Some people mistakenly believe that you need to add refrigerant to an air conditioner the same way that you need to add gas to your car. This is especially true for homeowners who might have been working with unqualified air conditioning contractors. To break this common misconception, today we’re going to talk about when it’s necessary to recharge your home’s air conditioner and why it should only be done by a qualified contractor!
Your air conditioner should always maintain the same refrigerant levels
Unlike adding gas to your car, you do not need to regularly add refrigerant to your air conditioner to keep it running. Your air conditioner always has the same amount of refrigerant when it’s running properly!
You see, refrigerant is cycled between the indoor and outdoor portions of your air conditioner. It is converted from a liquid to a gas and back again to remove heat from your home, but it is not “used up” in the process.
When is it necessary to recharge your home’s air conditioner with refrigerant?
In general, there are only two reasons why you’d need to recharge your air conditioner with refrigerant:
- Your air conditioner was undercharged, to begin with. If your air conditioner was recently installed or refrigerant was recently added because of a leak (below), it’s possible that your contractor did not add the proper amount of refrigerant for your system.
- You have a refrigerant leak. Refrigerant leaks can develop when there is an opening somewhere in your system’s refrigerant lines. When this happens, the leak will first have to be patched up so that the system does not continue to lose refrigerant. After that leak has been fixed, the system can be recharged.
Another reason why it’s important to work with a trusted contractor
The two scenarios listed above highlight why it’s so important to always work with a trusted and qualified contractor like Jerry Kelly Heating, Air Conditioning & Electrical. Unfortunately, many low-quality contractors do not know how to properly charge a system with refrigerant, and some contractors will simply add more refrigerant to a leaking system without actually fixing the leak!
You can trust that the installers and technicians at Jerry Kelly Heating, Air Conditioning & Electrical will always properly charge and recharge your system, and we will fix refrigerant leaks the right way so that they don’t continue to cause problems and cost you money in the future.
If you have any questions about when to recharge your home’s air conditioner, or if you’d like a cooling system serviced or installed in your home, contact Jerry Kelly Heating, Air Conditioning & Electrical, your St. Louis air conditioning contractor. We service the St. Louis area, including towns like Ballwin, Chesterfield, and Clarkson Valley, MO.
photo credit: Jinx! via photopin cc
