Why Is My Central Air Conditioning Not Cooling In MN? Look To The Trees.

Spring is a wonderful time of the year.  Warm days, cool nights and the fresh look of everything new.  One of the passages of spring is the cottonwood seeds floating through the air giving the impression of snow without the cold.  Cottonwood seeds may give the impression of being harmless.  However, it is one of the leading causes of service calls for no cooling in your home.
Your central air conditioner is dependent on air flow to operate efficiently.  Air is drawn threw fins by a big fan in your a/c unit outside your home.  This air is circulated from outside the condenser unit threw the metal fins and out the top of the unit via a fan.  This air is used to reduce the heat of the refrigerant that is circulated through pipes or refrigerant lines going into your house and into an A coil that your furnace blower motor blows air over.  I know this is more than you wanted to know, but it provides a little background as to what happens when your a/c is working properly.
The problem with cottonwood seeds is that they tend to get sucked into the fins of your air conditioner condenser as a result of the air flow mentioned above.  The more seeds sucked into the fins the less air that is available to cool the refrigerant that is flowing through the system.  This results in the a/c either shutting down from overheating or not being able to cool the air in your home as necessary.  You will probably hear the condenser fan running as fast as it can while it gets warmer in your home.
Four actions  you can take to help lengthen the life of you central air conditioning system, safe money and remain comfortable are:

• Clean the coils of the air conditioner with water or air.  Be careful to not bend the fins.
• Clean all trees, bushes or miscellaneous stuff  away from the air conditioner unit.
• Provide a shaded environment or put the air conditioner on the side where the sun does not shine in the afternoon.
• Have a contractor perform a yearly clean and check on your air conditioning system.

Taking care of your central air conditioning system will help it take care of you.  Being proactive will help you from needing to be reactive down the road.
At Minneapolis Saint Paul Plumbing Heating Air, we can help you keep your system in top condition or install a new HVAC system when you need it.