AC Repair in Van Buren, AR
Air conditioners here run from May through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Crawford County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Five months of Arkansas heat, every year
Your air conditioner works May through September here, and on a 90°F afternoon it runs for hours at a stretch to keep up. That kind of steady load wears on the compressor and the run capacitor that keeps it starting reliably. When one of those parts gives out, the unit either won't start or runs and blows warm air.
Crawford County has also logged 38 hail events and 60 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 2.5 inches. That kind of storm bends the thin aluminum fins on the outdoor unit and can crack the fan blade. Once the fins are crushed flat, the unit can't shed heat the way it should, and it struggles to cool the house even when everything else is working.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 90°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 38 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 60 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 Crawford County home.
Estimates for a typical Crawford 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.
The state license is tied to the contractor, not to this one repair, and it stays with them from job to job. Because Arkansas holds this licensing statewide, cities and counties in Crawford County cannot layer on their own separate HVAC license requirement.
For an air conditioner repair, the contractor's state license is what backs the work. If the repair involves opening the refrigerant side of the system, the technician doing that part also has to hold EPA Section 608 certification, which is a federal requirement in every state and separate from the Arkansas license.
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 refrigerant charge is low from a leak. A dirty filter forces the coil to run colder than it should until it ices over, and once that happens you get weak or warm air until the ice clears. With summer highs around 90°F here, a system already low on refrigerant will struggle to keep up on the hottest afternoons. A contractor can check the charge and the coil to find out which it is.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The condensate drain line is probably clogged. Your AC pulls moisture out of the air as it cools, and that water is supposed to run out through the drain line to the outside. When the line clogs with algae or debris, the water backs up and drips inside instead, sometimes right at the unit. A contractor can clear the line and check that the pan and float switch are working too.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Check the thermostat and the breaker first. If the thermostat screen is blank, dead batteries or a tripped breaker are the likely cause. If it has power but the system still won't start, the capacitor that gets the compressor and fan motor running may have failed, which is a common reason a unit goes quiet all at once. Given how often storms roll through here, a power surge from a lightning strike nearby is also worth ruling out. A licensed contractor can test the capacitor and the electrical components to find the actual fault.