You’re probably familiar with hard starting in vehicle engines. You turn on the ignition in an old car, and the motor grunts, grumbles, and struggles before it starts. This happens more often in colder climates than ours, but everyone knows what a hard-starting engine sounds like.
An air conditioning system can also hard start, although it makes different noises. Buzzing and humming sounds from the outdoor condenser cabinet indicate the compressor in the AC is fighting to get started. An air conditioner making a general racket when it turns on is probably hard starting.
And if your home’s AC is hard starting, don’t let it continue!
One of the first things we recommend people check when their air conditioning system suddenly stops working (fans, compressor, all of it) is to check the electrical panel. The circuit breaker to the air conditioning system may have tripped and cut off the electricity. Resetting the tripped breaker will restore the AC to normal working order.
Here’s the standard way central air conditioners all used to work: the air conditioned by the evaporator coil is pushed into the ventilation system by the blower fan in the air handler, sending the air to every vent in the house. On the surface, this sounds like exactly what a central AC is supposed to do.
Southern California summers are wonderful—and sometimes not so wonderful when the serious July, August, and September heat waves hit. Air conditioning systems run often during the middle of the year, and the drain they place on electricity means higher utility bills throughout the season.
The first serious week of warm weather for the middle of the year in Southern California is a good time to watch carefully the performance of your AC. If the air conditioner is starting off with poor performance that doesn’t keep your home cooled down the way it should, you want to have the proper 
Air conditioning systems get to work early in the year in Southern California. Unfortunately, that means they’re also likely to start showing signs of malfunctions earlier as well—extra time for the stress to set in.
In our last post, we wrote about why it’s important to schedule air conditioning maintenance service before the summer weather arrives. There are many potential AC malfunctions a maintenance inspection can catch, and one of these is noticing that the pressure of the refrigerant in the air conditioner has dropped. This usually means a leak a sprung somewhere, allowing refrigerant to escape. If this is the case, your technician can patch up the leak and put in the amount of refrigerant that was lost to restore pressure. You can trust our technicians with these services for your 
At Saddleback, we offer membership in our Member Value Program (MVP). We offer different program levels depending on your needs: a Plumbing Value Program, an HVAC program, and the ALL STAR Value Plan for Comprehensive Heating, Cooling, & Plumbing System Coverage. Of course, we recommend customers take advantage of the extensive ALL STAR Value Plan so they can have three major home maintenance services taken care of annually.
The simple answer is: No. If you see ice forming on your air conditioner (probably along the indoor coils), turn off the system and call for repair services from our team right away. The AC needs to be fixed, and it’s a repair only professionals can correctly diagnose and perform.