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Emergency · CoolingEmergency AC Repair
Emergency AC repair is for the night or weekend when the air conditioner quits and the house cannot safely wait: someone vulnerable is home, or the indoor temperature is climbing past 30 °C. The 24/7 line is (647) 801-1252, the diagnostic is $90–$150 at any hour, and the usual culprits — a capacitor or a contactor — are $150–$350 repairs done from the truck. If everyone in the house is healthy and it is cooling off outside, a next-morning appointment costs the same and is often the better call.
Check three things before a truck rolls. Look at the breaker for the outdoor unit and reset it once if it has tripped; if it trips again, leave it off. Pull the furnace filter, because a clogged one starves the coil of air and leaves the system running without cooling. Then look at the copper line at the indoor coil: if it is coated in frost, switch cooling off at the thermostat and set the fan to On so the ice melts before the technician arrives.
The thaw matters because an iced coil cannot be diagnosed. Gauges and temperature readings mean nothing until the ice is gone, and that takes hours, not minutes — see how long a frozen AC takes to thaw. Starting the thaw while you wait means the visit is spent finding the cause, whether that is airflow, a dirty coil or a refrigerant leak, instead of watching ice melt. Put towels down at the furnace, since the meltwater has to go somewhere.
Most sudden no-cool calls in a heat wave come down to four parts, and all four are truck stock. The dual-run capacitor, which starts and runs both the compressor and the outdoor fan, swells and fails in extreme heat; the outdoor unit hums or clicks and nothing turns. The contactor's contacts pit or weld, and the condenser fan motor seizes so the compressor overheats and trips its own protection. And a blocked condensate drain lifts the float switch, which cuts the cooling to stop water overflowing onto the furnace or through a ceiling.
After-hours dispatch works differently from the daytime same-day service on our AC repair page. Overnight, calls are ranked by who is in the house — infants, seniors, anyone with a heart, lung or other medical condition — and by how hot it is indoors, not by the order they came in. The aim at night is to get cooling running from truck stock; a compressor, a coil or a model-specific board waits for the supplier counter to open. For furnaces, boilers and water heaters, the umbrella emergency HVAC service page applies.
It is an emergency when
- An infant, a senior, or someone with a heart, lung or other medical condition is in the house
- The indoor temperature is past 30 °C and still rising, with no cooler room or basement to move to
- Water is coming through a ceiling or pooling around the furnace from the indoor coil
- The outdoor unit trips its breaker again after one reset, or you smell burning — leave it off and call
- It can wait for morning when everyone is healthy, the basement is cool and the night air is dropping below the indoor temperature
How it works
Give us the symptom, the indoor temperature and whether anyone vulnerable is in the house. We walk you through the breaker, filter and thaw steps over the phone and tell you honestly where you sit in that night's queue.
The technician checks the capacitor's microfarad reading against its label, inspects the contactor, spins and meters the fan motor, and confirms the float switch and drain are clear. The price is written before the part goes in.
With the part replaced, we measure the temperature drop across the indoor coil and the compressor's running current to confirm the system is healthy, not merely running. Anything that needs a daytime part gets a dated plan — or book the follow-up online.
Brands: We repair Lennox, Carrier, Trane, Goodman, Rheem, Daikin, York, Amana and KeepRite air conditioners, plus Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and Daikin ductless systems.
Common questions
Should I wait until morning to call?
If everyone is healthy and you can sleep in a cooler basement, yes: the price is the same and more parts are available in the daytime. Call now when the house is past 30 °C with someone vulnerable inside. Near Lake Ontario the night air often stays humid enough that a second floor in Burlington or Oakville does not cool down on its own. What to do if the AC fails during a heat wave lists ways to cope meanwhile.
Do you charge more for nights and weekends?
No. The diagnostic stays at $90–$150 and parts and labour are billed at weekday rates. That is a company policy, not an industry norm, so if you are comparing, ask every contractor for their after-hours dispatch fee before they send a truck. Get the repair price in writing before work starts, whoever you hire.
My condo has no cooling. Is that a call for you?
Check with the concierge or property manager first. Most condo towers cool suites with a fan coil fed by chilled water from the building's central plant, so when the plant is down or the building has not switched over from heating, nothing inside your unit is broken. If the building is cooling and your fan coil is not, its motor, valve or thermostat is in-suite work we can do.
Can you add refrigerant at night to get me through?
Only if the system is low, and low means there is a leak. A technician holding an ODP card can add refrigerant, but topping up without finding the leak buys days or weeks and wastes money. At night we confirm whether the charge is the problem and quote the proper refrigerant leak repair for daylight, when the leak search can be done thoroughly.
Why did it fail on the hottest day?
Heat is what finishes off marginal parts. A capacitor that was weak in May fails outright when the outdoor unit runs twelve hours straight in 33 °C heat, and a fan motor with worn bearings seizes under the same load. A spring AC tune-up measures both and replaces the weak ones before the weather does it for you.