If you even remotely think there may be something wrong with your central a/c, call someone to schedule a check now rather than waiting until it gets worse or something breaks.  It's far better to pay $50-$75 for a general checkup and have a pro tell you everything is ok, now especially that the heat is here and a bunch of contractors I've called are booked solid.  

Thankfully one of the main guys I rely on had an opening this week to check out my unit's recent troubles of cooling the house down enough for me.

Yeah, I need to do this. Mine was making a weird noise last week, but I think it was bugs in the main relay. Already went away.

And I already cleaned all the dog hair out of the unit.

Any AR15.com members into doing AC checkups?

My wife is pregnant, so we're going to have a window unit on standby all summer.

This is a good idea for everyone.





Great to have one standing by, if a hurricane comes around, you're covered.



 

I'm not a hvac pro, but one thing you could do if you noticed noises in the compressor area is remove the protective electrical panel and take a look at any crap in there.  Ants for some reason are naturally attracted to electricity and blew out my contactor a couple years ago.  So one thing you could do is cut the power and blow some compressed air over the contactor and caps to clean it out some.  Just don't touch the caps ok?  If you do notice ants, spread some poison around the unit to keep them out.

If it's still making noises then let your hvac tech diagnose the problem.

I had an ant problem a few years ago as well.  A sock filled with bug killer granules was placed strategically and it solved the problem.

TRG

Yeah, I've had it happen before with a little snail. Made enough break in there for the circuits not to close. I've done all the electrical work before, but once you get to the part with the freon, I plead ignorance.

I have a buddy at work that does A/C work on the side. He works with the facilities crew here and knows his shit.



He installed a new outside unit for me at far less of a cost than anyone else. . His cost plus maybe about 100 bucks for his time. He wont jerk you around or try to sell you shit you dont need. After all said and done he was able to get a air split of 22 degrees.



If anyone in the Austin / Pflugerville/ Round Rock / Kyle / Buda area needs a good reliable A/C guy let me know.

One of the easiest things you can do to increase your units ability to cool your house is to clean the coils on the outside unit.  Its kind of a bitch sometimes to get the covers off of your outside unit, but once you do, you can you use a hose and a stiff brush to get all the dust, dirt, grass and other stuff that clogs it up.  It makes a huge difference to have a clean one.

My friggin dogs lays by mine, then when I clean it, the dog hair comes off like sheets of felt. Nasty. Like pickin pubes out of a drain. And the covers are a bitch. About 10 minutes to take off, 30 minutes to put it back on.