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Upstairs is hot, downstairs is fine, and it has always been like that
The single most common call we take in Carlsbad, and the one where the obvious answer — a bigger unit — is most often wrong. Here is what we do instead.
Houses, condominiums and rental property
Nothing is working
No cooling in August, no heat on a cold morning, a system short-cycling, a breaker that keeps going, or water staining a ceiling under an attic air handler. We diagnose first, tell you what is wrong and what it costs, and only then discuss whether repair or replacement is the better use of the money.
One floor is unbearable
Before anybody sells you equipment: the two floors get measured separately. Airflow at the registers, static pressure, return capacity, and the condition of the attic duct runs. Flex duct crushed against a truss or disconnected at a boot is extremely common here, and it costs a fraction of a system.
Annual service
Coil cleaning, drain clearing, filter fit checked rather than assumed, electrical connections, refrigerant charge against the manufacturer’s target, and combustion testing on gas furnaces. Readings written down, so next year has something to compare against.
Before you buy
A survey of what is installed, how old each unit actually is from its serial number, what condition it is in and what the realistic cost of putting it right would be. In writing, quickly, because escrow does not wait.
Replacement
A room-by-room load calculation before a size is named. We will not simply match the tonnage that is up there now, because the unit that is up there now may well have been oversized in the first place, and an oversized system cools without dehumidifying and cycles itself to an early death.
Rental property
Owners and managers who are not local. Tenant reported the fault, we attend, we report back with photographs and a price, and nothing gets authorised that you have not seen in writing.
Salt air is a real factor, and it is not an upsell
What it actually does
Salt-laden air corrodes the aluminium fins and the copper of an outdoor coil, and it works on the cabinet, the fasteners and the electrical contacts. Closer to the water, the effect is faster. That is chemistry rather than a sales argument, and you can see it on a coil with a torch.
What it means practically: coils on the coast side want rinsing with clean water more often than inland ones, and a unit on an exposed west-facing side wall is in a harsher place than one tucked behind a garage.
What we will not claim
We will not tell you a coating or a particular brand will give you a specific number of extra years, because the number depends on how far from the water you are, which way the unit faces and how often it is rinsed — and nobody can honestly put a figure on that for your house from the street.
What we will do is look at your coil, tell you what condition it is in now, and say whether the placement is making it worse.
Things we say to homeowners that other people may not
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A bigger system will not fix a duct problem
If the air is not reaching the upstairs rooms, more capacity at the source pushes harder against the same restriction. You get a louder house and a larger bill.
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Your two systems do not have to match
Matched pairs are a showroom idea. Two systems of different ages and different brands, each sized correctly for what it serves and each maintained, is a completely normal and perfectly good house.
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Age alone is not a reason to replace
An old system that holds its charge, moves the air it should and passes its safety checks is an old system that works. Age changes the arithmetic on an expensive repair. It does not by itself justify a replacement.
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A gas appliance and no carbon monoxide alarm is the one urgent thing
Everything else on this page can wait for a convenient week. That cannot. Fit one, and have the furnace combustion tested and the heat exchanger inspected.