A Diagnostic “Brain Cloud”

Air Conditioning Diagnostic Service For The Buda, Kyle, New Braunfels, San Marcos Area

When you start looking seriously at how the HVAC industry approaches system Performance Diagnostics during routine air conditioning service and heating service, it is truly amazing. When it comes to system performance diagnostics… every logical, rational, and reasonable diagnostic procedure that technicians commonly use in every other situation … gets thrown under the bus by technicians doing air conditioning service and heating service.

Think of it this way: when a technician approaches a system that isn’t working when performing air conditioning or heating repairs, they always start with the BIG PICTURE first. Their first diagnostic question is “what is making noise and what isn’t?”

That is to say what is running and what isn’t? Any reasonable diagnostic procedure starts like this ….by excluding everything that is right … and then wisely concentrating the available time and resources looking for what isn’t right. But for some reason this time honored process used for repairing air conditioning and heating systems is ignored when evaluating air conditioning performance during air conditioning service or heating service calls or even after system repairs have been completed.

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For example: If the outdoor condenser fan motor is running but the compressor is not … A technician can reasonably eliminate …. the voltage to the indoor unit, the transformer, the thermostat, the control wiring to the outside unit, the contactor, and high voltage to the outside unit from their diagnostic plan.

HOWEVER: A technician with no diagnostic skills whatsoever might approach the same system by ohming the contactor coil… and then ohming the compressor… and then getting a microfarad reading on the capacitors.

IN OTHER WORDS, the person with no diagnostic skills might verify each component of the system during air conditioning service or heating service, BEFORE they look at the system as a whole.

When it comes to Performance Diagnostics, the HVAC industry seems to have develop just this kind of “diagnostic brain cloud” when evaluating system performance during air conditioning service or heating service… we forget everything we know about diagnostic procedures and start … measuring all the individual components that make up system performance … we measure refrigerant pressures, refrigerant sub cooling and super heat, and we attempt to measure air flow, we might even measure the dry bulb difference between return and supply air … and then we assume that if each of these time consuming measurements are correct … that our system performance must be correct.

Quite frankly … If this was the only way to do a system performance diagnostics … I completely understand why most companies don’t do system performance diagnostics during routine air conditioning service and heating service.

That’s why we use Total Performance Diagnostics. We start with the BIG PICTURE. We calculate total system performance first … as quickly, efficiently and accurately as possible during system repair calls and during scheduled air conditioning service and heating service.

If a 48,000 BTU system is producing 48,000 BTU’s … What’s a technician supposed to do to make it work better? Why are they going to verify refrigerant charge and release some of the system’s expensive refrigerant in the process? Why are they measuring super heat and sub cooling and why would they want to measure the static pressures in the return and supply ducts? The purpose of any air conditioning service or heating service is to verify system safety, efficiency, and operating capacity … not to see how much time a technician can take or how much money they can bill for.

It’s like getting an ohm reading on the contactor coil when the contactor is engaged and the condenser fan motor is running. They are just wasting their time and your money gathering useless information. This is no way to complete an air conditioning service call or a heating service call.

We use Total Performance Diagnostics: because it makes sense, and it makes better operating systems for our clients … and it adds real value and purpose to every AirOne Heating and Air Conditioning air conditioning service call and heating service call.