Is your Central Air Conditioner Condenser or Window Air Conditioner overheating? Perhaps they happen to be and there’s a problem or perhaps not. The very first thing to recollect is that the main point of the air conditioning unit is to remove heat from the space they’re cooling. This implies that heat will be coming from the discharge of the unit. How much is ordinary and how does one tell what’s ordinary?
Heat is a normal by-product of cooling. The process of cooling any space will require that the refrigerant is cooled and the excess heat discharged to the outdoors. In the case of central air conditioning this is done through the condenser fan and is usually discharged straight up.
If the condenser coil is hot and the fan isn’t running then there’s a reasonable chance the fan motor has gone bad. Check for power to the wires going to the motor. If there’s power going to the motor ( 110V ) then the motor potentially must be replaced. The most typical issue with the condenser fan motors is the failure of the bearings in the motor. This can cause the fan to turn hard and then it won’t run.
If the condenser fan motor is running and there seems to be very little air coming out of the fan, then the coil may be plugged with dirt. I have written an article on cleaning the condenser coil for information on how to fix that problem. A dirty condenser coil will kill the efficiency of the unit and also make the compressor work much harder which will kill that more quickly also.
On window air conditioners the coil can also over heat. If the fan fails on them you won’t have any discharge air on the inside either. This is as the same motor thru a double shaft runs both the interior fan and the condenser fan. Much of the time the issue with overheating on window air conditioners, is due to a unclean outside coil.
This outside coil can be cleaned, but the air conditioner should be removed from the window to do it. You also have to be careful when you clean window units so you do not get anything wet that will fail because of water. If you can pull the unit out of the outside chassis, do that before trying to clean it. Make sure that it is totally dry before reinstalling it and applying power to the unit.
As is obvious the commonest reason for overheating with any aircon unit is a scarcity of upkeep to the unit. Always be sure to keep you air-conditioning unit cleaned completely for the best performance. Make regular cleanings a practice that you do faithfully each year. In really mucky places you’ll have to scrub the unit more frequently than that. Finally remember that heat will be given off the unit when it is running. Don’t confuse that heat with a difficulty heat. When an air conditioner is running it’ll appear to be awfully hot in some places. This discharge of heat is ordinary operation of the unit.
We provide info on multiple types of air conditioning units including a free standing air conditioner. Check out our web page for more info regarding Woodland Hills Air Conditioning or Air Conditioning Los Angeles.
