How often do air conditioning units need to be charged with freon?
Question:
We have been having terrible problems with our central air conditioning unit. Our house is about 8 years old and we have a zone system (separate heating and cooling thermostats for upstairs and downstairs). For the past 2 years the unit is not cooling the house properly (heating works fine). We had the dampers replaced 2 years ago and I know the dampers are fine. We have had several repair technicians look at the unit. They always recharge the unit with more Freon (3 times in 1 summer) after claiming to fix a leak. This past weekend again a repair person claimed that we had an internal leak in the unit. He said that he had plugged the leak and then he charged the unit with Freon. Not only did this not work (our house continued to get hotter from 73F to 85F while AC was running all day) the pipe coming from the unit outside our house was all frozen over with ice (all the way to where the insulation started).
Any suggestions or help will be appreciated. Thank you.
Reply:
Your A/C unit is a SEALED system. That means that if the system is leaking then there is a need to get a COMPETENT A/C technician to troubleshoot the problem, find where the leak originates and repair it.
Your main problem is that you are using people who do not know what they are really doing and I am sorry to say that these cowboys drag the reputation of the industry down.
At some point you will have to decide whether to keep using the people who have returned and not repaired your machine …and… finding a really good technician who can genuinely fix your machine. All I can say is good luck because these guys are as rare as hens teeth and if you find one you want to keep their details and pass them on to close family and friends.
They might charge more for their time but they are worth every cent because they will get the job done right first time.
Sorry if I sound a little harsh but I have no time for so called A/C technicians who cannot do their job properly – good luck!