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Cold and sticky at the same time is the Valley complaint
It is almost never a lack of capacity. It is usually too much of it, or air arriving from somewhere it should not, and both are things you can measure rather than argue about.
The calls we take most
No cooling in the heat
The week everybody calls. Diagnosed and priced before anything is fitted, with the repair figure given separately from any replacement figure so you can compare them yourself rather than take one number on trust.
Cold but sticky
A system that satisfies the thermostat fast never runs long enough to take moisture out, so the house is cold and damp at once. We measure indoor humidity and cycle times before anybody talks about a bigger machine, because a bigger machine makes this worse rather than better.
Water where it should not be
A drain pan overflowing into a ceiling is the most common expensive failure here, and it is almost always a blocked drain rather than a broken machine. Clearing it is routine; a float switch to stop it happening again costs very little.
The house smells of the garage
Car exhaust, fuel, solvent or just hot garage air arriving indoors. That is a return leak, it is measurable, and it is on the signature page in full because it matters more than people realise.
Annual service
Coils, drains proved rather than glanced at, filter fit, electrical connections, charge against the manufacturer’s target and combustion testing, with the readings recorded so this year can be compared with last year.
Before you buy, sell or let
What is installed, how old each unit is from its serial number, what condition it is in and what putting it right would realistically cost. In writing, quickly.
Three things about moisture that change what we recommend here
Nine months of cooling season in some of the most humid air in Texas makes this the thing that separates a comfortable house from an uncomfortable one.
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Moisture leaves while the coil is wet
Cooling drops the temperature quickly. Drying takes sustained running with a cold, wet coil. Anything that shortens the run — too much capacity, a restricted filter, poor airflow — reduces the drying without reducing the cooling, and that is the complaint.
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The fan setting matters more than people think
Leaving the blower on continuously rather than on auto re-evaporates the water sitting on the coil and blows it straight back into the house between cycles. It is free to change and it is the single most common self-inflicted humidity problem we find.
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Leaks bring humidity in with the air
A leaking return in a garage or an attic pulls in air at outdoor humidity, all day. Sealing it reduces the moisture the system has to deal with before any equipment is involved, and it costs a fraction of equipment.
The cheapest failure to prevent, and the most expensive to ignore
A cooling coil running for nine months produces a great deal of water, and all of it goes down one small pipe. In this climate that pipe grows things. When it blocks, the pan overflows, and where the air handler is in an attic the water goes through a ceiling.
What we do about it: prove the drain rather than look at it — pour water through and watch it come out the other end; clear and flush the line; check the trap is the right shape and actually holding; and fit a float switch that shuts the system down before the pan overflows if there is not one already.
What you can do: look at the secondary drain outlet, usually a pipe stub under an eave. If you ever see water dripping from it, the primary drain is blocked and the float switch is the only thing standing between you and a ceiling. Call somebody that week.
Four things we say to homeowners here
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Set the fan to auto
If your thermostat fan is set to on rather than auto, change it today. It costs nothing, and in this climate it is the commonest reason a house is cold and still sticky.
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Bigger is worse here, not safer
An oversized system satisfies the thermostat before it has dried anything. In humid air that is the difference between comfortable and merely cold.
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Seal the return before buying capacity
A leaking return in a garage or attic brings in hot, humid air all day. Sealing it reduces the work the system has to do and costs a fraction of a machine.
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A gas appliance with no carbon monoxide alarm is the one urgent item
Everything else on this page can wait for a convenient week. That cannot — and in a house with equipment in the garage there should be an alarm in the house as well as one near the garage door.