This summer has been a scorcher which means people are really relying on their A/C units to keep them cool. During a regular summer, most A/C units that I do work on for homeowner’s and other customers have small problems that don’t require much to get them going again. Also during a basic summer, I usually only have to do one or two condenser fan motor replacements, but this summer I have already replaced many more than this. I attribute it to the fact that it has been hotter this summer than it has been for a long time. I don’t always jump to the replacement of this part if it isn’t working correctly, as many times it just needs to cool down before it will start to work properly again.
As I talk with my customers, I ask them if they want to wait to see if the part will cool down and work again or if they just want to replace it. Many times the customers waited and by doing so, we were able to save them some money and other hassles that come with replacing A/C parts. When the customers did decide to replace the part, it was fairly easy to find a replacement as there are many universal replacements on the market. We just had to make some measurements of the existing motors to make sure we didn’t get a replacement part that was too big to fit in the existing unit.
No one likes being too hot in the summer, especially after a hard day’s work outside. The heat from outside warms up the inside of homes and businesses which is nice during a cold winter day with sunshine, but during the summer, it’s not the ideal situation. It’s kind of funny how we turn on the heat to get warm during the winter and then crank up the A/C to stay cool during the summer (when we’re cold we want to be hot and when we’re hot we want to be cold)! Anyway, if you’re A/C system isn’t working during the summer, it’s most likely that you are going to be hot, sweaty and miserable. Your clothes and bed sheets will stick to you-making you even more hot than you were before.
I remember some summers, when I was growing up, that my parent’s would limit the time that we could run the air conditioner. Even as a young kid, I can remember lying down in my bed being extremely hot. I had to get creative to cool down-opening the window would help on some nights, but other nights it just didn’t do the trick. One of the things I did to keep cool was to stick my blanket in our huge freezer about one hour before I went to bed. That would keep me cool just long enough to fall asleep and sleep through the night. Other times I would get ice packs from the freezer and stick them in bed with me. I am glad those days are over and that replacing simple parts can make all the difference!
