No safety concern? Try these before you call
Takes two or three minutes and solves the broken AC problem more often than you’d expect.
Thermostat: confirm it’s set to COOL, the setpoint is below the current indoor temperature, and the display is actually on. Sounds too simple. Isn’t always.
Air filter: pull it out and look at it. If it’s visibly clogged, replace it. A severely restricted filter starves the system of airflow and can ice the coil fast, especially in humid Austin summers.
Breaker: if the HVAC breaker tripped, reset it one time. One time only. If it trips again immediately, stop. That’s an electrical fault and resetting it again won’t fix anything, it’ll just mask a problem that needs professional diagnosis.
Outdoor unit: walk outside and clear any leaves or debris from around the condenser. Don’t open any panels. Just make sure the unit has room to breathe.
Ice on the lines or coil: if you see ice buildup, turn the system off and leave it off. Running a frozen system damages the compressor. It needs to fully thaw before a technician can do anything useful, and that can take a few hours depending on how bad it is.
Done all that and still no cooling? Call us at (512) 575-4377.
What happens when you call
We ask a few quick questions before anything else. What’s happening, how long it’s been going on, whether anyone in the home has health vulnerabilities. Kids, elderly family members, anyone with a condition that makes extreme heat dangerous. That information affects how we prioritize the call, not just whether we answer it.
From there we give you a real arrival window. Not an optimistic number designed to get you off the phone. Call volume during Austin heat waves compresses everyone’s availability simultaneously, and we’d rather tell you two hours than promise forty-five minutes and show up late. Safety situations and dangerous indoor temperatures move to the front of the line.
When the technician arrives, diagnosis comes before everything else. Not a parts swap based on what the problem sounded like over the phone. We inspect airflow, electrical connections, controls, drainage, and refrigerant performance to find the actual root cause. Once we know what failed, we explain it clearly and walk you through repair options with real pricing before any work begins.
Nothing starts without your approval.
The AC Emergency calls we get most often
AC running but not producing cold air, or struggling to keep up even at full blast. System that won’t turn on at all, or that starts and shuts itself off after a few minutes. Sounds that weren’t there last week, banging, screeching, grinding, hissing, clicking. Ice forming on the coil or the copper refrigerant lines. Water pooling around the indoor unit or coming from the drain line. Breaker that trips and won’t stay reset.
We see all of these regularly. Most of them show up in August. A disproportionate number on Fridays, for reasons nobody has ever been able to explain.
When to call 911 instead of AC company
Smoke, sparks, or active fire: 911. Anyone showing heat illness symptoms, confusion, fainting, severe weakness, stopping sweating in extreme heat: 911. CO alarm sounding: 911, outside first.
Gas smell: 911 and your gas utility, from outside.
We’re an HVAC company. There are situations where we are genuinely not the right first call, and being clear about that matters more than trying to be everything.
On pricing
Emergency AC calls pricing depends on what failed, what parts are needed, and how the system is installed. Attic units take longer than ground-level installs. After-hours calls may carry a dispatch fee, ask about that when you call and we’ll tell you exactly what applies before anyone comes out.
What stays consistent regardless of when you call: diagnosis first, repair options explained clearly, pricing before work starts. No surprises after the fact.
Most August emergencies were preventable with the seasonal AC Tune-Up
Not a comfortable thing to say, but it’s true. A weak capacitor that would have shown up on a spring tune-up. A condensate drain that was starting to slow in April. A coil that needed cleaning before the system had to work its hardest. Small findings that never got the chance to become a Friday night breakdown.
Shield Membership is $14.95 a month, or $179 prepaid for the year. Two precision tune-ups annually, 48-hour priority scheduling when something does go wrong, 20% off repairs, and no diagnostic fee. The priority scheduling is the part that tends to matter most to people who’ve already been through one August emergency and don’t want to repeat the experience of calling six companies and hearing four days out from all of them.
View Shield Membership Details
Proudly Serving Austin and Surrounding Area
We will rush in to Austin, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Cedar Park, Bee Cave, Lakeway, Georgetown, Leander, Buda, Kyle, Manor, and surrounding communities to help you . If you’re in the greater Austin area, call and we’ll confirm coverage.
Call now at (512) 575-4377. Live answer, any hour, any day.
Questions we hear a lot
Do you actually answer at 2am?
How fast can you get here?
Depends on the day and call volume. During heat waves the whole city calls at once and we won’t pretend otherwise. We give you an honest arrival window when you call.
My system is frozen. What do I do right now?
If the AC system is frozen, turn it off and leave it off. Replace a clogged filter if you can do that safely. Then call us. Running a frozen system causes compressor damage. It needs to fully thaw before we can diagnose what caused it, usually an airflow restriction or a refrigerant issue.
Breaker tripped. Should I reset it?
If a breaker tripped once, yes. If it trips again, stop. Repeated tripping means there’s an electrical fault that needs diagnosis, not another reset attempt.
Is a refrigerant leak an emergency?
Refrigerant leak can be an AC emergency, especially if cooling dropped off suddenly. Don’t try to recharge it yourself. Refrigerant handling is federally regulated and DIY attempts typically make the underlying problem worse rather than better. We locate and fix the actual source of the leak.
Do you handle heating emergencies too?
Yes, we do provide emergency heating service. Furnace failures, heating system issues, safety checks on fuel-burning equipment during cold snaps. Same number, same process.
