Is Hot Air Coming From Your AC? Learn the Reasons Today

The arrival of summer means there are longer, more carefree days. But it can also mean some heat and humidity, which is pleasant for outdoor activities but, can be tough deal with.

Luckily, this is where modern technology like central air conditioning steps in. Except of course, if you check the vents in your home, and you feel hot air coming out.

Clearly, something has gone wrong, but what? Here are a few possibilities.

The Condenser Is Not Getting Power

There are two major pieces of hardware to central air conditioning; the furnace in your home, and the condenser just outside it.

Even if your furnace isn’t warming your home because it’s not winter, the fan inside it is still doing work, pumping air through vents.

However, it needs to get that cold air from the condenser outside.

If you feel warm air coming through the vents, this means the furnace fan is doing its job, but the condenser is not.

Check your condenser to see if the fan is working.

If it’s not, and you’ve had a power surge recently, you should check your circuit breaker.

The switch for your AC may need to be reset.

If the switch is in the off position, just flip it back to the on position and your problem should be solved.

But if the condenser is a model with its own fuses, they may need to be replaced.

You May Be Losing Refrigerant

Air conditioners work largely thanks to a class of chemicals the industry refers to as refrigerants. A refrigerant acts in a very specific, useful way.

By changing its physical state from liquid into gas, the reaction draws away all the heat, leaving only cold air. Air conditioners rely on this phenomenon.

Under normal circumstances, you don’t have to worry about refrigerant running “out,” like gasoline since it’s not being burned up as fuel, just changing from liquid to gas and back again.

But if you get a mechanical defect, or a break in your system that pierces the area where refrigerant is stored, once you leak this out, you lose your ability to cool your home.

The Condenser Has Iced Up

A more surprising—but not that uncommon—sight that might greet you if you go to check your condenser, is that it will look like it’s in the middle of winter, complete with ice and icicles.

Don’t take this to mean that your AC is super-powerful.

It just means that all that cold air that should be leaving your condenser for your home, isn’t.

So while your condenser is producing cold air, there may be something that is blocking the air flow and preventing it from reaching your house.

Because it has nowhere to go, it remains on your condenser, and the deep freeze begins.