AC Repair in Belleville, IL
Air conditioners here run from May through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers St. Clair County will get in touch.
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Five months of heat, and storms in between
Belleville summers push air conditioners hard for five straight months, May through September, with afternoons averaging 87°F. That kind of steady heat means the compressor runs long hours day after day, and the capacitor that helps start it takes the strain each time the system cycles on. When a capacitor weakens, the outdoor unit hums but the fan won't spin, or the AC struggles to start at all on the hottest afternoons.
St. Clair County has also seen 43 hail events and 84 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 2.5 inches. Hail that size can bend the thin aluminum fins on the outdoor coil or dent the fan and housing, and a bent coil makes it harder for the unit to shed heat. After a storm like that, the system may run longer than usual to cool the same house, or the outdoor unit may sound different than it did before.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 87°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 43 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 84 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would save little on running costs in St. Clair County, so the repair decision comes down to the unit's condition.
Estimates for a typical St. Clair County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Illinois 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.
In Illinois, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
That means whether St. Clair County or the town within it licenses air conditioning contractors is a local matter, not a state one. Illinois keeps no list of its own. If a license is required for this work, it comes from the city or town where the house sits, not from any state board.
What does not depend on the address is federal law. Anyone who opens the refrigerant side of your air conditioner, to recover it, recharge it, or check it for a leak, has to hold EPA Section 608 certification. That is not a local license. It is a requirement tied to the refrigerant itself, and it applies the same in St. Clair County as anywhere else in the country.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most often the filter is clogged and starving the system of airflow, or the refrigerant level is low from a leak somewhere in the line. A dirty outdoor condenser coil can do the same thing, since it can't shed heat properly if it's caked with dirt or grass clippings. With summer afternoons here regularly hitting 87°F, a system that's low on refrigerant will struggle hard on those hot days even if it seemed fine in early May. A contractor can check the refrigerant charge and find the leak if there is one.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The drain line that carries condensation away from your indoor unit is probably clogged, which backs water up until it overflows the drain pan. Algae and dust build up in that line over a cooling season and eventually block it completely. A frozen evaporator coil will also drip water once it thaws, so if the leak showed up after the system was blowing warm air, that's likely the cause. Either way, a contractor will need to clear the line or find what's freezing the coil.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Check your thermostat batteries and the breaker for the outdoor unit first, since both are common culprits and easy to rule out. If those are fine, the capacitor that starts the compressor may have failed, which is a common wear part in any AC system. Storms here bring damaging wind fairly often, 84 events over the past ten years, so it's also worth checking that nothing tripped a safety switch near the outdoor unit after recent weather. A contractor can test the capacitor and the switches to find which one is the problem.