When an ac fails to cool the room, most people think it has short-circuited or become faulty, which may not be the case.
If you have trouble with your ac irregularly turning off and on, you may be dealing with ac short cycling. Short cycling happens when an air conditioner unit stops running prior to it achieving your home’s set (comfortable) temperature.
It is a common problem in air conditioners that the experts at Anderson Air can sort out for you — to learn more, feel free to click here.
What is short cycling?
Short cycling is an ac problem that prevents your compressor from completing its full cooling cycle. A complete cooling cycle is a time between when the ac turns on to the time when it achieves the temperature you set, turning off again. When the temperature rises afresh, the compressor turns back on to cool the air to the desired temperature. This continues throughout the day as long as you don’t switch off your ac unit.
This complete cooling cycle provides cool and comfortable temperatures indoors.
Short cycling disturbs this complete cooling cycle, preventing your space from getting and staying cool. Short cycling happens when your ac starts and stops in short bursts. This makes your ac struggle to cool your home, and if you don’t fix it in time, it strains the ac unit causing it to break down.
How to fix your short cycling air conditioner
Want to learn how to fix short cycling air conditioner issues in your home? Here are some tips:
Check your air filters
Clogged (dirty) filters are one of the main causes of short cycling. Clogged filters reduce the speed at which air passes through, and this causes the ac to expend more energy to push fresh air into a room. In doing so, the ac unit/system heats up, making it turn off before the cooling cycle completes.
To fix this issue, switch off the ac. Open it up and replace the dirty filter with a new or clean one. Then turn on your ac. Ensure that you use a filter specified by the ac manufacturer.
Check your evaporator coils
Frozen evaporator coils also lead to ac short cycling issues.
Check the evaporator coils for ice. If you find ice present, shut off your ac unit and allow it to cool. This time out will allow the ac evaporator coils to thaw and the water or moisture to drip in the drain pan.
Once the AC evaporator coils thaw and dry off, turn the AC back on.
Check your thermostat
Placing your thermostat in the wrong position can cause ac short cycling. If a homeowner puts it too close to the return air register, it can get confused by the influx of cool air and produce the wrong readings, causing the compressor to kick off.
To fix this, install your thermostat in a central location on the inside wall of your home so that it gives the correct readings of the room temperature and avoids causing AC short cycling.
Your thermostat could also be giving wrong readings because it is old or faulty. So, upgrade it to a new energy-saving model.
Check your AC’s refrigerant levels
Refrigerant is what makes the ac efficiently release or absorb heat using its many coils. Leaking or low refrigerant causes your ac to work overtime to cool your home, and this may cause malfunctions that lead to air conditioner short cycling or compressor burnout.
Get your HVAC specialist to check your AC’s refrigerant levels and add more refrigerant to fix your refrigerant issue. The great thing about letting a professional do this is that he can find out the cause of the leak and permanently fix it.
Check your compressor
A faulty ac compressor can also be the root of the ac short cycling. So let a professional check it and replace it if it is a problem.
Get a new low-pressure control switch
After all of the above solutions fail, the short cycling may result from a faulty low-pressure control switch. Have your HVAC specialist replace it with a new one.
Get the right ac for your home
Short cycling can also be a result of having an oversized ac. And if your ac is too large for your room, it becomes too powerful for your space.
An oversized ac pulls out a lot of cooler air very fast. And when the cooling output is too fast, the air is not distributed evenly. And this causes faulty temperature readings on the thermostat. This is because one room that has the thermostat will read 60 degrees, while the other rooms in the house could read 78 degrees. The oversized ac then signals that the thermostat set temperature (60 degrees Fahrenheit) is attained and shuts down immediately, thus short cycling.
So, replace the oversized ac unit with a smaller (more efficient) one that suits your home’s cooling needs.
Problems of running a short cycling ac
High electricity bills
When an ac continuously starts and stops, it uses more power.
It shortens your ac unit’s lifespan
When a compressor’s full cooling cycle is shortened, it wears down faster. This is because instead of the longer/regular cooling cycles, the shorter incomplete cycles make the compressor turn on and off every few minutes, which necessitates the ac to constantly cool down the indoor refrigerant lines, which increases the problems of running a short cycling ac.
Uncomfortable temperatures
If the ac is short cycling every few minutes, it is not undergoing the full cooling cycle. This makes it hard to cool the air, making you live in hotter environments than you normally would.
Conclusion
If these fixes don’t work, call an HVAC professional for help. Your air conditioner short cycling could be a result of some other problems like faulty wiring and issues with the control board.
For this reason, it is vital for you to have regular professional maintenance for your ac system. A technician can easily spot, repair, and prevent any short cycling issues beforehand.
