Why is your air conditioner constantly starting and stopping?

If you’re like most people, you don’t notice your HVAC unit functionality until it stops functioning. If you find your air conditioner constantly starting and stopping, it’s short cycling. It’s a problem because it shortens the life of your air conditioning unit and can cause your energy costs to increase.

There are a few different reasons that may be causing your air conditioner to short cycle, including:

Refrigerant leak or improper refrigerant charge

Short cycling may be the sign of a refrigerant leak within your A/C unit. The easiest fix is to add refrigerant and recharge the unit. But that’s just a temporary solution. The best fix is to have an air conditioning repair and service technician find and repair the leak to keep refrigerant from leaking out.

Iced up cooling coil

When the evaporator or cooling coil gets covered in ice or frost, it can cause the air conditioner to malfunction. The fix for this is to turn off the unit, let the ice melt, check the air filter, and clean/replace the old air filter.

The unit it the wrong size for the space

An air conditioning unit should be able to remove heat as fast as it comes into your home. An over-sized A/C will cool your space too fast – causing it to cycle on and off. Every time the system has to start up again, it’s wasting a lot of electricity.

A loose or disconnected electrical fitting

An electrical fitting, control board, or control switch that’s damaged, jiggled loose, or is completely broken can lead to short cycling.

Most of the causes of short cycling can be identified and resolved during a routine HVAC service. Investing in biannual HVAC unit tune-ups and changing out your air filter every month will keep your HVAC unit working properly.

Contact an HVAC technician at A-Abel to schedule your HVAC tune-up today!