AC Repair in DeKalb, IL
Air conditioners here run from June through August. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers DeKalb County will get in touch.
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It takes about a minute.
Three months of heat, then storms the rest of the year
DeKalb County only asks real work of your air conditioner from June through August, with afternoons averaging 82°F. That is a short window, and when it hits, the compressor has to run hard from the first hot day with no slow ramp-up to lean on.
The county has also logged 27 hail events over the past ten years, with hailstones as large as 2.75 inches, and 105 damaging wind events in that same span. Hail that size can dent or crack the thin aluminum fins on an outdoor condenser coil, and strong wind can loosen the panels or fan housing on the unit outside. If your AC is struggling or short cycling after a storm, that is often why.
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 82°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 27 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 105 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 DeKalb County, so the repair decision comes down to the unit's condition.
Estimates for a typical DeKalb 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 DeKalb County itself sets the rule, if it sets one at all, and the same goes for any town inside it. There is no statewide list of licensed HVAC contractors to check, because Illinois does not keep one. Whatever license or registration applies here comes from the local building department, not the state.
For an air conditioner repair, the part of the job that is federally regulated no matter where you live is the refrigerant. Anyone who opens the sealed side of your AC to add or recover refrigerant has to hold an EPA Section 608 certification. That is a federal card, earned by passing a test on handling refrigerant safely, and it applies the same in DeKalb County as it does anywhere else in the country.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- The most common cause is a dirty air filter choking off airflow, so check that first since it's the easiest to fix yourself. If the filter is clean, the refrigerant level could be low, which usually means a leak somewhere in the line rather than the refrigerant running out on its own. A frozen evaporator coil will also blow warm air, and it needs to thaw before a contractor can find out why it froze in the first place.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Most of the time this is a clogged condensate drain line, and algae or dirt building up inside the line is the usual cause. The line carries water away from the evaporator coil, and once it backs up, the water has nowhere to go but out of the unit. A dirty air filter can also cause this by freezing the coil, so if the ice melts fast you may just see a puddle.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the breaker, since a dead battery or a tripped breaker are the simplest reasons an AC won't start. If those check out, the capacitor may have failed, and this is the part that gives the compressor and fan motor the jolt they need to start running. Summers here only last from June through August, so a unit that sat unused since last year can also have a part that simply needs attention after months of downtime.