Taking great care of the air conditioner in your Savannah, GA home will prevent common problems like short cycling. When air conditioners short-cycle, they turn on and then rapidly cycle back off before fully addressing indoor humidity or heat. Short-cycling air conditioners use more energy, sustain more wear, and face an increasing risk of permanent failure.
What Is Short Cycling?
During normal operation, an air conditioner’s cooling cycle lasts 15 to 20 minutes. Throughout this time, AC refrigerant travels to the indoor air handler as an icy liquid, collects heat and humidity, and becomes a hot vapor gas before returning to the outdoor condenser. This cyclic transition occurs one or more times during each normal cooling cycle as a critical part of the heat transfer process. It’s also vital for protecting some of your air conditioner’s most costly components.
When air conditioners are short-cycling, their cooling cycles last just two to five minutes. As a result, AC refrigerant never has the chance to convert from a liquid to a gas, and temperature and humidity control suffer. Short-cycling air conditioners blow out warm, damp air that leaves building interiors feeling clammy or muggy.
Common Causes of AC Short Cycling
Short cycling is often a sign of operational stress. Common causes of short cycling include:
- Closed or obstructed air vents
- Dirty HVAC air filters
- Dirty evaporator or condenser coils
- Blocked condensate drains
- Low refrigerant
If you purchased and installed your AC without professional help, short cycling could mean that this unit is too large for its service area. Oversized ACs rapidly cycle off and on throughout their lifespans. They also have far shorter-than-normal lifespans as a result.
How Short Cycling Could Lead to Shutdown or Premature Failure
Optimizing operating conditions, including replacing dirty filters, cleaning and unclogging condensate drains, and opening closed air vents, is one of the best ways to troubleshoot a short-cycling AC by alleviating operational stress. If your air conditioner has maintenance-related problems that are causing it to run short, ineffective cycles, continuing to use it without first finding and correcting the underlying problem will accelerate wear. This can significantly shorten your AC’s lifespan.
However, the most significant damage caused by short cycling occurs at the AC compressor. This component should receive hot, high-pressure refrigerant as a vapor gas. During short cycles, refrigerant flows into the compressor as a cold or lukewarm liquid. As it floods the compressor, it flushes out essential lubricants. It also takes a toll on compressor bearings and causes undue wear.
Refrigerant Loss and Short Cycling
If your air conditioner is short-cycling due to a refrigerant leak, your compressor is operating under extraordinary stress. The AC compressor acts as the heart of your cooling system. It alternately pressurizes and depressurizes refrigerant to move it to and from the air handler.
With an active refrigerant leak, changes in pressure accelerate refrigerant loss and escalate compressor stress. As a result, the compressor must increasingly work harder to get its job done. Continuing to use a short-cycling air conditioner that has a refrigerant leak could cause your compressor to fail or collapse.
The compressor is your air conditioner’s most expensive component. For some AC models, compressor replacement costs several thousand dollars. This alone is sufficient reason to turn a short-cycling air conditioner off and schedule AC repairs right away. Although AC manufacturers’ warranties will cover the costs of manufacturing-related compressor damage, they won’t cover compressor replacement or repairs resulting from negligence.
Tips to Prevent Short Cycling
You can prevent short cycling and the accelerated AC wear it causes by having your air conditioner sized and installed by a licensed HVAC company. Scheduling routine maintenance before the cooling season starts will allow our technicians to spot refrigerant leaks and loose connections, clean your air conditioner’s coils, and disinfect its condensate drain ahead of heavy use. During these visits, we check for and resolve all possible airflow obstructions. Professional AC maintenance is the best way to optimize operating conditions and ensure smooth and reliable performance.
We offer expert AC maintenance, replacement, and repair services in Savannah and the surrounding cities. We’ve proudly served the region since 1969. Our clients can count on us for fast, accurate diagnosis, excellent customer support, and top-quality HVAC products.
We make taking great care of air conditioners easy with our value-rich HVAC preventative maintenance plan. If you have a short-cycling air conditioner in Savannah, contact Air Therm today to schedule an appointment.
