AC Repair in Spartanburg, SC
Air conditioners here run from May through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Spartanburg County will get in touch.
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Five months of heat, every year, on your condenser
Spartanburg County asks a lot of an air conditioner. From May through September, with afternoons averaging 88°F, the system runs long hours just to hold a house steady. The compressor and the fan motor outside carry that load, and the heat around them means they never get much of a break to cool down between cycles.
The county has also logged 125 damaging wind events and 53 hail events over the past ten years, with hail up to 3 inches. Wind can bend the thin fins on the outdoor unit or knock debris into it, and hail that size can dent the cabinet or damage the coil underneath. If your air conditioner is blowing warm air, cycling more than it used to, or the outdoor unit looks dinged up after a storm, that combination of long summers and hard weather is usually behind it.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 88°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 53 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 125 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $40 a year off cooling for a typical Spartanburg County home.
Estimates for a typical Spartanburg County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, South Carolina fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when a part like a capacitor or contactor has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the compressor has failed or the system uses R-22 refrigerant, which is no longer made.
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most often the filter is clogged and starving the system of airflow, or the refrigerant level is low from a leak somewhere in the coil or lines. A dirty outdoor unit can cause the same thing, since the coil out there needs open airflow to release the heat it pulls out of your house. With summer afternoons here running near 88°F, a system that's low on refrigerant or short on airflow will struggle for months, not just on the hottest days. A contractor can check the refrigerant charge and find any leak.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The drain line is probably clogged. Your AC pulls moisture out of the air and that water is supposed to run out through a condensate line, and algae or dirt can block that line over a cooling season that runs May through September here. It can also mean the coil itself has frozen and is now melting and overflowing the drain pan, which usually points back to poor airflow or low refrigerant. Either way, water where it shouldn't be means something upstream needs a look.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Check the thermostat batteries and the breaker first, since both are common causes and both are easy to rule out. If those are fine, the capacitor that starts the outdoor unit's motor may have failed, which is a common reason a system goes quiet with no warning. Storms here bring damaging wind fairly often, and a power flicker during one can trip a breaker or stress a capacitor that was already weak. A contractor can test the capacitor and wiring to find the actual point of failure.