Living in a dry, hot desert is fun, isn’t it? Luckily, we in the Phoenix area have our central air conditioner units to keep us nice and cold. But without refrigerant, you air conditioner is just a big machine that blows hot air. That’s why many homeowners, in order to keep their air conditioner units working properly, have a variety of questions about refrigerant (or Freon®, as they call it.)
So, we decided to help people out by answering the three most common questions we hear about your home air conditioner’s refrigerant.
The only real way to know if your air conditioner is low on refrigerant is to have a professional air conditioner technician test it. Because chances are you don’t have specialty air conditioning gauges (called a manifold gauge set) just lying around your house, so it’s best left to the professionals.
Other than straight testing it, there are some obvious signs that you’re low on refrigerant:
Have you noticed these symptoms and want a refrigerant charge? Contact us online to schedule an appointment time.
Needing to add refrigerant isn’t like adding gas in a car. Your air conditioner does not consume refrigerant, so adding it should be rare.
If you need to add refrigerant to your air conditioner, it’s leaking somewhere. That means you need to call a professional air conditioner technician to find the leaks and fix them.
Well, it depends on a few things:
Refrigerant charges cost $80-$115 a pound on average.
Now, before you start throwing stones, let me explain why it’s so expensive.
It costs so much because the most common central air refrigerant, R-22 (commonly referred to as Freon), is being phased out by the EPA because it contains ozone-depleting substances.
“Phased out” means there’s less supply. And since R-22 is still in high demand, that means the price artificially rises (darn you economic forces!).
These are just a few questions we hear people ask, but it’s certainly not all of them. I’m sure you have a few of you own. if you do, feel free to ask our experts for help.
If your system needs refrigerant, schedule an appointment time online.