When your Houston home isn’t getting as cool or warm as it’s supposed to, your first instinct might be to blame your air conditioner or heater. But there may be another problem affecting your heating and cooling efficiency: your air handler!

These HVAC support units are common in hot-weather climates like Houston. They keep treated air circulating throughout your home and can also include coils and heat strips to keep the air cool or warm as it moves through your vents. When air handlers stop working, it can take a while to figure out the problem.

How Do You Know Your Air Handler Has a Problem?

Your air handler helps move treated air through your duct system, delivering it to rooms throughout your home while keeping it cool or warm. When an air handler goes down, you may find that your electric bill goes up as your HVAC system works harder to compensate.

In Houston, cool air needs to reach every room in the house. The rooms furthest from your HVAC equipment may feel too warm as cool, conditioned air struggles to reach them without help from the air handler.

Problems You Might Run into with Your Air Handler

You probably won’t notice your air handler until something breaks; when it’s working perfectly, it hums along quietly, doing its job in the background. When things do go wrong, it’s usually one of a few common issues.

Here’s what to watch out for and what may be causing the problem:

  1. My Air Handler’s Not Turning On

There are a range of reasons why your air handler may not turn on. Some may not even have to do with the air handler: a malfunctioning thermostat can cause parts of your HVAC system (including your air handler) not to run when they should. The circuit breaker to your malfunctioning air handler(s) might also be tripped.

Here’s how to tell if the problem is with your air handler: Check the interior of the unit. Look for ice on the coils—a sign they need to be cleaned—or a clogged air filter you need to replace. If there’s nothing visibly wrong, it could be a mechanical issue such as a burnt-out motor, capacitor, or any electrical wiring in the device. You can replace a clogged filter yourself, but you should trust other air handler repairs to a professional.

  1. My Air Handler’s Not Blowing

If the air handler fan’s not working when the cooling kicks on, you may have a broken motor. Air handler/blower motors last about 10-15 years with regular air conditioner maintenance. Without regular maintenance, the motor may give out sooner.

A professional HVAC technician can repair or replace a broken motor, getting your fan up and running.

  1. My Air Handler Won’t Turn Off

Hearing a constant blowing fan can get annoying after a while, but it’s also wasting money and stressing your HVAC system. First, check your thermostat to ensure the fan isn’t set to “on” and to make sure the device is reading the temperature in the room correctly.

If your air conditioner constantly comes on along with the blower fan, the AC unit itself may be too small to handle the size of your home. An HVAC technician can tell you whether you need a larger air conditioner installed to keep up with the workload.

If your air handler is the only thing that turns on, without an AC accompaniment, your air handler likely has a faulty relay switch or a short circuit in it. This keeps the thermostat from effectively communicating the correct temperature settings to the fan, so it just runs constantly. An HVAC professional can repair these faulty parts.

  1. My Air Handler Is Very Noisy

A rattling or banging noise as your air handler runs likely means that there’s a broken, potentially loose part. The loose metal of a broken part causes a racket as it hits the metal inside of the air handler. It can also do more damage the longer the problem is left untreated. As the broken part hits off the interior of your HVAC, it can crack or break even more parts, pushing the repair bill higher. Call a professional to replace the broken part as soon as possible to prevent further damage.

  1. My Air Handler’s Freezing Up in Summer

This is likely a result of dirty coils, which can get grimy from dust and debris in the vents. This grime prevents warm air from effectively reheating the refrigerant in the coils, leading them to freeze. Change your air handler filters and schedule professional air handler maintenance to clean the coils. If the ice is accompanied by a sweet chemical smell, turn off your AC and call for emergency HVAC repairs; you likely have a refrigerant leak, which is dangerous.

  1. My Air Handler’s Leaking Water on the Floor

Your first step when your air handler is dripping water is to check for a dirty air filter. Because clogged filters can cause icing, they may also lead to dripping if the air in the vents gets warm enough to melt the ice. If the filters are clean, call a professional to check for a clogged condensate drain, a damaged drain pan, or even an incorrectly installed unit. These issues may stem from a different part of your AC system, but the leak may still end up looking like it’s coming from your air handler.

Get Professional, Lasting Air Handler Repair or Replacement

Air handlers have a lot of moving parts where things can go wrong. Call the HVAC pros of One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Houston to check over an air handler that’s not performing as it should. We can diagnose and fix the problem, so you can get back to enjoying a properly cooled or heated home. Call us at (713) 352-7903 or book online.