Asked by Anonymous - A/c Isn't Cooling : My a/c unit doesnt seem to be cooling my place as it just took 3 hours to drop the temperature 2 degrees!  I'm sure I have to call someone to come out and look at it but does anyone have any idea what the a/c problems could be?

Moderator Says: I can tell you there has been at least 2 times in the past I can think of where my a/c was just circulating hot air :)   This is almost always a "leak" somewhere so you are losing the freon gas (or whatever coolant the a/c uses today as its always changing).  They will have to come out and find it, then replace the copper part. It could be: The coils in the outside unit are leaking gas. The coils on the inside unit are leaking gas. Somewhere your a/c unit has this leaking out, which means its not making the coils cold, which means its not making the air cold that circulates this.  Basically you have to pay them to come out and find it, then also pay them to come out and replace the part thats bad and put more freon gas back into it.  This is never cheap.

Moderator Says: By the way it could also be the actual copper wiring running from your outside unit to your inside unit also has a leak somewhere.  Thats a much bigger issue to find it, but thats also a rare situation because those are normally good for decades.  Thats why when you get a new a/c unit put in they replace the outside a/c unit, the inside a/c unit, and also your thermostat, but they reuse the existing copper you have in place which transmits between outside and inside.

Anonymous Says: If you are wondering how long an a/c unit lasts before going out, my last one went about 14 years.  It did have a few things go bad where the a/c stopped working at the 12 year mark.  I probably should have replaced it then rather then paying to fix it when it was close to going out.

Anonymous Says: In case anyone is wondering, I had a "Bryant a/c" spring a leak in less then 2 years after getting a brand new heating and a/c put in just recently.  Bryant is a division of Carrier, and I will never buy either of those brands again.  The fact it already broke tells me that they are using the cheapest possible crap parts they can put in, because this a/c is almost brand new and already having problems.

Anonymous Says: the a/c guy told me that all the different brands are really the same, only a few different part makers that make all the internals, so other then the name on the outside they are really the same.  He said its just luck of the draw that one of the welds failed on the outside unit, and really that could happen anytime on any brand, just many different welds but the parts are the same no matter which brand.

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