How To Work Air Conditioner men Parts

 How the Big 4 Air Conditioner Parts Work

A central air conditioner is a split system, meaning one part is located outside, and the other is inside your home. Having both an indoor unit and an outdoor unit in your central air systems does not mean you have two units to care for; they are two parts of the same system!

The inside part connects to your furnace’s air handler, which pushes the air through the filter and through your home. Air is passed through the air conditioner with fans that push it outside, over the coils, and back into your house.

It sounds complicated, right? We won’t lie, it takes a moment to wrap your head around, but hopefully, this diagram of the four major parts of the air conditioner will help you understand your cooling system better.

1. The Evaporator

You can thank your evaporator for delivering your cool air during hot summers. The evaporator uses pressure to convert the liquid refrigerant into gas. A fan then blows the air that has been pumped in from your house over the cold evaporator coil and the cold refrigerant travels through it and back into your home.

You have to keep an eye out for too much or too little refrigerant, which could affect your evaporator. A parched evaporator will result in a bad performance in your evaporator coil. Too much refrigerant and it will pass, liquefied, into the compressor.

2 - Expansion Valve

You can’t have an evaporator coil without an expansion valve. Located between the evaporator and the condenser, it removes the pressure from the liquid refrigerant, allowing the evaporator to do its job.

Like every other part of the air conditioner, your expansion valve has to be in good working order. There are some ways to tell if it’s malfunctioning or just plain broken.

If your AC is blowing warm air or frost. We know it sounds weird, but both can happen if it is not processing the coolant correctly. It struggles as it no longer absorbs heat from the outside air, interrupting the cooling process, and it circulates air that hasn’t been cooled.

If the compressor is constantly working. If your expansion valve is faulty, your compressor will constantly be pumping refrigerant, even if you don’t need it.

3. The Condenser

A condenser is the opposite of an evaporator and is located in the outdoor unit. Instead of turning liquid into gas, it turns the refrigerant back to a liquid using a process called heat transfer.

Your condenser is an essential part of your air conditioner, so it is important that it is in tip-top shape. Keep an eye out for things like outdoor debris, and electrical failures, which could affect the condenser and your air conditioner’s performance.

4. Compressor

Your compressor goes hand in hand with your condenser. They’re the tag team that makes the heat transfer process a reality. The compressor’s job is to re-pressurize the refrigerant gas, once again bringing it back to its liquid form. It then moves the air between the condenser and evaporator.

A compressor is bound to give you some grief if it isn’t properly maintained. It runs on a motor and therefore is prone to similar problems as any other system that operates on one. It can stutter, overheat, and eventually burn out. Keep an ear out for unusual sounds, and if you notice that your air conditioner isn’t keeping you as cool as it used to, call us.