AC Repair in Conway, AR
Air conditioners here run from May through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Faulkner County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Five months of Arkansas heat, plus what the storms leave behind
Your air conditioner runs from May through September here, and on a lot of those afternoons it's fighting to keep up with 91°F outside. That kind of stretch puts real hours on the compressor and the fan motor. When one of those starts to go, you notice it as warm air blowing when it should be cold, or the outside unit running longer than it used to.
Faulkner County has also seen 64 hail events and 90 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 2.75 inches. Hail that size can bend the thin fins on your outdoor coil or dent the cabinet, and high wind can knock the unit out of alignment or throw debris into it. After a storm like that, a unit that ran fine the week before can start short cycling or blowing warm.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 91°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 64 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 90 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $50 a year off cooling for a typical Faulkner County home.
Estimates for a typical Faulkner County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Arkansas 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.
Arkansas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Arkansas issues the HVAC license to the contractor, not to the job, so it covers the business doing the work rather than this specific repair. The state keeps this to itself. Counties and cities in Arkansas cannot add their own HVAC license on top of it, so the same license applies no matter where in Faulkner County the work happens.
For this repair, that license is what accounts for who is allowed to do HVAC work in the state. If fixing the air conditioner means opening the refrigerant side, the technician also needs EPA Section 608 certification. That comes from federal rule, not Arkansas, and it applies the same way in every state.
Source: Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- The most common cause is a dirty air filter choking off airflow, so start there before anything else. If the filter is clean, the refrigerant charge could be low, which usually means a leak somewhere in the line. A dirty outdoor coil can cause the same problem, especially after a summer of running five months straight in Conway heat. If the air coming out is warm or barely moving, a licensed contractor needs to check the refrigerant level and the coils rather than you topping anything off yourself.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Water around your unit usually means the condensate drain line is clogged. That line carries away the moisture your AC pulls out of the air, and algae or debris can block it over time, especially during a long cooling season like Conway's May through September stretch. A frozen evaporator coil that then thaws can also send water where it shouldn't go. Either way, shut the system off until a contractor clears the line or finds the cause, since standing water near the unit can lead to more damage the longer it sits.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Check your thermostat first, since a dead battery or a setting bumped to off is an easy fix. If the thermostat looks fine, check your breaker panel, since a tripped breaker will keep the whole system from starting. Conway sees plenty of damaging wind and hail each year, and either can trip a breaker or damage the outdoor unit. If the breaker won't stay reset or the outdoor unit looks damaged, a licensed Arkansas HVAC contractor should take a look before you try again.