Brookfield, CT · heating and cooling since 2003
It is 9pm, the house is 84 degrees, and nothing is blowing cold.
That is the call. Air conditioning, furnaces, heat pumps and ductless systems across Brookfield, Danbury and western Connecticut, from a shop on Federal Road that has been locally owned and operated for over twenty years.
- Free estimates
- Manufacturer warranties
- CT Lic 0407859-D1 · NY 07805
So here is who turns up.
Dave Lennox Premier Dealer
Length of Dealership Award, 2023
Mitsubishi Diamond Contractor
ductless and mini-split installation
NATE and ICE certified
cooling, heating, duct cleaning and sealing
ACCA member
Air Conditioning Contractors of America
2,003
the year Central Air opened
29 towns
Brookfield out to Greenwich, Kent and Chappaqua
Every brand
serviced, not only the ones we sell
The demonstration
And here is what the first twenty minutes look like.
Every HVAC company in the county will tell you it does quality work. None of them tell you what the technician standing in your basement is actually doing. This is the order, and it is the same order every time, because guessing at step four is how people end up paying for a compressor they did not need.
01
Is the indoor blower running?
If air is still moving inside but the outdoor unit is silent, this is an electrical fault, not a refrigerant one. That single observation rules out half of everything else before a gauge comes off the truck.
02
The condensate float switch
Under the indoor coil there is a switch that kills the system deliberately when the drain line clogs, so the pan does not overflow into your ceiling. In July it is the most common cause of a system that worked yesterday and does nothing today. It is a fifteen minute fix and it is not a compressor.
03
Disconnect, breaker, contactor
Then the outdoor unit, in that order. A contactor with pitted or welded points will hum and do nothing. It is a cheap part and it fails predictably after enough summers.
04
The capacitor, measured rather than eyeballed
A dual run capacitor gets read on a meter against the microfarad rating printed on its own case. A 45/5 that reads 31 has failed, even though it is not swollen and even though the fan still turns. This is the most common genuine failure on a residential system, which is why we carry them on the van.
05
Superheat and subcooling, before anything is added
Only now do the gauges go on, and they go on to take a reading, not to top the system up. Refrigerant is not consumed. If a system is low it is low because there is a leak, and adding a pound every summer is paying the same bill every year to fix nothing.
06
Static pressure across the filter and the coil
A crushed return, a filter nobody has changed since March, or a coil packed with dust starves the system of airflow and eventually freezes the evaporator into a block of ice. It reads like a refrigerant problem and it is not one.
Five of those six steps end with a part that fits in one hand. That is why we would rather show you the sequence than tell you we are thorough.
When a repair stops being the answer
And when it is not worth fixing, four things decide it.
Nobody should be talked into equipment they did not need, and nobody should pour another eleven hundred dollars into a nineteen year old condenser. This is the conversation we have at the kitchen table, out loud, before anything is ordered.
The age of the unit against the price of the repair
The rule most technicians use is to multiply the repair cost by the age of the equipment. Past about five thousand you are buying time, not comfort. A capacitor on a six year old system is obvious. The same part on a twenty year old system is a different conversation.
Which refrigerant is in it
R-22 has not been produced or imported since 2020. Chasing a leak on an R-22 system means paying reclaimed prices to refill a unit that will leak again, and that fact alone settles most of these decisions.
Whether the indoor coil matches
Replacing the outdoor unit alone and leaving a fifteen year old evaporator coil in the plenum gets you neither the efficiency rating printed on the box nor the full manufacturer warranty. The pair is rated as a pair.
The load, calculated rather than copied
We size from the house, not from the nameplate on the thing being removed. Windows, insulation, orientation, duct runs. An oversized system short-cycles, never runs long enough to pull humidity out, and leaves you cold and clammy in a house that cost more to cool.
Worth asking about
Utility rebates and federal tax credits are available on a good deal of the high-efficiency equipment we install, and financing is available as well. Neither is automatic. Ask before you sign anything and we will tell you what this specific system qualifies for.
Who you are actually calling
Which is a shop on Federal Road, not a call centre.
Central Air, LLC was founded in 2003 and has been locally owned and operated ever since. Our technicians are NATE and ICE certified for air conditioning equipment, for heating equipment including furnaces and heat pumps, and for duct cleaning and sealing. We install Lennox and Aeroseal, we are a Mitsubishi Diamond Contractor for ductless work, and we are members of the ACCA.
In 2023 Lennox gave us their Length of Dealership Award, which goes to dealers who have stayed with the brand, and with their own community, long enough for it to mean something. We are also proud to partner with Lennox on Feel the Love, which puts heating into homes that could not otherwise pay for it.
Which leaves one thing to do. Pick up the phone.
Estimates are free and the equipment carries manufacturer warranties. If the fix is a clogged drain line and a fifteen dollar part, that is what we will tell you and that is what we will charge for.
Mon to Fri 8am to 4:30pm · Sat and Sun closed · 336 Federal Rd, Unit #1, Brookfield, CT 06804
Before you call
Or read these first, if the house can wait an hour.
My air conditioning stopped overnight. What can I check before I call?
Two things, both free. Look at the indoor unit first: if air is still moving inside but the outdoor unit is silent, the fault is almost always electrical rather than refrigerant. Then find the condensate drain under the indoor coil. A float switch that has tripped on a clogged drain line shuts the whole system down on purpose so the pan does not overflow into your ceiling, and in July it is the most common reason a system that worked yesterday does nothing today. Then call us at 203-403-6174.
Why does regular maintenance matter?
For the same reason an oil change matters. A tune-up by a trained technician keeps equipment running at the efficiency it was sold at, and catches the parts drifting out of spec before they strand you on the hottest day of the year. Our service agreement puts it on the calendar so nobody has to remember it.
What is two-stage heating?
A two-stage furnace fires at two levels of output: high for a cold January night, low for a mild one. Around eighty percent of the time your house can be held on the low setting, so the furnace runs longer and gentler instead of blasting and stopping. You get more even heat, fewer temperature swings, quieter operation and better filtration, because air passes over the filter for more of the hour.
How much should I budget for a new heating and cooling system?
It depends on the size of the equipment and the features you choose, so we will not print a range on a website and then change it in your kitchen. Call 203-403-6174 and we will come and measure. Estimates are free, and utility rebates and federal tax credits are available on a good deal of the equipment we install.
Which brands do you install and service?
We are a Dave Lennox Premier Dealer and a Mitsubishi Diamond Contractor, and we install Lennox and Aeroseal products alongside ductless Mitsubishi Electric systems. We service every brand and model, not only the ones we sell.