When I started up my air conditioner at the end of May, I knew there was something wrong with it. I chose to ignore the slightly elevated sound levels and annoying little rattle whenever it cycled on. I was working a ton of extra hours at my job and trying to keep up with all my children’s activities. Plus, my mother had some health issues and I needed to help her out. I simply didn’t have time to schedule service for the air conditioner. With increasingly higher outside temperatures and horrendous humidity, the air conditioner was forced to work super hard. There was never an opportunity to shut it down, and the problems kept getting worse. Along with the rattle, there was an especially annoying screeching sound and the air smelled unpleasant. It had a musty odor like old pond water, and there was definitely an excess of dust floating around in the house. Plus, the air conditioner was struggling to handle the heat. Despite lowering the thermostat, the house felt overheated and sticky.
My energy bills were outrageous, and I knew the air conditioner was to blame. I still procrastinate over calling for service until the cooling system failed entirely. I then waited a whole another week, until my children complained about how uncomfortable the house was, before I finally scheduled repair. The HVAC contractor simply took apart the air conditioner, cleaned the inner workings and replaced a belt. The whole process took less than an hour and the air conditioner was back to running perfectly again.