AC Repair · Bay Area

What we do

When a Bay Area home loses cooling in a July heat wave, the failure is almost never the whole system. It is one part. The job is to find which one before we quote, not to sell a condenser because the house is hot.

The truck carries the parts that fail most: run capacitors in the common microfarad values, contactors, hard-start kits, condenser-fan motors, and a calibrated digital manifold with a recovery machine and a charging scale for any sealed-system work. We are EPA Section 608 Universal certified. We recover, evacuate, and weigh in the charge with a scale. We do not “top off” a leaking system and send you a bill in two weeks for the same call.

Workflow is the same every visit. Diagnose. Quote with parts and labor itemized. Repair. Verify the fix with a temperature split across the coil and a pressure reading before we close out. AC failures are usually same-day. A compressor or a sealed-system leak on an older unit is the two-visit exception, and we tell you that up front.

Common issues. Typical repair.

Outdoor unit silent, indoor fan running. Nine times out of ten the run capacitor has failed or the contactor is pitted. A $20 capacitor that some companies quote as a “system problem.” We test it with a meter, replace it, and verify the compressor and fan motor both pull correct amps before we leave.

Unit runs but the house never cools. Low refrigerant from a slow leak, a dirty condenser coil, or a failing compressor. We measure the superheat and subcooling to tell the difference instead of guessing. A leak gets found with nitrogen and electronic detection, repaired, and the system is weighed back to the nameplate charge. A dirty coil gets cleaned. We do not add refrigerant to a leaking system and call it fixed.

Compressor hums and trips the breaker. Usually a failed start capacitor or a seized compressor. A hard-start kit revives some units. A truly seized compressor on a ten-plus-year-old condenser is often the moment to price a replacement against the repair, and we give you both numbers honestly.

Frozen indoor coil, water on the floor. Low airflow or low charge. Dirty filter, failing blower, or a refrigerant problem. We thaw it, find the actual cause, and fix that rather than treating the ice as the problem.

Thermostat calls but nothing starts. Low-voltage fault, blown transformer, or a tripped float switch on a clogged condensate line. We meter the 24-volt circuit end to end. The clogged drain is a ten-minute clear that a lot of homeowners pay a full diagnostic to learn.

A note on heat pumps

Many Bay Area “AC” systems are now heat pumps, which cool in summer and heat in winter from the same outdoor unit. If yours is a heat pump, the cooling-side faults are the same, but the reversing valve and defrost board add a few failure modes. See our Heat Pump Repair page for that work.

Our HVAC division

Heating and cooling is the focus of our sister brand, Bay Area HVAC Service. Same owner, same trucks, same EPA and CSLB credentials. Whether you reach us through ADRIUM or through Bay Area HVAC Service, the same technician does the work.