Why is my AC running but not cooling? Here is the honest version: what you can safely check yourself in the next five minutes, what a technician usually finds when it is not that, and exactly what it costs to find out.
By Touchdown Heating & Cooling, Buffalo, NY. Updated September 27, 2026.
If this means no cooling in the house: A home with no cooling is treated as urgent and prioritized, often same-day. The emergency button on the booking page gets a callback within 60 seconds.
If one of these fixes it, you owe us nothing and we are glad. If not, the next part is what the visit is for.
Not cooling. A system that runs but will not cool is usually low on charge, and a low charge means a leak, not a top-up. The secondary causes are all airflow: a blocked duct, a dirty filter or a dirty evaporator coil.
Capacitor. Dirt on the condenser coil makes the air coming over the motor excessively hot, and the electrical parts are what give out first. And the dirt gets to the coil because the air reaching it was never properly filtered.
Condenser fan. A condenser working against a coil it cannot breathe through takes its fan motor with it, and it does it again to the next one. An out of balance blade or a unit that short cycles will do the same thing, and both of those are audible long before the motor gives out.
These are the causes in the manufacturers' troubleshooting charts and the trade handbooks our technicians train on, in plain words. The visit proves which one it is with a meter before anything is replaced.
Dirt on the evaporator coil does two things at once: it cuts airflow and it degrades heat transfer, so capacity drops twice over.
High resistance at a connection burns contacts, so surge and clean power protect what you just replaced.
$59 on weekdays, $159 evenings and weekends. Published and final, pre-tax, and the price is the price whether we find a loose wire or a bad motor.
Book the $59 visit online Or call (716) 589-4111Real arrival windows, including evenings and weekends. Paying is what confirms the slot; the office calls to confirm the window.