Servicing the Air Conditioner

The Air Conditioner was installed in November 2020, so this is it's 5th cooling season.

 Twice already, I've had to have it serviced. 

In February, the whole system just stopped.  At that point it was heating, but it stopped and the thermostat displayed an error code that suggested the system was not configured correctly.  I called Service Wizard, and they sent out a technician.  He checked the system out and could not find a problem.  A power-off/power-on reboot of the system seemed to fix it. $192.

In April, Service Wizard came out  out and did a "26 Point AC Maintenance Checklist" and it worked fine. $45.

Then, on 28 June 2025, after the outside of the house was painted, we noticed that evening that the house seemed hot.  The temps outside during the day had been in the 90s, but not out of line for the end of June.  Looking at the thermostat, it was registering 83 degrees in the house, although it was set for 78.

The thermostat was also flashing two error codes: 177.04 and 184.08.  These basically mean that the compressor had determined that the hot coolant from inside the house was not cooling down as it went thru the compressor coils, so it shut it down.  

I called Service Wizard, but being late (9:30) on Saturday night, it went straight to voice mail.  I left a message.

It was a hot and uncomfortable night.  Especially for the dog who couldn't get cool.  At about 1:30, he decided outside was cooler than inside and went outside to lie on the grass for an hour.

In the morning, shortly after 9AM, Service Wizards called back and said they could be out here by 11AM.  When they arrived, they checked all the normal things, then went outside to check the compressor.  Eventually he determined that the compressor coils where dirty, and using a hose, washed them off.  Dirt on the coils would prevent them from cooling the coolant.  

And that seemed to do it.  The system started working again, and in a couple of hours had the house back to normal (about 4 hours to go from 84 down to 78).  The technician said I should clean the coils every 3 months or so.  He also said that cleaning the coils is part of thier jAC Maintenance Checklist, so they should have been cleaned in April, but we didn't discuss that. $219.