You may know the evaporator coil in your air handler plays an important part in keeping your home cool. You may not give much thought to the condenser coil since it's outside and out of sight most of the time. It's true that rain helps keep the condenser coil clean, but rain may not be enough. Here's a look at some condenser coil problems and their corresponding air conditioning repairs. 

The Coil Is Coated With Grime And Grass Clippings

A dirty condenser coil is a problem for your air conditioner because the purpose of the coil is to release heat, and if it's dirty, that can't happen very well. This causes the refrigerant to not cool your house as well as it's supposed to. If you know how to safely open the condenser once the power is off, you might rinse the grime and grass clippings away. However, you might need to scrub the coil with a brush to get it clean.

Sometimes, when the condenser coil is dirty, ice might form on the refrigerant line. Once this starts, the ice keeps getting thicker and it spreads all over the coil. You may need an air conditioning repair technician to help you with this problem. You'll need to turn your AC off so the ice can melt, then the repair technician can figure out why the coil iced over and fix the problem.

The Condenser Coil Has A Leak

One cause of the condenser coil icing over is because of low refrigerant. The air conditioning repair technician may test the refrigerant to make sure it has the right pressure. If not, they'll need to find the leak and repair it so the refrigerant can be filled.

If the refrigerant is low, your home won't cool down as well as it should. Your AC may even run longer, and that can make your electric bill higher. Refrigerant leaks need to be repaired right away.

Bent Fins Block Airflow

The condenser coil needs adequate airflow so it can cool down and release heat. Air circulates over the coil through the fins on the side of the condenser. The fins are thin metal strips that can be smashed flat fairly easily. You can probably open the fins yourself, but if you don't feel comfortable doing so, the air conditioning repair technician can open them for you while checking for other potential problems in your AC.

When you get an annual AC tuneup, straightening the fins is one of the jobs the AC technician does. That's one reason an annual visit is important, but if you missed getting a tune-up, you can call an air conditioning repair service to open the fins and clean the condenser coil so your home cools down again.