AC Repair FAQ — Fort Lauderdale, FL

There is no flat number because every repair is different. A capacitor swap on a standard residential unit is a short job with an inexpensive part. A refrigerant leak buried inside the air handler in a house built in the 1970s takes longer and costs more. The age of the unit, the brand, and how hard it is to access all affect the final number. Call for a free estimate.

Most common repairs — capacitors, contactors, thermostat wiring — get done in one visit, usually under two hours. If a part needs to be ordered, add a day or two. Refrigerant leaks that require coil removal take longer, sometimes most of a day. We will tell you the expected time after the inspection.

A frozen coil usually means one of two things: restricted airflow from a dirty filter or blocked vents, or low refrigerant from a leak. In Fort Lauderdale, dust and humidity build up on filters fast — check yours first. If the filter is clean and the coil still freezes, you likely have a refrigerant leak that needs to be found and fixed.

Minor repairs like replacing a capacitor or a thermostat do not require a permit. Full unit replacements and major refrigerant system work in Broward County typically do. Skipping a required permit can cause problems when you sell the house. We will tell you before we start whether the job you need requires one.

If the unit is under 10 years old and the repair is straightforward, fixing it usually makes sense. Once a unit is past 15 years, especially in Fort Lauderdale where the salt air eats at components, repeated repairs add up fast. We give you a straight answer on this after the inspection — we are not going to keep fixing a unit that is on its way out just to run up repair bills.

Homes in neighborhoods like Dorsey-Riverbend and Croissant Park were built in the 1950s and 1960s with narrow ductwork that does not move enough air for modern AC units. The salt air blowing off the Atlantic corrodes copper coils and electrical contacts. Old wiring also causes voltage problems that kill compressors over time. These are fixable, but a technician needs to see the whole system, not just the outdoor unit.