7 Ways Homeowners Might Be Causing Their Own Air Conditioner Problems

Your air conditioner works hard all summer long to keep you and your house cool. But it’s possible you could be doing things to prevent it from peak performance--or even causing it to break down. Check out the following things you can easily do to give your air conditioner a hand and possibly even a longer lease on life!

1. OUTSIDE AC UNIT NOT CLEAR OF OBSTRUCTIONS

First of all, if your outside air conditioning unit was covered for the winter, make sure to uncover it before turning it on. Otherwise, you can cause a lot of unnecessary strain on the unit. Also, it’s important to keep the outside A/C unit clear of any obstructions such as trees, bushes, weeds, tools, and anything else to allow proper airflow to the unit. You should be sure to maintain 12-24” clearance around the unit.

AC problems - Outside AC Unit Not Clear of Obstructions

2. DIRTY AIR FILTER

3. CLOSED VENTS IN ROOMS OF THE HOUSE

Many people think that closing vents in certain areas of the house will save energy or make other areas with open vents cooler. However, that really isn’t the case. It actually makes your AC work harder than it should and can cause circulation problems. A closed system has the same amount of air coming and going; closed vents simply restrict air flow.

AC problems - Closed Vents in Rooms of the House

4. BLOCKED SUPPLY VENTS OR RETURN AIR VENTS

Besides furniture or rugs placed over air vents, clothes, books, bean bags, stuffed animals or countless other items can also block air flow to supply or return vents. It’s best to keep items clear of the supply vents to allow the air to circulate properly throughout your home.

AC problems - Blocked Supply Vents or Return Air Vents

5. DEAD THERMOSTAT BATTERIES

Changing the batteries in your thermostat is an easy way to ensure that the program settings you have put into your thermostat stay consistent.

6. FORGETTING TO CHANGE HEAT TO COOL SETTING ON THERMOSTAT

In moving from winter to summer, it’s easy to forget this easy, little switch. If you don’t change your thermostat to the cool setting from the heat, your A/C system may not kick on--so you may think it’s not working properly.

AC problems - Forgetting to Change Heat to Cool Setting on Thermostat

7. INCORRECT PROGRAMMING ON THERMOSTAT

Double check your thermostat program settings to make sure it is where you want it to be. If you find yourself having to manually adjust your thermostat, think about changing your thermostat settings. As an example, if it’s programmed for 72, but you’re more comfortable at 68 and you are manually adjusting it often and becoming frustrated that it doesn’t stay where you want it to, you may think it isn’t working properly when it actually is doing what it’s programmed to do.

AC problems - Incorrect Programming On Thermostat

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

7 Things Homeowners Do To Cause Air Conditioner Problems

Have you ever experienced your AC not cooling or maybe you’ve had to call a repairman for some air conditioner troubleshooting help. Well, in this video we’ll talk about 7 things homeowners do to cause problems with their air conditioners...even though they might seem obvious, HVAC companies get called out all the time for an AC not cooling and find out sometimes it’s one of these...come on.

Bet you didn’t even realize you might be causing your own Air Conditioner problems. If nothing else, I hope this video can educate you just a little bit on some simple AC Troubleshooting steps you can try next time your AC not cooling.

In real estate they say the most important thing is location location location. Well when it comes to your Air Conditioner, the most important thing is air flow, air flow, air flow. You know in real estate they say the most important thing is location location location. Well when it comes to your Air Conditioner, the most important thing is air flow, air flow, air flow ….sorry, Deja vu. In the video about how an air conditioner works I said this -- (clip of the end of how an air conditioner works video). “So how do air conditioners work..well there’s a lot of moving parts and pieces, even more than we’ve got time to show in this video. But they all have to be working together in order to get cool air in your home. And if even one of them stops working, you could experience a variety of problems. The end result usually being no cold air. (in unison) and nobody wants that in the middle of the summer” We had a cool illustration that showed how everything works, whatever. If you want to watch it, just click right here.

So these 7 things that homeowners can do to cause air conditioner problems they can be broken down into 2 main categories; air flow and communication.

I think we’ll start with air flow.

