Plumbing and AC questions, answered

No, and the answer isn’t negotiable. A refrigerant circuit is sealed; nothing uses it up. If it’s low, there’s a hole, and adding more sends the new gas out of the same hole at your expense. Knowingly venting refrigerant is illegal under Section 608 of the Clean Air Act.

We find it instead: nitrogen at pressure, an electronic detector, soap where it alarms. It’s commonly a Schrader core or a flare, and those are cheap. If it’s the evaporator coil, we’ll tell you what a coil costs against a system and let you weigh it.

Maybe. It’s just as likely to be airflow. A dirty filter or a dirty coil restricts air; less air means the refrigerant can’t boil off, the coil drops below 32° and the moisture on it freezes.

Low charge gets to the same block of ice a different way. The readings separate them, and you can’t take them until it’s thawed.

Check the condensate drain first. There’s usually a float switch on the drain line or in the pan, and when the drain blocks it stops the system on purpose to keep water out of your ceiling. Nothing is broken.

If the pan is holding water, that’s very likely it. The line still wants clearing properly, and the reason it blocked is worth knowing.

Possibly. A run capacitor is the most common failure on a home system, and the easiest to oversell. Ask for the number: it’s stamped with its rating and tolerance, usually ±6%. If it measures inside that, it’s fine.

A capacitor and relay that give the compressor a bigger shove at startup. It genuinely helps on a long line set or a weak supply, and it will usually get a tiring compressor through a summer. That second use is a walking stick, not a cure, and we’ll say which one it is.

It’s a coin toss. Sizing is a load calculation on your actual house. Oversizing feels safe and isn’t: an oversized system shuts off before it dehumidifies, and in Florida that means a clammy house at 74°.

Because most home equipment is designed around about 0.5 inch of static pressure, and many houses measure well above it. A new system behind ducts like that fails the same way the old one did.

No. Never. That valve is the only thing between a failed thermostat and a tank with enough stored energy to go through a roof.

The drip is usually thermal expansion in a closed system. The fix is a correctly sized and charged expansion tank. Its discharge pipe must run downhill to somewhere a person can see it, full size, ending near the floor.

Could be, and it could equally be the hot-water recirculation loop: a crossover valve under a far sink that fails open looks exactly like a slab leak. One is an afternoon and a small valve; the other is jackhammers. We rule out the loop first.

Almost certainly not. Drains are waste and a repipe is supply. Slow drains in older Tampa homes are usually cast iron, and a camera tells you whether clearing it is a fix or a delay.

There’s a diagnostic charge for a service call, told to you on the phone before we come. It covers the diagnosis and the readings, and you keep the report whether or not you go ahead.

What we don’t do is a free call that’s really a sales visit, priced back into whatever gets sold.

Monday to Saturday. If water is coming out of something right now, call rather than typing, and find your main shut-off first.

Yes, for both plumbing and air conditioning. Your technician will have both on the truck.