My air conditioner doesn’t work

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My air conditioner doesn’t work. Why?

This is the question many of us ask ourselves when our air conditioning unit does not turn on. No matter how much we press the power button on the remote control, the LEDs don’t turn on and the machine doesn’t pull any air.

In previous entries we already saw the possible problems when our air conditioning machine does not cool down and also when it does not heat up. This time we will see why it doesn’t even pull heat or cold and just doesn’t work.

If the problem with your air conditioner is that it still doesn’t cool or heat up, you can see the causes in these articles:

Air conditioning doesn’t cool. Causes and solutions

Air conditioning does not heat

Possible problems with my air conditioner not working

If your air conditioner seems to be dead and doesn’t respond to the remote, it’s possible that it’s not a malfunction and we don’t have anything broken in the equipment. Before calling for service we should look at some very simple things, let’s see which ones.

Does the machine get voltage, current or light?

Check the house’s circuit breakers first to see if any are turned down. If so, turn it up. If it stays up, try turning the air conditioning back on. If it goes down again or another one goes down even if it is not the same one, turn it down again and do not turn it up again. In that case, you will probably have a lock or short on some electronic board or cable of the machine or installation.

Do you have the air conditioning plug connected?

Many split air conditioning units – above all – are connected to our home’s electrical grid by a plug-in termination cable. Sometimes we unplug it for some reason and forget to plug it back in. If your air conditioner takes power from a socket, check that it is plugged in correctly.

Do we have batteries in the remote control of our air conditioning equipment?

Check the remote control and make sure the batteries are charged. If the batteries are very low, the display may light up slightly but may not be able to send a signal to the air conditioner. If in doubt, replace the batteries with new ones.

Does the control send a signal to the machine?

Sometimes the problem comes from a fault in the remote control. To check that it sends a signal there is a very simple trick: turn on the camera of your mobile phone towards the infrared LED of the remote control and keeping the camera focused on the remote control press repeatedly the on/off button, if the control sends a signal correctly the light although invisible to the human eye must be seen in our camera.

Does the air conditioning turn on if we hit the emergency button?

Many air conditioning units, especially split units, have an emergency button to turn it on. This is usually located on the right-hand side of the indoor unit housing, others have it inside the machine – it can be accessed by lifting the filter cover – and others do not have this power button. If you press it and the unit turns on the problem will be on the internal electronic board or signal receiver or on the remote control.

Everything’s perfect, now what?

If after reviewing the five steps above we do not find the problem, then it is advisable to call the technical service to check the unit and find out what the fault is. The technician should explain the problem to us, give us a work report and finally give us an assessment of the repair.

Generally this type of failure is due to a problem in the electronic board or a short or closing in the electrical cables that feed the air conditioner.