Your air conditioner’s refrigerant is essential to your HVAC system’s performance as it helps your system absorb heat and transfer it outdoors. Since AC refrigerant has to stay at exact levels to work properly, low air conditioner refrigerant levels can reduce your AC’s efficiency and cooling abilities. If you want to ensure your AC is always working at peak efficiency, learn more about why you shouldn’t usually need to refill your AC’s refrigerant and the top signs that your AC is low on refrigerant.
When your air conditioner is working correctly, you should never need to refill your AC refrigerant. While you might lose a marginal amount of refrigerant throughout the life of your AC, it’s usually not enough to require any refills.
Since refrigerant should never need to be refilled, low AC refrigerant is usually the result of a leak or some other damage to your AC. Knowing the main signs of low refrigerant can help you catch issues with your AC early and ensure your HVAC system is working at its best. Learn more about the top 5 signs of low air conditioning refrigerant below:
One of the telltale signs of low refrigerant levels is if you can see ice building up on your outside unit’s refrigerant levels or the inside unit’s evaporator coil. This ice formation is usually due to leaking refrigerant, as reduced refrigerant levels will cause your refrigerant’s temperature to drop and ice to build up on your refrigerant lines and evaporator coil. An HVAC inspection can reveal if this ice is due to low refrigerant levels or another issue, such as closed vents or a dirty air filter.
If your HVAC system takes forever to cool your home to your desired temperature, you may have a refrigerant leak. Since refrigerant is responsible for absorbing heat, low levels of it will cause your system to have to work longer and harder to remove heat from your home and replace it with cool air. When you notice it’s taking hours to change the temperature in your home, you should immediately contact an HVAC technician to inspect your system and see if your AC’s refrigerant is at fault.
Alongside causing your AC to take longer to cool your home, low AC refrigerant can cause your system to blow warm air out of your vents. If your refrigerant levels are low, your AC won’t be able to absorb heat, resulting in warmer air. Any time the air blowing from your vents feels consistently warmer than it should, you’ll need a full inspection from an HVAC technician.
Since low refrigerant levels can cause your AC to perform inefficiently and use more energy to cool your home, reduced refrigerant can cause your energy bills to spike. Without enough heat transfer from your refrigerant, your AC will need to work harder and stay on longer to lower the temperature. While higher energy bills can be due to other issues, such as an aging AC system, a dirty air filter, or an improperly sized unit, an HVAC technician can find the source of the problem and help you reduce your energy bills.
When you can hear a bubbling or a hissing noise coming from your HVAC system’s condenser, you probably have a refrigerant leak. Bubbling noises are a clear sign the refrigerant is leaking in a liquid form, and hissing noises indicate your refrigerant is leaving your unit in a gas form. To prevent additional damage or reduced performance from a leak, it’s important to contact an HVAC technician as soon as you hear either of these noises.
If you think you might have low AC refrigerant and are looking for AC repair near you in Concord or the surrounding areas, Big Air has you covered. When you notice any of the signs above, our team can inspect your system and find out if low AC refrigerant is to blame. Next, we’ll provide any needed repairs and refill your refrigerant to get your system back up and running. Our partnership with Bonney also means we can provide several coupons and financing options to ensure our services fit your budget.
Learn more about our AC repair services today. If you have any questions or want to schedule an appointment, please contact us online or call us at 925.687.7942 .
