AC Repair in Oswego, IL
Air conditioners here run from June through August. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Kendall County will get in touch.
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Three months of hard running, then hail and wind
Your air conditioner in Oswego gets three months a year, June through August, to do most of its work, with afternoons averaging 83°F. It runs long hours to hold the house steady, and that steady load wears on the compressor and the run capacitor that keeps it starting right. When the capacitor weakens, the outdoor unit hums but the fan won't turn, or the whole system trips off on hot afternoons.
Kendall County has also seen 34 hail events and 70 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 4.75 inches. That kind of storm can bend the thin aluminum fins on the outdoor coil or knock the unit out of alignment. Bent fins block airflow across the coil, and the system starts blowing warm or shutting off before the house cools down.
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 83°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 34 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 70 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 Kendall County, so the repair decision comes down to the unit's condition.
Estimates for a typical Kendall 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.
Kendall County is one of the places that leaves this to city hall. Illinois has no state HVAC license, so whether a contractor is registered or licensed anywhere depends on the town, not on any state list.
For a repair on your air conditioner, the credential that holds no matter which town you're in comes from the federal government. Anyone who opens the refrigerant side of your system has to hold EPA Section 608 certification. That requirement doesn't change from one part of Kendall County to another.
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 start there before anything else. A clogged filter makes the coil freeze up, and once that happens the air coming out turns warm. Low refrigerant from a leak causes the same freezing, but that's a repair for a contractor, not something to top off yourself. If the filter is clean and the vents are still warm, the outdoor unit itself may not be running even though the indoor fan is, which points to the compressor or the electrical connections feeding it.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Water around your AC almost always means the condensate drain line is clogged. Algae and dirt build up in that line over a summer of steady use, and once it backs up the water has nowhere to go but out of the pan. A frozen coil that's thawing will also drip more than the drain can handle, so if the air was warm before you saw water, that's likely the real problem. Either way, shut the system off until it's looked at, since water near the furnace or the electrical parts can cause more damage the longer it sits.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Check the thermostat first, since dead batteries or a setting bumped off cool is the simplest reason a system won't start. If the thermostat looks right, go to the breaker box, because a tripped breaker will cut power to the outdoor unit without anything looking obviously wrong indoors. If the breaker holds and the thermostat is calling for cooling but nothing happens outside, the capacitor or a safety switch is the likely next place to look, and that's a job for a contractor.