DIY HVAC repair guides, industry news, product spotlights, and expert tips from the team at Open To Public HVAC Parts in Dallas, TX.
The inducer motor is the first thing that kicks on when your furnace starts a heating cycle. It’s a small blower that pulls air through the heat exchanger and vents combustion gases out through the flue pipe. If the inducer motor doesn’t run — or doesn’t run fast enough — your furnace will lock out…
If your AC is running but the air coming out of the vents isn’t cold, low refrigerant is one of the most common causes. Unlike a bad capacitor or contactor that you can swap out yourself, refrigerant work requires an EPA-certified technician. But knowing the signs helps you avoid getting overcharged for a misdiagnosis. The…
That gray metal box on the wall next to your outdoor AC unit is called the disconnect box, and it’s one of the most important safety devices in your HVAC system. Before you do any work on your air conditioner — even something as simple as cleaning the coils — you need to know how…
Your furnace has a built-in safety device called a pressure switch that verifies the inducer motor is pulling combustion gases out of the heat exchanger before the burners light. If the pressure switch doesn’t close, the furnace locks out and won’t fire — even though everything else seems fine. This is one of the most…
Your outdoor AC unit pulls air through aluminum fins to release heat from the refrigerant. Over time, those fins collect dirt, grass clippings, cottonwood fluff, and other debris that acts like a blanket — trapping heat inside the system and forcing your compressor to work overtime. A dirty condenser coil is one of the most…
Every time your thermostat calls for cooling, a small but critical part called the contactor closes a high-voltage circuit to power on your compressor and condenser fan. Think of it as a heavy-duty light switch controlled by your thermostat’s 24V signal. When a contactor fails, your AC either won’t turn on at all, or it…
If your HVAC system won’t turn on at all — no fan, no heat, no cooling — the problem might be a bad transformer. The transformer steps down your home’s 120V or 240V power to the 24V that runs the thermostat and control circuits. When it fails, everything downstream goes dead. The good news: testing…
When your AC compressor won’t start, it’s easy to jump to the worst-case scenario — a dead compressor that costs thousands to replace. But more often than not, the compressor itself is fine and a much cheaper part is the real problem. Before you start shopping for a new system, work through this checklist. The…
Every Dallas homeowner knows the drill — your electric bill doubles or triples between June and September. Some of that is just the reality of cooling a house when it’s 105 degrees outside. But if your bill jumped more than usual, or it’s significantly higher than your neighbors’ bills, your AC system might be working…
If your AC trips the circuit breaker every time it tries to start — or runs for a while and then trips — something is drawing more current than the circuit can handle. Resetting the breaker and hoping for the best isn’t the answer. The breaker is protecting your wiring from overheating, and the root…