When Your Air Conditioner Won't Work

Keepin' It Cold: Why Winter Is The Best Season For You To Have Your Air Conditioner Serviced And Repaired

13 November 2015 by Clara Fernandez

There's a chill in the air. You're thinking about Thanksgiving dinner and getting your Christmas lists ready for Santa. It's a great time to think about . . . air conditioning?

Yep, that's right: Air conditioning installation and repair can typically be done more quickly and cheaply in the winter months. While most HVAC professionals do stay busy in the colder months replacing malfunctioning furnace thermostats and doing heating system repairs, there is usually more time for them to attend to your air conditioning problems. Here's why:

1. Repairs are cheaper.

The average cost to get your air conditioning system repaired was $328 in 2015, but that can range from $79 all the way up to $900. Service calls are on the higher end of this range when it's super hot and every homeowner has been running his or her air conditioning unit nonstop for a few days. Units are much more likely to break down and there are no openings for a repair technician to come out and assess the problem.

On the other hand, in winter, no one's got the AC turned on. So minor repairs, like the ones you've been putting off since summer, are much less expensive to complete.

If you remember observing any of these problems back in August, now is the time to get a technician in to look at your system:

• Reduced amount of cool air.
• Bad smells when your AC runs.
• Clanging or banging noises.
• Water leaks—either indoors or outside.
• Any frost or ice on the unit.
• Odd issues with cycling, where the unit goes off before you're comfortably cool or goes on and off more than usual.

2. Parts are more likely to be in stock.

If your local HVAC repair shop doesn't have them in inventory, the manufacturer certainly will. There's just not as much demand for parts in the winter, so it's a snap to get the right items to you quickly. It may also be possible to save money because your air conditioning repair professionals can shop around to find you the best deal, rather than take whatever they can get the quickest.

And if, for any reason, it does take a few days—or even weeks—to get the right parts, that's okay: You don't need your home cooled right now, anyway.

3. Tune-ups are easier.

You don't have to swelter with your AC off while your technician comes to assess the system, like you would in the summer. A good service call will get your air conditioner all ready to go. That way, you're not among the people who call in June when they first need their homes cooled and find they have to wait for service and repairs.

Plus, if you are considering putting your home on the market in the next year, you'll have a newly serviced and ready-to-be-inspected air conditioning system. You won't have to add that to your list of things to do in order to get the house ready to sell.

So before you research turkey recipes and start testing your holiday lights to make sure they work, do yourself a favor and schedule an air conditioner service call with a company like Elite Heating, Cooling and Plumbing. You'll be able to have repairs made more quickly and easily than waiting until the weather heats up again.

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