Air conditioning
from $3,400Repair, replacement and spring startups. Winnipeg summers are short and brutal — we book AC work early so you aren't waiting through the first heat warning.
Sound familiar?
- AC running but blowing air that isn't actually cold
- Never gets the house much below outside temperature
- Visible frost or ice on the indoor coil or the line running to the outdoor unit
- Outdoor unit won't start, or trips the breaker when it tries
- It's July, it's the one hot stretch of the summer, and you're worried it'll pick now to quit
What's actually causing it
Low refrigerant from a slow leak
Refrigerant doesn't get "used up" in normal operation — if the charge is low, there's a leak somewhere in the line set or coil that needs finding, not just topping up over and over.
Dirty condenser coil or blocked outdoor airflow
The outdoor unit needs clear air on all sides. Cottonwood fluff, grass clippings, and leaves packed into the fins make it work harder and cool less, and eventually trip a high-pressure safety shutdown.
Failed capacitor or contactor
These are the small electrical parts that actually get the outdoor fan and compressor running. When one fails the unit can hum and not start, or not respond to the thermostat at all — a common, inexpensive fix.
Frozen indoor coil from restricted airflow
A clogged furnace filter or dirty indoor coil starves the AC of airflow, and the coil ices over instead of cooling. Running it iced up makes things worse, not better — shutting it off to thaw is the right first move.
An old or undersized unit that was never quite right for the house
Units approaching the end of a normal service life, or ones that were undersized when installed, run constantly and still lose the fight on the hottest days.
What we do
- Central AC install and replacement, sized for the house rather than matched to whatever was there before
- Coil cleaning and refrigerant top-ups, with leak diagnosis rather than a repeat top-up
- Spring tune-up bookable on the same visit as your furnace check
- Book AC work early — Winnipeg's summer is short, and everyone else calls the same week the first heat warning hits
Repair or replace?
Central AC units run roughly 12–15 years. If yours is in that range and needs a repair beyond a capacitor or a simple part, replacing it — especially if it still uses a discontinued refrigerant — is usually the better spend than sinking more into an aging unit.
Straight answers
Why do you push spring AC bookings so early in a place with such a short summer?
Because the summer is short. Everybody who ignored their AC all winter calls the same week the first heat warning hits, and that's exactly when it's hardest to get a fast appointment. A spring tune-up catches a failing capacitor or a low refrigerant charge before it becomes a no-cool emergency in August.
There's ice on my outdoor or indoor unit — can I just let it run and melt off?
Turn the AC off and run the fan only until the ice clears, then check the furnace filter — a clogged filter is the most common cause. If it ices back up within a day of restarting, that's a call for service, not something to keep running through.
Do you do AC and furnace maintenance on the same visit?
Yes — the annual maintenance plan bundles a fall furnace check and a spring AC tune-up, so you're not scheduling two separate appointments.