Ever blast your AC only to feel warmish air puff out of the vent? Or maybe your home is barely cooling in Florida’s summer temps, but your electric bill is equivalent to the cost of a extravagant wedding. If either of these things has ever happened to you, you might have leaky ductwork. Before you schedule an AC repair, take a look at your ducts.
Signs Your Ductwork is Leaky
Rattle: if your ductwork is not fitted together properly, you’ll hear it. It can sound like a faint rattle, clanking, or in extreme cases -- like a small child is trying to crawl through your ducts.
Reduced airflow: if the air from your vents feels warmer than it should for what your thermostat is set on and the air is barely blowing, you probably have air escaping at some point in your ductwork. You may also notice that one vent blows high and cold, while another is hardly functioning.
Preferred Rooms: it’s not uncommon for family members to argue over who has a cooler room but in the case of leaky ducts, it’s probably true. Someone might be comfortable, while another is boiling.
Before You Schedule Your AC Repair & Maintenance...
Some ductwork issues can be fixed on your own. It depends largely on your initiative and where your ductwork is located. Most ductwork in Florida is located at an extreme place in the home like the attic or underneath the house. Neither one is a fun place for exploration due to critters, insects, and heat.
If you’d rather call in the professionals in AC repair in Tampa, no one’s going to blame you. But if you want to give it a shot, here’s what you can do:
- Dress the part. Cleaning/fixing ducts is messy, and in Florida -- hot, work. As tempting as it is to fix ductwork in shorts and flip-flops, don’t. Wear pants, a shirt with long sleeves, gloves, and goggles. Protection is key.
- Look for loose connections or pull-aways. Where duct meets duct, you’ll often find the two pieces don’t fit as snugly as they once did. Tape them with metal tape or use a spray adhesive to secure the connection. Make sure that no parts of the ductwork have fallen out of place. If they have, secure them with paste, tape, or metal screws. If you can’t get it secured, it’s probably time to call in AC repair and maintenance. Tampa experiences a number of weather conditions, not to mention animals, that cause damage to ducts. You want to make sure it gets fixed before someone decides to make a home out of your ducts.
- Holes. Again, because of our critter problems it’s not uncommon to see holes in ductwork, particularly if your ducts run under your home in a crawl space. Patch them with mesh or tape designed for that.
It’s time to call in the professionals when you find either extensive damage that you don’t feel comfortable fixing, the patches you made didn’t fix the problem, or you just don’t want to venture into that attic or crawl space. At Easy A/C, we’re comfort made easy. With 24 hour emergency AC repair, there’s no need for you to be crawling around checking your own ducts. If your air is not as cool as it used to be, contact us and we’ll get to the bottom of it quick and with an affordable solution.