Under Our Roof: The Heat Is On

We thought we were done with our 2026 home repairs, until surprise! On the hottest day of the summer (feels like 106!), our downstairs A/C unit (2013) stopped blowing cold air. Ack. 

As bad as that seems, we are very fortunate to have a relatively new (2022) upstairs unit that is pretty powerful. And actually, that "smart" system seemed to notice something was happening and tried to politely warn me for a couple days before -- it sent messages that things were not quite right. 

Looking back now, the upstairs unit must have been working overtime to mask the problem that was happening downstairs. Usually they work together during the hottest part of the day, but apparently the downstairs was not contributing and the upstairs did all it could until the Texas summer temperature was just too much to overcome!

Fortunately, my parents were happy to share their 2 unused window units with us immediately. So yes, our house was about 84-86 degrees during the middle of the day, but it did cool off to 76 degrees overnight.

Also fortunately, we have a great, local A/C company! We had an appointment within 48 hours. 

The diagnosis: a leak in the outside line that allowed all the coolant to seep out. Not a major problem with the system, but unfortunately, not a cheap fix ($3000+) to cover the cost of refilling the entire 14lbs of coolant that had gotten away. 

Sorry environment. We did not intend to pollute coolant into the atmosphere. Hoping our 12 trees help offset some of the damage.

Oh, but about one of those trees...

UPDATE: Two days later, on Saturday, we noticed the A/C was not blowing cold air again! Eek. A message was left with the company and a pray was said hoping that the warranty would apply and it wasn't a new leak! They sent a repair guy back out -- and he confirmed the very obvious problem: The fan in the outside unit had fallen off! Weird. It was inside the unit but laying at the bottom and the rod was just spinning with no blades to circulate air. It remains a mystery as to how and when that happened: bad timing and it just happened to work itself free 2 days after service? was it loosed earlier by the technician when the original problem was being diagnosed and not tightened back? sabatage? Not sure we will ever find out... But thankfully, there was no charge and it was a quick fix!