AC Repair in Elko, NV
Air conditioners here run from July through August. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Elko County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Two months of real heat, then a lot of wind and hail
Elko County only asks a lot of your air conditioner in July and August, with summer afternoons averaging 82°F. That is not extreme heat, but it means the system sits unused most of the year and then has to run hard for a short stretch. A unit that has been idle for ten months can struggle to start clean on the first hot day, and a weak capacitor or a sluggish contactor tends to show up right then.
The bigger issue outside is what the county's weather does to the equipment itself. Over the last ten years the area has seen 428 damaging wind events and 19 hail events, with hail up to 1.75 inches. Wind can bend the thin fins on your outdoor unit's coil and rock the cabinet on its mounting, and hail that size can dent the fins or damage the fan. Either one restricts airflow across the coil, and you notice it as an air conditioner that runs longer than it used to or doesn't cool the house as well as it did last summer.
- 2 months
- July through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 82°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 19 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 428 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new air conditioner would save little on running costs in Elko County, so the repair decision comes down to the unit's condition.
Estimates for a typical Elko County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Nevada fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when a part like a capacitor or contactor has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the compressor has failed or the system uses R-22 refrigerant, which is no longer made.
Nevada requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Nevada State Contractors Board tests contractors before it licenses them, and it keeps a record of who holds one. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. It covers this repair and whatever work that contractor takes on next.
Fixing an air conditioner almost always means opening the refrigerant side of the system. Federal law requires whoever does that to hold EPA Section 608 certification, in Nevada and every other state. In Elko County, the contractor doing this repair needs the state license behind their business and the federal certification behind their hands on the refrigerant lines.
Sources: Nevada Legislature · Nevada State Contractors Board
- Why is my AC not blowing cold air?
- Most often the filter is clogged and starving the system of airflow, or the refrigerant charge is low from a leak somewhere in the line. A dirty outdoor coil can do the same thing by keeping the unit from shedding heat. Check the filter first since that's the one thing you can rule out yourself. If it's clean and the air is still warm, the system likely needs a licensed contractor to check the charge, since opening the refrigerant side requires EPA 608 certification.
- Why is my AC leaking water?
- The condensate drain line is probably clogged, backing water up until it overflows the drain pan instead of running outside. Algae and dust build up in that line over a cooling season and block it slowly, so it can run fine for weeks before it backs up. A frozen evaporator coil will also leak once it thaws, so if the air was weak or warm before you saw water, that's likely the real cause. Either way it's worth having someone look before it runs long enough to damage the floor or the unit underneath it.
- Why won't my AC turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the breaker, since those cause more no-start calls than anything inside the unit. Check that the thermostat is set to cool and below room temperature, and that the breaker for the outdoor unit hasn't tripped. If both check out, the capacitor that starts the compressor may have failed, which is a common reason the unit stays silent even with power reaching it. A contractor can test the capacitor and the rest of the electrical side in a single visit.