AC Repair in Show Low, AZ
Air conditioners here run from June through August. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Navajo County will get in touch.
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Three months of heat, then hail and wind
Show Low only needs cooling three months a year, but June through August, afternoons average 88°F and your air conditioner has to run hard to keep up. A unit that sits idle most of the year and then gets asked for full output in summer is the one where a weak capacitor or a low refrigerant charge shows up fast. You will notice it as air that is not as cold as it should be, or a compressor that hums but will not start.
Navajo County has logged 16 hail events and 162 damaging wind events over the last ten years, with hail up to 2.75 inches. Hail that size can dent or puncture the thin aluminum fins on your outdoor unit's coil, and wind can pelt it with debris or rock the unit on its pad. Either one restricts airflow across the coil, and the system starts working harder to move the same amount of heat.
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 88°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 16 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 162 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would save little on running costs in Navajo County, so the repair decision comes down to the unit's condition.
Estimates for a typical Navajo County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Arizona fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when a part like a capacitor or contactor has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the compressor has failed or the system uses R-22 refrigerant, which is no longer made.
Arizona requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Registrar of Contractors tests contractors before they get a license, then keeps a record of who holds one. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same license covers the repair on your air conditioner and whatever other HVAC work that contractor takes on.
Because your air conditioner has refrigerant in it, whoever opens that side of the system also needs EPA Section 608 certification, the same federal rule that applies in every state. In Arizona that certification sits alongside the state license rather than in place of it. Between the two, a contractor working on your unit has been tested by the state and certified by the federal government for the refrigerant work itself.
Sources: Arizona State Legislature · Arizona Registrar of Contractors
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most of the time it is a dirty filter choking off airflow, or the outdoor unit is dirty and can't shed heat. Low refrigerant from a leak is another common cause, and that one needs a licensed contractor to find and seal. If the air coming out is warm rather than weak, check the thermostat setting first since that's the simplest thing to rule out.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The drain line that carries condensation away from your indoor unit is probably clogged. That line grows algae over time just like a shower drain does, and once it backs up the water has nowhere to go but out. A frozen evaporator coil can cause the same thing when it thaws, so if the leak showed up after the system was blowing warm air, that's likely the reason.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat batteries and the breaker panel, since both are easy to check and both are common culprits. If those are fine, the outdoor unit's capacitor may have failed, which is a quick fix for a licensed contractor. With 162 damaging wind events here over the past ten years, a tripped breaker after a storm is worth checking before anything else.