Living in a beautiful area like Oahu is something that many Americans dream of. However, it might not always feel like a dream to the residents of the island. When you live in a tropical climate like Hawaii, air conditioning in your home or business is a must. If your AC unit stops working it can make your life miserable. That is why air conditioning repair in Hawaii is so incredibly important. Making sure that your home or your business is back to being a comfortable place is crucial. The only problem is that in a climate like ours there are so many reasons why your AC unit or your split AC in Hawaii might not be working and needs to be repaired.

How Do You Know If Your Honolulu AC Needs To be Repaired?

Knowing when your AC needs to be repaired versus replaced is not something you can diagnose on your own. There are many things that may or may not be wrong with your HVAC unit and you may not even know something needs to be repaired. Often times you can run your air conditioner all summer while something needs repaired and not even notice problems with your AC until the following year.

One of the biggest problems with technology is that you can’t always see when something is wrong. That is why it is always a good idea to have regular preventative maintenance done on your AC to prevent costly repairs.

What Are Some Signs That Your Air Conditioner Needs Repairing?

A big sign that your AC needs repairing is if you go to turn on your AC and notice no cool air coming out. Funny noises coming from your indoor air conditioner or anything else out of the usual may also be a reason to give us a call.

Since your air conditioner is not running throughout the entire year, the chemical fluid inside of your AC called refrigerant has time to sit and congeal. When that happens, your unit may run a little sluggish the first time you turn it on for the year. When it takes a while to kick in, you may not feel immediate cool air when you place your hand up to the AC. For the first time running your AC in the year, this is perfectly normal. This type of sluggish start is similar to when you run your air conditioner in your vehicle.

Once you start your car up and turn the air conditioner on, it will start blowing out hot air. The compressor then kicks into gear and starts pulling refrigerant through your vehicle’s AC. The longer the compressor runs, the more air begins to cool. This is true for your home or office’s air conditioner.

Types of Air Conditioner Malfunctions

When it comes to air conditioners, there are really only two types of problems that could cause it to run poorly or not at all. Those two problems are mechanical and electrical. Mechanical and electrical malfunctions can be easy and affordable to fix or may require you to replace your air conditioner entirely.

Common Mechanical Air Conditioner Repairs in Honolulu

One of the main issues air conditioners have is low refrigerant in the coils. Low refrigerant is something that happens over time and is completely normal. However, sometimes there may be a leak in one of the lines or coils themselves. This, unfortunately, is a lot harder to fix. Instead of just refilling your AC with refrigerant, it is now necessary to find and repair the air conditioner leak.

Another big issue that causes your air conditioner to randomly shut off, is a blocked condenser fan. The condenser fan is the fan on your outdoor coil that blows the hot air out of your home or office and into the outside air. When this fan gets blocked, the hot air has nowhere to go. When this happens, your air conditioner will eventually overheat and shut off to prevent any damage to your AC. Unfortunately, blocked condenser fans happen all of the time. It is one of the most common issues you will see when your AC just shuts off when it is not supposed to.

Before you call a technician, go outside and make sure your outdoor air conditioning fan is not obstructed by anything. If nothing is blocking the fan, overheating may not be the problem.

If you have a duct based system, another type of blockage may be causing your unit to power down prematurely. Part of a duct based air conditioner is the return duct. This return duct is where an indoor fan is located as well as your air filter. This indoor fan pulls air from inside your house, blows the air out over the evaporator coil to remove heat, and displaces the cold air back into your home or office while the hot air travels out to the condenser coil to be blown outside.

If your return duct is covered up by something where air cannot get through, this kind of blockage will cause your unit to shut off in order to protect the AC from overheating or freezing. If you have a return duct and air filter in your home, make sure the outside and inside of the return is not blocked.

Like the inside of the return, another common blockage at the return is your air filter. Make sure your air filter is clean and free of obstruction. Replaceable air filters should be replaced at least every 30 to 90 days. If you have animals, you may want to change these even more frequently.

Common Electrical Air Conditioner Repairs On Oahu

A majority of the time, your air conditioner may not work due to the above blockages we spoke about. However, sometimes there may be an electrical issue to blame for the lack of cool air in your space.

Some common electrical problems include faulty wiring, old wiring, overloaded circuit breakers, and blower fan issues just to name a few. Electrical issues (other than overloaded circuit breakers) tend not to be an issue. Mechanical failures are much more prevalent and a lot of electrical issues can be prevented by maintaining your AC unit and keeping it free of any mechanical blockages or failures.

The Big Three Reasons Your AC Might Not be Working

Air Filter:

One of the most common reasons your air conditioner might stop working is because of the filter. Just as filters do they filter out dust and dirt from the air that is circulating throughout the unit. The only problem is that it means they can become dirty and clogged. This is truly an easy situation and can be fixed by simply cleaning out the filter. Depending on who makes the filter it may need to be cleaned out or replaced once a month or every 3 months. So knowing what make and model of AC unit that you have will determine when the filter needs to be cleaned or changed.

Air Conditioner Refrigerant:

Another very common issue that you can have with your AC unit is refrigerant leaks. These can occur either as a quick and large leak which are easy to diagnose or as a very small and slow leak which can make it more difficult for homeowners to notice. Depending on where the leak is occurring can have an effect on the cost of the ac repair.

AC Compressor:

One of the more serious problems that we see for AC repair in Oahu is the compressor. In most other parts of the US, the weather gets to be cold in the fall and winter months which means for about half of the year their air conditioning units are not being used. However, in our tropical climate, we tend to get use out of our AC units year-round. This extra use also means more problems. When it comes to AC repair in Honolulu the compressor can start to go out. The more stress we put on the compressor with year-round use means that it has a higher chance of failing.

Hawaii Solar Energy Air Conditioning Solutions

With our solar panel, a lot of the stress on your air conditioners compressor as well as the rest of the entire system can be reduced. Our solar panel will help not only with reducing your AC and energy costs by up to 50% but can help reduce the amount of air conditioner repairs you will need in the future.

There are many reasons why you might need air conditioner repair in Oahu Hawaii. CoolXEnergy and our dedicated team of HVAC experts are ready to help you fix whatever problems you may be having with your AC unit or your split AC in Hawaii. Contact us for more information either by filling out a form on our contact us page or by calling us directly at (808) 202-8436. CoolXEnergy is here to help you.