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Diagnosis before parts, the attic measured rather than inspected, and a straight answer about whether a repair is still the better arithmetic.
Find the cause, then change the part
A part that has failed usually failed because of something. A contactor with burnt points has been arcing, and the reason is often a loose connection or a compressor drawing more than it should. A capacitor that has gone has often been cooked by heat or by a fan that was already struggling. A blower motor that burns out on a system with restricted ductwork will do it again.
So we look for the cause before we quote the part. Sometimes there genuinely is no cause and things simply fail at fifteen years old — and we will say that too, because inventing a deeper problem is its own kind of dishonesty.
Six things
No cooling, no heat
Checked in order of cost. Capacitors, contactors, float switches, filters, thermostats and breakers before anything expensive is on the table.
Leak search
If the system is low, something is leaking. We look for it, we show you what we found, and we give you the choice with the repair cost next to the replacement cost.
Duct testing
Leakage and static pressure measured. In an attic that reaches 130°F, a return-side leak is pulling that air into your system every minute it runs.
The room that never keeps up
A damper, a crushed flex run, a missing return, or a room added without any duct. We find out which before proposing anything.
Condensate
Primary drain, secondary pan and float switch, tested. With a coil above a ceiling this is the cheapest insurance in the house.
Replacement
Sized from the house, permitted and tested, with the ductwork assessed first — and only after we have told you honestly whether repair still makes sense.
Worth hearing early
The same part twice is information
If a capacitor or a contactor has been replaced twice in three summers, the part is not the problem. Something is running hot, drawing hard or being starved of air, and until that is found you are on a schedule.
Bigger is not safer
An oversized system cools the thermostat quickly and stops, so it never runs long enough to take moisture out. You get a house that is cold and still feels heavy, and a compressor starting and stopping all day.
A dusty house is usually a filter path
Not the grade — the path. If the cabinet does not seal round the filter, or the return draws attic air through a gap at the plenum, most of the air is going around whatever you fitted.
When a repair we did does not hold
If we replaced a part and the same fault returns, we come back and look at it again, and the conversation starts from what we got wrong rather than from what you will owe. Sometimes the honest answer is that the first diagnosis was right and a second, unrelated thing has failed — in which case we will show you why, and it is a new job.
What we will not do is treat a returning fault as a coincidence twice. The signature page sets out how to tell the difference, including when it points at us.