AC Repair in Pinellas Park, FL

Before the thermostat, work out which of these you have, because it changes where to look and what to tell the technician.

A block house with a split system. There is an outdoor unit on a pad and an indoor air handler in a closet, the garage or the attic. The ducts run overhead through the attic.

A manufactured or mobile home with a package unit. One cabinet outside holds everything, and it connects to ducts that run under the floor. There is no separate indoor air handler.

A manufactured home with a split system. An outdoor unit and an indoor air handler or furnace cabinet in a closet, usually blowing downward into ducts under the floor.

If you are not sure, look for a large insulated duct running from the outdoor cabinet into the skirting of the home. That is a package unit.

No tools and no panels removed. Stop at anything that feels unsafe.

Every home

1. Thermostat on Cool, set below room temperature, fan on Auto.
2. Breakers. Reset a tripped breaker once. If it trips again, leave it off.
3. Filter. Replace it if it is grey or matted.
4. Ice. Ice on the copper lines or the coil means cooling off, fan on, and let it thaw.

Block house

5. Air handler. Look for water in the drain pan and for a small float switch on the drain line. A tripped float switch is a common reason a system shuts down in summer.
6. The far bedroom. If one room at the end of the house is always warmer, note it. That points at the attic ducts.

Manufactured home

5. Filter location. In a package unit system the filter is often behind a return grille inside the home, and in a closet system it may be in the door or at the base of the cabinet. They get missed.
6. Floor registers. Make sure rugs and furniture are not covering them, and feel whether air is coming out of all of them. A register with almost no flow suggests a duct that has come apart under the floor.
7. Skirting. From outside, look for a section of skirting that is damaged or open, and for insulation or duct material hanging below the home. Do not go underneath.

In any home, leave the electrical compartments closed, do not add refrigerant, and do not keep restarting a unit that hums and will not start.

These are patterns that follow from the setting and the housing, not statistics from our service calls. Pinellas Park is inland by county standards, so direct salt spray is less of a factor than it is in the beach cities. Heat and run time do the damage here.

Heat that lingers

Pavement and rooftops hold warmth into the evening, so a system here gets less relief after sunset. Long run hours wear the capacitor, the contactor and the fan motors, and those parts tend to give out in the hottest weeks. A unit that hums without starting, or a fan that will not spin, is usually one of these, and each is tested against its rating.

Attic ducts in block homes

Many of these houses had ductwork added after they were built, routed through an attic that gets very hot. Joints loosen and cold air leaks out before it reaches the rooms. The signs are a room that never keeps up, sweating supply grilles, and a system that runs all afternoon. Airflow readings, the temperature drop across the coil and the static pressure in the ducts, show whether the problem is in the ducts or in the equipment.

Under-floor ducts in manufactured homes

The duct that links the two halves of a double-wide can sag, crush or disconnect, and the protective layer under the home can tear. When that happens the system cools the space under the home and pulls humid outdoor air back in. From inside it looks like weak airflow, a damp house and a high power bill. Equipment for a manufactured home also has to be the kind listed for that use, so a repair or replacement is not interchangeable with a site-built house.

Drains

The coil is wet for most of the year and the condensate drain can block with algae. In a block house a float switch usually stops the system. In a manufactured home a blocked drain can soak the floor under the air handler closet, so water there is worth acting on at once.

Short cycling and damp air

A system that is too large for the home cools fast and shuts off before it has dried the air. The thermostat is satisfied and the home still feels clammy. Nothing has failed, so it will not show up as a bad part, but it is worth knowing before spending on an older system.

A diagnosis ends with one named cause and the readings behind it.

• Electrical: line and control voltage, capacitor and contactor condition, motor current against the nameplate.
• Refrigerant: pressures and line temperatures. A low charge means a leak, because an air conditioner does not use refrigerant up. Blume has EPA Section 608 certified technicians, the federal refrigerant-handling credential.
• Airflow: temperature drop across the indoor coil and static pressure in the ducts, including the under-floor ducts in a manufactured home.
• Drainage: pan, drain line and float switch.

You get a written, upfront price before any work starts.

One failed part on a healthy system is a repair. A failed compressor, a coil that keeps leaking, or repairs landing somewhere new every season deserves a look at replacement. Blume shows repair and replacement side by side where both make sense and does not sell equipment a building does not need.

If the ducts are the problem, replacing the outdoor unit will not fix the house, and that is worth establishing first. When replacement is right, Blume sizes the equipment with an ACCA Manual J load calculation and Manual S selection and commissions it with measured static pressure, airflow and refrigerant charge. Financing is available through Synchrony Bank.

Related pages: heat pump repair in Pinellas Park, mini-split installation in Pinellas Park, and how to decide between AC repair and replacement.

Blume Mechanical Service, LLC is a Class A licensed Florida air conditioning contractor (license CAC-1822618) and is fully insured. We are brand-agnostic and service all major manufacturers' equipment. Our office is at 2840 West Bay Drive #114, Belleair Bluffs, FL 33770, and our core service area is Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

What to have ready when you call

• The kind of home and system: block house or manufactured home, split system or package unit.
• What the thermostat is set to and what it reads.
• Whether the outdoor unit is running, humming or silent.
• Any ice, water, burning smell or unusual noise.
• Whether one room or one register has weak airflow.
• In a community with rules about contractors or access, who needs to be told.