It's 88 degrees, the blinds are down, a box fan is doing the work your air conditioner should be doing, and the thermostat says 78 while the house feels like 84. Welcome to a Puget Sound heat wave — the three weeks a year when every AC unit in western Washington gets tested and a chunk of them fail.
Here's the honest triage list we'd give a neighbor, in order, starting with the things that cost nothing and ending with the ones that need a technician and a set of gauges.
Start with the four free checks
We get paid for diagnostic visits, and we'd still rather you try these first. A meaningful number of "AC not cooling" calls end here.
1. The thermostat is fighting you
Mode must be COOL, not AUTO or HEAT. Fan should be on AUTO, not ON — with the fan set to ON, the blower runs continuously and pushes room-temperature air between cooling cycles, which feels exactly like broken cooling. Also check the setpoint is actually below room temperature, and that nobody in the house set a schedule that lets the temperature climb during the day.
Batteries matter too. A smart thermostat with a dying battery or a lost Wi-Fi connection can drop the call for cooling without any obvious warning on screen.
2. The filter is choking the system
Air conditioning is an airflow business. A filter that hasn't been changed since spring restricts return air, drops capacity, and — in the worst case — lets the evaporator coil drop below freezing and ice over. Pull the filter out and hold it to a light. If you can't see light through it, that's your first suspect.
A one-inch filter in a Puget Sound home with pets needs changing every 1 to 3 months during the cooling season. Media filters go longer, but not forever.
3. A breaker tripped
Most systems have two disconnects — one at the electrical panel for the indoor air handler or furnace, and one outside near the condenser. If the indoor blower runs but the outdoor unit is silent, check the outdoor breaker or the pull-out disconnect by the unit. Reset it once. If it trips again immediately, stop. Repeated tripping means an electrical fault, and resetting it over and over is how a bad capacitor becomes a bad compressor.
4. The outdoor unit can't breathe
The condenser rejects heat to the outdoor air, and it needs clear space to do it. Blackberry vines, a leaning fence panel, patio furniture stacked against the cabinet, cottonwood fluff packed into the coil fins — all of it cuts capacity. Give it two feet of clearance on all sides. Rinse the coil gently with a garden hose from the inside out with the power off at the disconnect. Never use a pressure washer; the fins are soft aluminum and they bend permanently.
Then the four real repairs
If the free checks pass and the house still isn't cooling, you're into technician territory. These are the four we find most often in King, Pierce, and Thurston County homes.
5. Failed capacitor or contactor
The run capacitor is the small cylindrical component that gives the compressor and fan motor the jolt they need to start. It's the single most common failure in residential cooling equipment, and heat accelerates it — which is why capacitors fail on the hottest afternoon of the year, not in October.
Symptoms: the outdoor fan doesn't spin, or you hear a hum or click without a start. Sometimes the fan spins if you nudge it with a stick through the grille, which is a textbook capacitor tell. The contactor — the relay that closes to energize the compressor — fails in similar fashion, sometimes with visibly pitted or welded contacts.
This is a low-cost, same-visit repair in most cases, and it lives at the bottom of the $150 to $1,500 typical repair range.
6. Dirty coils, indoor or out
A condenser coil coated in dirt can't dump heat; an evaporator coil coated in dust can't absorb it. Either way the system runs long cycles, the electric bill climbs, and the house never gets comfortable. Coastal homes in Des Moines, Burien, Steilacoom, Gig Harbor, and Tacoma have a second problem — salt air corrodes coil fins and shortens equipment life, which is why we recommend corrosion-resistant coil coatings and semi-annual maintenance on waterfront properties.
A professional coil cleaning is a real fix, not a stall. It's also the maintenance item most often skipped in the ten years before a system dies early.
7. Low refrigerant from a leak, or a frozen coil
Refrigerant doesn't get used up. It circulates in a sealed loop. If the charge is low, there is a leak — a rubbed line set, a corroded coil, a bad service valve, a failed braze joint. Symptoms include weak, barely-cool air, hissing, frost on the copper lines near the indoor unit, and a system that runs all day without hitting setpoint.
A frozen evaporator coil can come from low refrigerant or from restricted airflow. Either way, the play is the same: shut cooling off, set the fan to ON to thaw the coil, and get it diagnosed. Never chip at ice.
Any contractor who wants to top off your charge without finding the leak is selling you the same repair again next summer. Ask where the leak is. If they can't tell you, that's your answer about the contractor.
We cover the same logic on the heating side in our guide to a heat pump that won't heat — different season, identical diagnostic discipline.
When to stop troubleshooting and call
Call the same day if any of these are true:
- The outdoor unit won't start at all, or the breaker trips repeatedly
- You smell burning, or hear grinding or metallic scraping
- Ice is building on the refrigerant lines or the indoor coil
- Water is pooling near the indoor unit — that's a blocked condensate drain, and it can damage flooring and framing fast
- The system runs continuously and the indoor temperature isn't dropping
- Someone in the house is elderly, very young, or medically vulnerable during a heat event
We diagnose the problem, give you the price before any work starts, and fix it the same day when the part is on the truck. Get on the schedule at ac-services or call (253) 785-4622, Monday through Friday, 8 to 6.
The repair-or-replace line
Here's the blunt math we use, and we'll tell you when repair is the right call — plenty of our five-star reviews exist because we said "you don't need a new unit."
| Situation | Usually the right move |
|---|---|
| SituationUnder 10 years old, repair under half the cost of replacement | Usually the right moveRepair it |
| Situation10 to 14 years old, small electrical part | Usually the right moveRepair it, plan the replacement |
| Situation15+ years old, four-figure repair | Usually the right moveCompare replacement seriously |
| SituationUses R-22 refrigerant | Usually the right moveReplacement almost always wins |
| SituationCompressor failure out of warranty | Usually the right moveReplacement |
For context on the replacement side: central AC installation runs $5,000 to $12,000 in standard Washington markets and $6,000 to $15,000 in affluent ones. A ducted heat pump runs $12,000 to $18,000 standard, $13,800 to $21,600 affluent, and $15,000 to $24,300 in luxury markets like Bellevue and Gig Harbor — and it replaces your heating and cooling in one system.
That last point is why we bring it up on cooling calls. If your furnace is also aging, spending money on standalone AC repair twice and then replacing both systems in three years is the expensive path. A heat pump can also qualify for up to $4,400 in PSE rebates when it replaces an existing electric or fossil-fuel system, depending on what you're replacing and what you install. Standalone AC generally does not. Programs change — we confirm your current eligibility and handle the paperwork. Note that from April 2, 2026, PSE rebates require a PSE-certified installer; Varsity qualifies.
The full price breakdown lives in our Washington heat pump cost guide.
What we'd do at your house
A cooling diagnostic at Varsity looks like this: verify the thermostat call, check static pressure and airflow, measure voltage and amp draw at the contactor and capacitor, inspect both coils, check the condensate path, and take refrigerant pressures with superheat and subcool numbers. Then you get the price before any wrench turns.
If the answer is a $200 capacitor, we install a capacitor. If the answer is that your 17-year-old condenser has a leaking coil, we say so and put replacement options in writing with Good, Better, and Best tiers. Every installation we do carries a 10-year parts and 10-year labor warranty, and most are finished in one day.
Want a real number before anyone visits? Use the instant estimate tool. Ready for a technician? Request an estimate or call (253) 785-4622. We're owner-operated out of Federal Way, we answer our own phone, and we serve 45 cities across King, Pierce, Thurston, and Kitsap counties.