{"id":470,"date":"2020-08-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/?p=470"},"modified":"2020-08-07T10:35:02","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T14:35:02","slug":"should-add-more-refrigerant-to-my-ac-midsummer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/air-conditioning-service\/should-add-more-refrigerant-to-my-ac-midsummer\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I Add More Refrigerant to My AC Midsummer?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"air-conditioner-evaporator-coil\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is a common question people have regarding their air\nconditioning systems. The simple answer is no<\/em>. But we need to explain the\nanswer because the question comes from a major misunderstanding about how air\nconditioning systems operate. Amateurs and shady contractors can use this\nmisunderstanding to sell people on services they don\u2019t need and which can damage\ntheir air conditioning systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have plenty more to say about why adding<\/em> refrigerant\nto an air conditioner is only done as a repair, not as a routine service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

An Air Conditioner Does Not Use Up Refrigerant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The important fact: An air conditioner does not consume refrigerant the way it consumes a fuel source, and therefore under normal circumstances, there\u2019s no need to put more refrigerant into an AC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who tells you that an air conditioner\u2019s refrigerant\nneeds to be \u201ctopped off\u201d or \u201crefilled\u201d is not telling you the truth. If more\nrefrigerant is put into an air conditioner that hasn\u2019t lost any refrigerant to\nleaks, it will cause the AC to lose cooling power and the compressor to eventually\nburn out. It\u2019s bad<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Refrigerant Does<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Refrigerant is a heat exchange medium. The chemical blend of\nrefrigerant can move between liquid and gaseous state with minimal energy input.\nAs the refrigerant blend changes between these states, it absorbs heat from\ninside the house and releases it outside. This process of evaporation and condensation\nmaintains the same amount of refrigerant; none of it dissipates. The amount of\nrefrigerant in an air conditioning system when it is installed (known as the\nunit\u2019s charge<\/em>) will remain the same for the system\u2019s lifespan. With one\nimportant exception \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refrigerant Leaks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An air conditioner\u2019s copper refrigerant lines can develop\nleaks, and so can a few other key components. Refrigerant leaks are a major\nrepair issue. If the charge of an AC declines, the pressure throughout the\nsystem drops. This hurts the AC\u2019s cooling capacity. Worse, it endangers the\ncompressor, putting it at a higher and higher risk of overheating until it\nburns out. It\u2019s not a case of if<\/em> but when<\/em> refrigerant leaks will\ncause a complete air conditioning system breakdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the only time where an AC technician must add\nrefrigerant to an air conditioner. The technician first locates the leaks and\nseals them to stop further loss. Then the technician recharges the unit with\nthe proper refrigerant blend to restore the AC\u2019s refrigerant pressure to factory-set\nlevels. This is critical, since too<\/em> much refrigerant in the air conditioner\nis as harmful as too little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have reason to believe your AC has lost refrigerant, call for air conditioning repair in Phoenixville, PA<\/a> from our technicians. Signs to watch for include a loss of cooling power around the house, hissing sounds from anywhere in the indoor or outdoor units, a rise in indoor humidity, or ice appearing along the evaporator coil. Other malfunctions may create these troubles, but these malfunctions also must have repairs done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michall Daimion Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. is your go-to HVAC pros serving the main line. Contact us for AC repair\u201424 hours a day.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have plenty more to say about why adding refrigerant to an air conditioner is only done as a repair, not as a routine service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[90,94],"class_list":["post-470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-conditioning-service","tag-air-conditioning-system-repair","tag-phoenixville"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":475,"href":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470\/revisions\/475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daimion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}