AC Repair in Mountain Home, AR
Air conditioners here run from May through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Baxter County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Five months of heat, and storms in between
Your air conditioner runs from May through September here, with summer afternoons averaging 88°F. That is five straight months where the compressor is working most of the day to keep up. Long runtimes like that wear on the compressor and the fan motor, and a unit that has to work that hard every afternoon tends to show its age sooner.
Baxter County has also logged 46 hail events and 51 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 2.75 inches. The outdoor unit sits outside for all of it. Hail bends the thin fins on the condenser coil, and that blocks the airflow it needs to cool the refrigerant. Wind can knock debris into the coil or rattle the unit on its pad. If your air conditioner is running longer than it used to, or the air coming out feels warmer than it should, that is often where to start looking.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 88°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 46 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 51 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would cut about $30 a year off cooling for a typical Baxter County home.
Estimates for a typical Baxter 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 tests contractors before they get a license, and the state keeps the record of who holds one. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same license that qualifies them to work in Little Rock qualifies them in Baxter County. Cities and counties here cannot layer on a license of their own, so the state's is the one that applies no matter where you are.
For a repair on your air conditioner, that state license is what stands behind the person doing the work. If the job involves opening the refrigerant side of the system, which most AC repairs do, the technician also has to hold EPA Section 608 certification. That one comes from the federal government, not Arkansas, and it exists because refrigerant is federally regulated no matter what state you're in.
Source: Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most often the filter is clogged and starving the system of airflow, or the outdoor unit is dirty and can't shed heat the way it needs to. A dirty coil or a low refrigerant charge will also leave the air blowing warm even though the system runs fine otherwise. With summer highs here averaging 88°F, a system that's struggling to cool will fall behind fast. Check the filter first, then have a licensed contractor look at the coil and refrigerant level if that doesn't fix it.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Water around your unit usually means the condensate drain line is clogged, so the water that normally drains away is backing up and finding another way out. It can also mean the coil has frozen over from low airflow or low refrigerant, and now it's thawing and dripping. A cracked drain pan will do it too. A contractor can clear the line or find which of these it is.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Check the thermostat first, a dead battery or a setting that got bumped will stop the whole system cold. If the thermostat looks fine, check your breaker panel, since a tripped breaker is one of the most common reasons an AC won't start. Storms bring damaging wind and hail through this area, 51 damaging wind events and 46 hail events over the last ten years, and either can trip a breaker or damage the outdoor unit enough to stop it from starting. If the breaker keeps tripping when you reset it, stop resetting it and call a licensed contractor, since that points to an electrical problem that needs diagnosing.