You know when your air conditioner won’t come on that something is wrong. Maybe the fan isn’t activating, so there’s no air coming from the vents. Or the compressor isn’t responding, so the air from the vents is at room temperature—and that’s no help on a hot summer day. You’ll know you need to call for repairs ASAP.
There’s the reverse situation, and it’s just as bad—the air conditioner that won’t stop running. You may not at first notice this. No matter how hot it is, the AC isn’t supposed to have the compressor or fan run continuously. It’s supposed to operate in cycles. A “runaway” air conditioner is a problem, and we’re going to look into it a bit deeper.
If you take good care of your air conditioner, you can expect it to last a fairly long time. No air conditioner lasts forever, though, and eventually, you will need to install a new one. You don’t want to go into summer with an air conditioner that’s on its last legs, lest the system break down in the middle of a record heat wave. So, how can you tell whether or not it’s time for a new air conditioner? The best thing to do is to have a technician examine the system for you and tell you whether or not it’s time for a new one. If you’re looking for some good general guidelines for when to call a technician for that conversation, though, check out the points below.