AC Repair in Pekin, IL
Air conditioners here run from June through September. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Tazewell County will get in touch.
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Four months of hard running, every year
Pekin gets four months of real cooling weather, June through September, with afternoons averaging 84°F. That is not a long season, but it is a demanding one. Your air conditioner has to start, run for hours, and cycle back on day after day through the hottest stretch of summer, and the parts that start it and keep it running take the wear.
Tazewell County has also logged 82 hail events and 154 damaging wind events over the past ten years, with hail up to 3 inches recorded. The outdoor unit sits outside through all of that. Hail can bend the fins on the condenser coil, and wind-driven debris can get into the cabinet or dent the housing. If your system is cooling poorly or making noise it didn't used to make, a storm may be part of the reason.
- 4 months
- June through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 84°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 82 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 154 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 Tazewell County, so the repair decision comes down to the unit's condition.
Estimates for a typical Tazewell 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.
Tazewell County falls under whatever rule its own city or town has set. Illinois leaves HVAC licensing to local government, so some towns may register or license contractors on their own. Others may have no rule at all. There is no state test and no state list behind the person coming to your house. What protection exists depends on the address where the work is happening.
One rule does apply everywhere, including here. Repairing an air conditioner means opening the sealed refrigerant side of the system, and anyone who does that must hold EPA Section 608 certification. That requirement comes from the federal government, not the town. It holds no matter what the local rule does or does not say.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most of the time the filter is clogged and starving the system of airflow. When that happens the coil can freeze over and what little air comes out feels warm instead of cold. Low refrigerant from a leak causes the same thing, but that's a repair only a contractor can diagnose. Check the filter first. If it's dirty, replace it and give the system a few hours before deciding anything else is wrong.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Your AC pulls moisture out of the air all day long, and that water is supposed to drain outside through a condensate line. When that line clogs, the water backs up and drips inside the house instead, often near the indoor unit. A dirty filter can also cause the coil to freeze, and when it thaws it can put out more water than the drain line can handle. Shut the system off if you see water pooling, and have the drain line checked.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it's set to cool and a few degrees below the room temperature, and check that it has power if it runs on batteries. If the thermostat looks fine, check the breaker panel, since a tripped breaker will keep the whole system from starting. Pekin gets its share of damaging wind and hail, and either one can trip a breaker or damage the outdoor unit enough to stop it from running. If the breaker resets but trips again, stop and call a contractor rather than resetting it repeatedly.