AC Repair in Boulder, CO
If your air conditioner quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Boulder County will get in touch.
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Boulder County's real threat is hail and wind, not heat
Summer afternoons here average 78°F, mild enough that most homes get by without much cooling most days. Your air conditioner isn't fighting long, brutal summers. It's sitting outside through Boulder County storms.
Over the last ten years, the area has seen 125 hail events and 120 damaging wind events, with hail up to 3 inches recorded. That kind of hail bends and punctures the thin aluminum fins on your outdoor coil, and enough wind will rock the unit on its pad or throw debris into it. You notice it as a system that runs but doesn't cool like it used to, or a coil that looks dented and dirty even after a good rain.
- 78°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 125 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 120 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 Boulder County, so the repair decision comes down to the unit's condition.
Estimates for a typical Boulder County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Colorado 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.
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- The most common cause is a dirty air filter choking off airflow across the coil. When that happens the coil can ice up and stop cooling the air passing over it. A low refrigerant charge from a leak will cause the same thing, and that's not something to keep running on, since it can damage the compressor. If the filter looks clean and you still get warm air, that points to the refrigerant side or the compressor itself, and a contractor will need to check pressures to know which.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- Most of the time this is a clogged condensate drain line. The line fills with algae and debris over a season or two and backs up until water has nowhere to go but out of the pan. A cracked drain pan or a coil that's frozen and then thawing can also cause it. Boulder's hail storms can dent or crack an outdoor unit's housing, but a water leak almost always traces back to the drain line or the coil, not the outdoor cabinet.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to cool and the temperature is actually below the room temperature, and swap the batteries if the display is dim or blank. If the thermostat looks fine, check the breaker, since a tripped breaker will leave the whole system dead. Boulder's wind events are strong enough to knock out power or trip a breaker on the outdoor unit, so if the power went out recently, that's worth checking first. If none of that brings it back, the capacitor or the contactor inside the unit may have failed, and that needs a contractor to test.