Diagnose, measure, write it down, price it. Then you decide.

The call, and what we ask before we come

What is it doing, how long has it been doing it, and has anybody else been out. That last question is not idle: if a truck was here in June and added refrigerant, that changes what we expect to find and it changes what we test first. We will also ask you to check two or three things yourself, because if a tripped breaker or a blocked drain float fixes it, you should not be paying us for the drive.

Diagnose — and a symptom is not a diagnosis

Ice on a line set is not a fault, it is a consequence, and it has two parents: not enough air across the coil, or not enough refrigerant in it. Both make a coil run below freezing, both ice it, both then make the problem worse because ice restricts the airflow that was already the issue. Anyone who names a cause while the coil is still frozen is guessing, because you cannot read pressures through a block of ice.

So the first thing that happens is usually nothing: fan on, cooling off, and we go look at the filter, the coil face, the ducts and the drain while it thaws.

Measure — the same eleven readings, every time

Suction and liquid pressure with their saturation temperatures, line temperatures, superheat, subcooling, supply and return air with the split, total external static pressure, capacitor microfarads against the rating on its own case, and amp draw on the compressor and condenser fan against the rated load on the data plate. On the water side it is incoming pressure, static and running, and the temperature at a fixture rather than at the tank.

They are always the same readings because the point of them is comparison — to the manufacturer's target, and to what your system read the last time we were here.

Write it down, including the ones that were fine

A report with only the bad readings on it is a sales document. The value of the good ones is that they are the parts nobody can now sell you: if the capacitor measured 34.6 µF against a 35 µF rating, that is on your paperwork, and the next person who tells you it needs a capacitor has to explain the number.

Price it — after the measuring, never during

Repairs are quoted as a job with the part and the labor named. Anything we found but were not asked about goes on the report at $0.00 with a note, not as a line waiting for a signature. If we think something is going to fail we will say so and say why, and it stays a note until you ask for a price.

Then you decide — and no is a complete answer

Including deciding to get a second opinion, which is easier to do when you are holding the actual numbers. Nobody sits in your kitchen with a tablet running a payment plan while you think about it.