Jun 20, 2024 By Paul Paterra 4 min read

Business is heating up this week for local air-conditioner repair businesses, handling an onslaught of calls from frenzied folks whose units are on the fritz in the midst of a heatwave.

Ralph Brown, office administrator at McVehil Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning & Supply Co. in Washington, said Wednesday morning five calls came in within 30 minutes of the business opening at 8 a.m.

“It’s been pretty crazy,” Brown said. “All of this week has been fully booked on HVAC calls. “Every call we’ve gotten on HVAC has been for air conditioner or air-conditioner inspection to the point where next week is almost fully booked as well. An hour doesn’t go by without five phone calls. That’s pretty much been the tempo this week.”

Henry Klinar, general manager of McKean Plumbing and Heating in Washington, reported a similar pace, saying the weather has forced the company to switch up its service calls for the week to tend to those with air conditioners in need of repair.

“We’ve reached out to some customers who have had maintenance, non-emergency type situations that we’ve rescheduled,” Klinar said. “Those customers have been very accommodating. I think they understand that if they were on the other side, we would do what we could to get to them. The customers have been great, on the whole. They’re aware of the position that we are in as service providers. It’s worked out very well. It’s been busy, but very good.”

JED Heating & Cooling in Donora is averaging 20 service calls a day related to cooling.

“We’ve had a lot of service calls, a lot of breakdowns,” said Jim DeLattre, owner/president. “We’re not only very busy with service, we’re very busy with installations.”

Rob Champe, president of Shearer Heating, Cooling & Refrigeration in Washington, said his nine technicians have been on the go all week, with one putting in a 13-hour workday Tuesday. Champe said many churches and businesses have been among the buildings his company has serviced.

“We have enough technicians to manage the onslaught so far,” Champe said. “It’s basically split evenly between residential and commercial. Churches have been a big one, along with the onslaught of residential calls. Even after hours, the guys are prepared to back each other up for the service calls that come in.”

Champe said one customer turned on his air conditioner Monday for the first time this year, only to find that it wasn’t working.

“He made it through all of that time, then turned it on and found out it was broken,” Champe said.

Mike Salanick, owner/president of Fayette Furnace in Uniontown, said his company had five crews out Wednesday afternoon installing air-conditioning units, while four servicemen and the company’s service managers were out on service calls.

“It’s been very busy,” Salanick said. “Every day, we have been busy doing new installations. People who didn’t want to have service done before, once that sweat starts to roll … they start to move. People will go without heat, but when it comes to sweat, they don’t want to sweat.”

The hot weather isn’t going to ease up anytime soon, as temperatures are expected to soar into the high 90s with heat indices as high as 103 through Friday. Sunday will bring slightly lower temperatures with a high of 87 degrees expected. More of the same is on tap for next week, with Wednesday’s high expected to hit 94.

The cooling specialists offered a few tips to keep air conditioners running smooth throughout the summer.

“The best thing to do is have a yearly maintenance done, where we come over and we clean it, check all of the electrical terminals, check the freon charge, check the compressor output,” DeLattre said. “That’s your best way to avoid problems. If you do maintenance on them, that’s the best way to get a long life out of them.”

The use of a dehumidifier or ceiling fan also can help with cooling without putting too much strain on the air conditioner.

It’s also important to cut back any shrubs or debris around an outdoor unit.

“If they get too close to the outdoor unit coils, that can affect performance,” Klinar said. “The air needs to cycle from the outside, go through those coils on the side and disperse from the top. That’s how they breathe. We’ve had a lot of situations where we go to someone’s house and we see that shrub that was OK at the end of last year has really had a growth spurt and it’s too tight and restricting and that’s causing an issue on the outdoor unit.”