbed inside your home and releases it into the air outside (which is why the air that comes out of your outdoor unit’s fan feels warm or even hot to the touch). This means your outdoor unit’s cooling fans need to be free from debris, in good condition, and the unit itself needs to be clear of obstructions that can limit air flow. If your system seems to be incapable of producing cool air, it might be because your outdoor unit isn’t getting the airflow necessary to cool the refrigerant and dispel the heat it has absorbed from inside your home.

Usually this is pretty simple to fix: simply sweep away any dust or debris that may have accumulated around your outdoor unit, and trim away any plants or hedges that may have grown to within a three-foot perimeter around it. If that still hasn’t fixed the issue, call a professional to have them inspect your outdoor unit—your coil may need cleaned and your cooling fins may need to be straightened out with the use of a specialized tool called a fin comb.