NASHVILLE, Tenn. - It's a part of your home you may not fully appreciate until it’s broken, and AC repair companies told NewsChannel 5 they have been overloaded, struggling to keep up with demand.
For technician Mitch Mobley a normal day could last 14 to 15 hours.
“This is number 3 today!” he said, talking about house calls he’s answered. He and his 40-man team have been working harder than ever to keep up with calls from customers like Kit Grosch.
Grosch first called Friday about a broken air conditioner. She was happy to get an appointment for Wednesday. In the days since, she’s resorted to drastic measures.
“I have a fan here and then I have a fan in the bedroom that's blowing the (extra window unit) air conditioning toward the door,” she said.
With the recent heat Grosch has not been alone. Mitch’s company Hiller said it usually fields around 70 calls a day in Nashville. Lately that number has been closer to 200.
‘We have on-call guys that have been running to the late hours of the night,” he said.
He said units have been failing with the added strain of summer. And many homeowners have been finding out about old problems for the first time, since many just recently turned on their units again.
Technicians said there's one issue causing a lot of the problems: most people have not been cleaning their AC regularly.
“A system has to breathe so if it’s clogged up with dirt, dust, grass it makes it worker harder than its already working,” Mitch said.
To beat the heat, Grosch turned to window units. She has been drinking lots of water and she said, “I’ll wrap my head in a cold towel, a wet towel and that helps.”
She hoped to get the air on before summer turned even more hot and humid.
“I've got a dog that just lays around and pants all day, so I know they’ll be thrilled,” she laughed.
One way technicians said you can help: don't turn your thermostat up to the 80’s when you're not at home. That forces your unit to work much harder to cool you off once you return home and turn it down.
