AC Compressor Repairing

How to Repair an AC Compressor

With the official end of winter having just passed, you’re probably looking forward to warmer temperatures. Being able to turn off your furnace and save on your energy bills for a while is a relief, right?

Of course, you’ll soon need to turn your attention to your air conditioner. If you want those bills to be manageable, then it’s important to ensure that your cooling system is in the best shape possible. So if you have compressor damage, it’s best to have it taken care of ASAP.

In today’s blog post, we’re going to tell you how to repair an AC compress—wait. We want to be able to help you as much as possible. So we can’t give you DIY tips when it comes to your compressor. This will only leave you with potentially more damage, costlier repairs, and potentially even injuries.

“So, What Do I Do When I Have Compressor Damage?”

Call our team! We are happy to help. The thing about compressor damage that too few homeowners realize is that repair isn’t always feasible. In most cases, actually, it makes more sense to replace your entire air conditioner.

Why is this? Well, because the compressor of your air conditioner is the most expensive part of your air conditioner. And unless the system has a manufacturer defect, chances are compressor damage won’t occur until your air conditioner is pretty old. At 10-15 years old, it’s time to start considering a replacement system anyway, and putting a new compressor in an old system can likely leave you with more expenses than necessary.

“What Causes a Compressor to Fail?”

There are a few different possibilities. The first possible reason is that your air conditioner doesn’t have the right level of refrigerant in it. Upon manufacturing, cooling systems are supplied with enough refrigerant to ideally last their entire lifetime. When an AC is given refrigerant, it’s called its refrigerant charge.

Though rare, an air conditioner can have too much refrigerant, or it was incorrectly charged to begin with. A little less rare is a refrigerant leak. Refrigerant leaks occur when cooling systems—typically aging units—accumulate small holes or damage to the refrigerant line.

This causes your air conditioner to behave inefficiently, and it exacerbates wear and tear on the compressor. The refrigerant process can snowball—pun not intended—into another problem: frozen coils. If your coils freeze over, it prevents them from absorbing heat to do their job, which also puts stress on the compressor.

One final potential cause of compressor damage is contamination. Oil leaks or oil pump failures can cause oil to go into places it’s not supposed to be, including the compressor. Other contaminants include air, moisture, and dirt. The only thing that should pass through your compressor is refrigerant.