AC Repair in Joliet, IL
Air conditioners here run from June through August. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Will County will get in touch.
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Three months of hard running, then storms on top of it
Your air conditioner in Will County gets three months to do its job, June through August, and it runs hard the whole time. Summer afternoons here average 83°F, so the compressor cycles on and stays on for long stretches trying to keep up. That kind of steady load wears on the run capacitor and the contactor, the parts that keep the compressor starting and stopping the way it should. When one of those goes, the unit either won't start or won't stop, and you notice the house not cooling down or the outdoor unit running nonstop.
Will County has also logged 202 damaging wind events and 89 hail events over the past ten years, with hail up to 2 inches recorded. Wind can bend the thin fins on the outdoor coil or knock debris into the cabinet, and hail that size can dent the coil or the fan housing. Either one blocks airflow across the coil, and the system has to work harder to move the same amount of heat out of your house.
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 83°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 89 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 202 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 Will County, so the repair decision comes down to the unit's condition.
Estimates for a typical Will 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.
Will County itself does not license HVAC contractors, and whether one is required at all depends on the city or township where the house sits. Some local governments in Illinois register or license contractors within their borders, others don't touch it, so there is no single credential that applies across the county the way there would be in a state with one state-issued license.
For a repair on an air conditioner, the protection that does apply everywhere is federal. Any technician who opens the refrigerant side of the system, to recover it, recharge it, or get into the coil, has to hold EPA Section 608 certification. That's a federal requirement tied to the person doing the work, not to Illinois or to Will County, and it holds regardless of what the local township does or doesn't require.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most of the time the filter is dirty enough to choke off airflow across the coil, and the coil ices up as a result. Low refrigerant from a slow leak does the same thing, and once ice forms, the air coming out feels warm even though the system is running. A dirty outdoor unit can cause this too, since the condenser needs open airflow to dump heat outside. Check the filter first. If it's clean and you're still getting warm air, a contractor needs to check the charge and the coil.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Your AC pulls moisture out of the air as it cools, and that water is supposed to drain out through a condensate line. When that line clogs with algae or dirt, the water backs up and drips inside your house instead. A frozen coil that then melts can also flood the drain pan faster than it can drain. Either way, the water needs a licensed contractor to clear the line or find why the coil froze in the first place.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with your thermostat. Check that it's set to cool and the setting is below the room temperature, and swap the batteries if the screen is dim or blank. If the thermostat looks fine, check your breaker panel, since a tripped breaker will shut the whole system down. Joliet has seen plenty of hail and wind over the past ten years, and a storm can trip a breaker or damage the outdoor unit even when nothing looks obviously wrong. If the breaker keeps tripping or the outside unit won't run, a contractor needs to look at it before you flip it again.