Do you know what happens when a ductless system is poorly installed? Hopefully you’ve never found out the hard way—but it’s important to be aware that ductless systems have unique needs, and if not properly installed and followed up with routine professional maintenance, your new ductless cooling and heating system can suffer. This means your overall comfort can suffer.
Ductless cooling systems are fantastic for efficiency—they allow you to have zone-controlled cooling and afford you many other benefits. They’re particularly great for homes that don’t have the space for a ducted system, or households that experience indoor air quality problems due to their ducted HVAC system. But as we said, ductless systems have unique needs—what can happen to yours if not properly installed?
Water Leaks from the Air Handlers
Each air handler is wall-mounted and connected to the outdoor unit of your ductless system through a series of connections routed through a hole in the wall behind the air handler. These connections include the power line, a refrigerant line, and a condensate line. The condensate line eliminates water moisture from the cooling process so it doesn’t enter your home instead.
But if it has a leak, it can’t do its job. If this happens, water will start collecting between the back of the air handler and your wall, until what eventually happens is that the wall material weakens and the air handler rips away and falls off. This damages your wall, naturally, and likely also damages the air handler. If you ever see a sign of water damage around one of your air handlers, be sure to call our pros right away.
A Broken Air Handler
Whether it’s because it fell off the wall or has a problem with a component due to age, you may at some point have a broken air handler. Fortunately, there’s actually a bit of a benefit with this one. If a single air handler breaks down because of something like a failed motor or some other issue, the rest of the air handlers throughout the home will still work.
The only part of your living space that loses cooling or heating is the one with the broken air handler. When just one unit ceases to work, you can and should still call for professional repairs ASAP, but in the meantime you can still enjoy the comfort of your HVAC system, just from another room.
Leaking Refrigerant Lines
A loss of refrigerant is actually fairly routine repair needs for any type of air conditioner or heat pump system—it’s not unique to just ductless systems. However what is unique is the risk involved with it.
What we mean is, if the refrigerant leak is occurring behind one of your air handlers, that means the inside of your home is being exposed to this chemical. A refrigerant leak, if not detected by sight, can be indicated by a loss of cooling or heating power, a hissing noise, and/or ice development anywhere on the system. Be sure to call us right away if you suspect this kind of leak!
For the installation or service of your air conditioning in Rio Rancho, NM, look no further than Roadrunner Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration. Contact us today.
