August often brings the worst of the heatwaves, and air conditioning systems in Indianapolis, IN put in immense amounts of work keeping homes comfortable. An AC in good condition that receives regular maintenance can handle the heat and help a household sail through the end of the summer.

But what about an air conditioner that’s no longer in its prime and has started to experience signs it won’t last much longer? If this describes your home’s air conditioning system, we recommend you begin thinking about making this its last summer. An air conditioning system replacement may loom in the near future. 

“How can I be sure I’m ready for a new air conditioner?” you ask. The best way is to call our HVAC experts and have them look over your AC system. These technicians can give you the best recommendations for your comfort and energy bills. 

We can give you a head start thinking about AC replacement with a list of several problems that occur in ACs nearing the end of their usefulness.

A key piece of information to know about your AC is its age. You can find this on the plate located on the back of the outdoor condenser. The standard service life expectancy of an air conditioning system is from 10 to 15 years, with regularly maintained ACs often making it to 15. Older than 15 years is a danger zone, the point when the wear on the AC’s components will catch up to it until repairs become too expensive to justify keeping the system on life-support. 

You probably have a standard pattern of AC use during the summer, so your electrical bills won’t vary much from year to year with the exception of price increases for electricity. As an air conditioner starts to fail, however, it will cost more to run. When you see a steady rise in your electric bills in the summer and you can’t account for it with extra use or utility prices, the problem may be an old AC that’s turned into an energy vampire. 

Rattle, rattle, clank, bang, groan. Is this the sound of your AC? That’s not good! Air conditioning systems don’t run silently, of course, but they should blend into the background noise of a house during the summers. An AC creating noise pollution is probably in the last stages of its service life—too many parts have worn down. 

Perhaps the biggest and most concerning warning of an AC in imminent need of replacement is when hot spots begin to appear around a house where there weren’t any before. This indicates the air conditioner is losing its cooling capacity; the more distant rooms along the ventilation system are receiving less cool air. If the cost to repair this problem is more than half the price of a new system, the new system is the better choice. 

“Your Comfort Is Vital,” so always call Vital Heating & Air when you need the best in AC repair.