Air conditioning systems are equipped with evaporator and condenser coils, which are respectively housed in indoor and outdoor enclosures. These coils are key components that make it possible for air conditioners to produce cool air. In today’s post, local air conditioning and
furnace replacement contractor Cooper Bros discusses the importance of having matched evaporator and condenser coils.
How Do Evaporators and Condensers Work?
Air conditioners cool indoor air by putting a substance called refrigerant through various stages of compression and decompression. Refrigerant is very cold when it passes through the evaporator coils located in the indoor unit. At this stage, it does two things: it absorbs heat from the room and helps generate cool air with the aid of an air blower. The less-than-cold refrigerant is then compressed and moves on to the condenser coils. As it decompresses, it expels heat through cooling fins in the outdoor enclosure and returns to a cold state as it makes its way back to the evaporator coils.
Mismatched Evaporator and Condenser Coils
Every brand-new air conditioning unit comes with matching evaporator and condenser coils. Daily wear affects them differently. Later in their service life, the differences in their capacity become more apparent, resulting in a mismatch that causes a decline in air conditioning efficiency. The good news is that an
A/C repair technician should be able to replace one or both sets of coils.
Homeowners often ask us why we don’t replace worn-out coils with higher-capacity ones to compensate for the relatively faster wear. The answer is simple: this would create a mismatch in the other direction, which doesn’t really fix the problem. It’s like replacing a car tire with one sized for a truck: not only wouldn’t the new one wear the same, it also wouldn’t work with the rest of the tires, let alone with the car. The mismatched evaporator and condenser coils would still exhibit the same problems, like a raised system workload and increased energy consumption.
Cooper Bros is your leading provider of heating and air conditioning services, including home
furnace repair.
