Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning Blog

May 30, 2016

Integral to the successful cooling of your home during the hottest time of the year is the level of refrigerant in your air conditioning system. Your air conditioner is designed to operate with a very specific amount of refrigerant, which is the heat transfer fluid that makes removing heat from the air in your home possible in the first place. With that in mind, you may be wondering if you should contact a technician to recharge your refrigerant before using your air conditioner in Fort Collins, CO this year. The answer is hopefully “no,” as well explain in the following post. 

Refrigerant Is Recycled, Not Consumed

Ideally, the amount of refrigerant in your air conditioner is going to be the exact same on the day that you replace it as it was the very first time the system was charged. Unlike gasoline or other fuels, refrigerant is not consumed or used up. Instead, it simply changes from a liquid to a gas and back again, over and over, as it absorbs and disperses heat during the cooling process. This is not to say, unfortunately, that you will never have to recharge your air conditioner.

While refrigerant may not be consumed by your air conditioner, it may certainly leak out of a compromised system. If your air conditioner is only a season or two old and is leaking refrigerant, it is possible that there is an issue with its manufacture. If you have an older air conditioner, it is more likely that the system has suffered damage at some point. In either event, having the problem resolved, the leak repaired, and the refrigerant recharged ASAP is a must.

If you notice ice developing on your AC, if you have warm air blowing out of your vents, or you can hear a hissing coming from your refrigerant lines, then you may have a refrigerant leak. Let us know if you have any reason to suspect that this is the case. Failure to act could lead to serious problems with your home cooling system.

Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning is here to complete your AC repairs properly.

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