AC not cooling: a coil packed with dirt and a breaker one size too small
What we found
The condenser coil was packed solid with dirt and cottonwood. A coil in that state cannot shed heat, so the unit ran continuously and the house still would not cool.
At the outdoor disconnect there was a second problem: a 15-amp breaker on a circuit that needed 20. In a heat wave the compressor draws more current than usual, and the undersized breaker was the part that gave out first.
What we did
Washed the coil down to bare fins, cleaned out the base of the cabinet, and fitted the correct 20-amp breaker at the disconnect.
Cooling came back the same afternoon and the current draw went back inside the range printed on the nameplate.
What can wait
Nothing urgent was left on this system. The coil sits where the yard blows everything into it, so it will want washing again next spring, and that is a maintenance visit rather than a repair.
Service: AC repair
