When the outdoor unit goes quiet, or too loud
Most Hobart AC calls start with a sound. A grinding or squealing from the unit in the side yard. Or worse, no sound at all from the fan on top while the compressor hums underneath. That’s usually the condenser fan motor or the capacitor that feeds it. Both are repairs, and both are common.
If the fan isn’t turning, shut the AC off at the thermostat. Without that fan, the unit can’t get rid of heat and the compressor runs hot. Then call us. A real person answers day or night and tells you the visit cost before a tech heads out from Munster.
Hobart houses, Hobart summers
Hobart mixes older frame and brick homes around downtown and Lake George with newer subdivisions on the edges of town. The older houses often got central air years after they were built, so the condenser sits on a small pad by the foundation and the lines run through a basement that was never planned for them. Newer homes tend to have bigger systems and longer line sets. We work on both, and we know where each one tends to fail.
Humid summer air in Northwest Indiana makes an AC work twice: once to cool the air and again to pull water out of it. When a part gets weak, you feel it first as a sticky house, then as a warm one.
Quick checks before you call
- Make sure the thermostat is set to COOL and a few degrees below the room.
- Replace the filter if it’s gray or dusty.
- Look at the breaker for the outdoor unit and the shutoff box on the wall beside it.
- Clear leaves, grass clippings and anything stacked against the condenser. It needs open space around it to breathe.
- If the copper lines are iced, turn cooling off and run the fan until the ice melts.
If the AC is still warm after that, or the breaker trips again, stop resetting it and call. Repeated resets on a failing part can hurt the compressor. We’ll tell you straight on the phone if it sounds like something you can handle yourself.
Signs your AC needs a repair
- Warm or barely cool air from the vents while the unit runs
- Grinding, squealing, buzzing or rapid clicking from the outdoor unit
- The fan on top of the condenser isn’t spinning
- Ice on the copper lines or the indoor coil
- Water on the floor near the furnace
- The system turns on and off every few minutes
If the house feels damp even with the AC running, read why a house stays humid with the AC on. Sometimes the fix is a setting, not a service call.
How a repair visit goes
- A person answers. Night or weekend, you get a person, not a phone menu. We give you the diagnostic fee up front.
- We test, then show you. The tech checks the electrical parts, fan motor, refrigerant pressures and coils, then shows you what failed.
- Price on paper. You get the repair price in writing before any work starts.
- We fix it and run it. We stay until the house is cooling and the readings look right.
Old isn’t the same as broken
A 15-year-old AC with a worn fan motor needs a fan motor. It doesn’t need a new condenser, a new coil and a matching furnace. Our techs aren’t on commission, so they have no reason to push a system you don’t need.
If the compressor is gone or the coil is leaking badly on an older unit, the math can change. When that happens, the repair price and the replacement price go on the same sheet. You pick. If you do end up needing a new system, here’s how our installs work.
Call from Hobart
Hot house? Call (219) 555-0142, or use the form below for a callback. See how AC repair works across the area, or look up the rest of our service area.
