As the mercury starts to rise in our thermometers, many homeowners start to check that their air conditioners are prepared for the added strain of daily use. In most cases a clean and service will be sufficient to ensure that your air conditioner can be used every day, but homeowners often have additional questions such as if they need to refill their air conditioner refrigerant.
What is the Refrigerant?
Air conditioning refrigerant is not a solitary fluid, but it is rather a blanket term applied to different heat transfer fluids. In an air conditioner, the refrigerant is used to cool the room by absorbing the heat in the air. The coil inside the air conditioner unit evaporates the refrigerant to siphon heat from out of the air inside the ducts. This is then delivered to the condenser coil located outdoors. The condenser coil converts the gas form of the refrigerant back into a liquid state to be recycled back into the system.
When is a Refrigerant Refill Necessary?
In an ideal world, you should never need to refill or recharge the refrigerant in your air conditioning system. Unfortunately, there may be occasions when a refill is necessary. This is usually because there is a leak in the system. Even a small leak will drain fluid from the system, causing a steady decrease in output since the fluid is vital for proper operation. If left unchecked, this could cause the entire system to suffer a breakdown. Under normal circumstances, there should be no need to top up the refrigerant. If you suspect you have a refrigerant leak, you should consult a professional HVAC expert.
Signs You Have a Refrigerant Leak:
There are several signs that you could have a refrigerant leak in your air conditioning system. These include;
Ice on the pipes. If the unit is not effectively cooling, the pipes around the evaporator coil may become covered with ice. This can be a sign that you have a blocked air vent, but it can also indicate that your system is low on refrigerant.
Spots and Stains. Depending on the type of refrigerant used in your air conditioning system, you may also notice spots and stains around the appliance. These types of marks tend to be dark and greasy, found around the indoor or outdoor units.
Poor cooling performance. You could also notice that your air conditioner is not cooling your home as well as it should. This could be because over time the leaking refrigerant is compromising the performance of your unit. A dip in cooling performance is not something that is immediately noticeable as it happens over time, but you may notice the cost of cooling your home is creeping up. You would need to be very aware of how your air conditioner typically performs to notice an issue. For example, if each summer your master bedroom feels comfortably cool in the hot summer months, but this year it doesn’t feel all that cool, the refrigerant levels may have fallen critically low.