AC units taking a toll during summer heat making for a busy season for AC repair companies

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - As the temperatures continue to stay in the triple digits some AC units in the desert southwest are struggling to operate efficiently.

CBS 13's Cody Lee spent the day out in the sun speaking with local air conditioning repair experts to find out what this summer heat does to your unit. Come to find out, there are many things you could do right now to help alleviate the strain.

“It's a very, very busy time for our company, it's a very busy time for our industry,” Jimmy Gilmore with Quick Refrigeration said.

You may be wondering what’s the best temperature to set your thermostat. Local experts tell us they’re only able to cool rooms down from about 30 to 40 degrees.

“So it's 109 outside. That's only 74 degrees that performance that you're going to get out of the system,” Gilmore continued.

Another thing that helps with performance is changing the filter out frequently. Gilmore says a tune-up is important as well.

“If you haven't been doing preventative maintenance on the unit and extreme heat hits, the chances of the system going down are very high. So you want to take a proactive approach to keep the maintenance up on the system changing the filter doing preventative maintenance like tune-up services on the unit,”

Earl Groat, a new resident of Yuma County, experienced a double whammy during the extreme heat.

“The motor was shaking around making a loud noise. I've only lived here like eight months and I didn't know nothing about a tune-up thing,” Groat said.

John Close with All Affordable Plumbing and Restoration explains what the homeowner was dealing with.

“The homeowner called us out for maintenance, tune up, come check it out. We came to the unit sounded like a freight train was running through his backyard," Close said. “Just loud noise sounded like a truck, like he said, I don't know too much about that stuff," the homeowner explained. "I wore earplugs," he added.

Over the past few weeks, the most common failures AC repair companies find are to capacitors and compressors. Those two pieces of equipment do not do well in the sun.

“Your unit just stops working, it's not blowing, you're not getting cool air. That's, I mean that's the number one thing to look for right there as soon as it stops blowing in this heat. Nobody could take that,” Close added.

Quick Refrigeration and All Affordable Plumbing and Restoration are clients of ours.

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