Your air conditioner works by removing heat and humidity from your indoor spaces and transferring it to the outside. The chemical that facilitates this transfer is refrigerant. Unbeknownst to a lot of homeowners is the fact that every single air conditioner has to have an exact amount of refrigerant to operate correctly. There is no set standard for this as each manufacturer determines what this amount is according to the the design of the unit. What does this mean for you? This means that if a refrigerant leak develops with your system, it won’t have the necessary amount of refrigerant to run as it should. However, there are some telltale signs that indicate a refrigerant leak has developed in your system, and the experts at DB Heating & Cooling would like to share these with you:
Sign #1: Your AC blows warm air.
When refrigerant removes heat from your home, it releases it in one area of your system and then cools in another. If the level of refrigerant is imbalanced due to a leak, the heat won’t release properly, causing warm air to blow into your home instead of cool air.
Sign #2: You hear a bubbling or hissing sound.
The refrigerant in your system is under pressure. When a leak develops, air escapes with the liquid, and as the air passes through the leak, it can cause the refrigerant to bubble and/or make a hissing sound.
Sign #3: There’s ice on your AC.
It can be a strange site, particularly in the middle of summer, but ice can form on your AC and is most likely the result of a refrigerant leak. Ice forms because of the imbalance caused by the leak: the warm parts of the system get too hot while the cool parts stay too cold. Condensation forms and quickly freezes, creating an ice build-up.
Refrigerant leaks are hard to find and anyone handling refrigerant must be certified to do so. If you suspect you may have a refrigerant leak in your system, call our experts today and schedule a repair appointment for your home in Emerson, NJ.