At the outdoor or condensing unit, you want to make sure you uncover the unit if you covered it for the winter. If you’ve got bushes or shrubs close by, keep them trimmed back at least 12-24 inches. Keep the top cleared as well. (Star Wars animation) -- Get it? Protected air space. Ugh, nevermind.

The system pulls cooler air in over the coils to help dissipate the heat that the refrigerant just extracted from the home. Then the warm air is exhausted out of the top. If either one of those is obstructed, you just might end up with an AC not cooling.

Now inside...make sure you know where your air filter is. Depending on where you live around the country it might be at the furnace,it could be in a return air vent. Just know where yours is and be sure to check it every month, replace it as needed. I can’t stress this enough, this is one of the easiest and also one of the most neglected maintenance items there is, not because we mean to neglect it, but because it’s so freakin’ easy to forget about it. So, set a calendar event or maybe have your phone remind you to check it...Matter of fact, Hey Siri, Remind me to check my filter every month. [Siri] - OK I’ll start reminding you ...Imagine that - it worked!

I’ve also thought about setting something up where homeowners could opt into receiving a text message every month to remind them to check their filters. Pretty cool huh? Do me a favor if this is something you would find helpful, leave a comment below and let us know.

Anyway, if you neglect to check your filter and keep it clean you could end up with your ac not cooling.

This next one surprised most people when they hear it for the first time. You know those rooms in the house that you’re not using anymore so you close the doors and the vents because you think it’s going to save energy by not heating and cooling them? Hate to burst your bubble, it could be having the opposite effect.

It creates a negative pocket of pressure that… you know what, trust me, it just doesn’t help the way that you think If you want some light reading we put a link in the description below to this 74-page report by Berkeley Laboratories that explains in excruciating detail, more than you’d ever want to know on the subject.

What about the ones that you’re accidentally covering with furniture or rugs? Whether intentional the effects are the same. So keep your supply vents and your return air vents as clear from obstructions as possible.

Category 2 - Communication. Just another way to talk about your thermostat really.

Now the thermostat is what reads the temperature in the living area of the home and then tells the air conditioner when it's getting too warm. There are a few things that can actually interfere with that communication. When this happens you may think your air conditioner is not working. but really it just never got the message to turn on.

Here are a few things that you want to check at the thermostat.

Now, most thermostats have batteries, so see if you can pop it off the wall and change the batteries.

Make sure to change the thermostat from heat to cool. If you forget to do this, you might be trying to get colder temperatures, but if your thermostat is set to heat it will never send the message to turn the air on because it thinks it’s doing what it's supposed to.

Now the last one, double-check the programming on the thermostat. Let me try to explain.

Let’s say you’ve programmed your thermostat to 72 degrees, indicated by the red dotted line. But you’re most comfortable at 68 degrees, indicated by the blue dotted line.

When 72 degrees gets too warm, you go to the thermostat and manually lower it to 68. It gets cooler and you feel better. But your thermostat is designed to “time out” if you will and return to the original programming set at 72 degrees. Then you get too warm and you manually go and adjust it to 68 degrees again...and so on and so on and so on.

It’s easy to see why someone might think their Air Conditioner isn't working properly if they’re constantly having to manually adjust the thermostat. So, if you are constantly having to adjust yours, double check the programmed settings to make sure it’s a temperature you’re comfortable with. This will minimize the need to manually change it.

Well there you have it, the 7 things homeowners do to cause their own air conditioner problems. I hope this information saves you from having to call a technician out for help. But don’t forget your AC system has lots of moving parts and pieces. So if it wasn’t one of these it may have been something else. If you’ve tried these steps and you still find yourself with an AC not cooling and you have to get some Air Conditioner troubleshooting help, whether it’s a neighbor or an Air Conditioning Company, make sure they are a Certified HVAC technician - NATE certified if possible. They should be able to get you up and going again pretty.

If you’ve found this video helpful and entertaining, give us a thumbs up. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about how your electrical, plumbing, heating, or air conditioner systems work in your home, leave your suggestions in the comments below.

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Have a great day and thanks for watching.

* https://www.angieslist.com/articles/does-shutting-furnace-vents-improve-energy-efficiency.htm
* http://epb.lbl.gov/publications/pdf/lbnl-54005.pdf

Jun 29th 2021

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