In this short Q&A, homeowner SPEAKER A asks why there is little airflow when the air conditioner turns on. Derek Cole explains that low airflow is usually caused by three main issues: (1) a dirty indoor blower motor and blower wheel, where dust buildup flattens the fins and prevents the wheel from effectively pushing air; (2) a freezing evaporator coil, which can simultaneously reduce airflow and indicate a deeper system problem; and (3) duct leakage, with the EPA estimating 20‑30 % of airflow loss can be due to leaks. He advises inspecting the unit for freezing, cleaning the blower wheel (removing it, spraying, drying, and reinstalling), and sealing ducts—potentially using modern sealing technology to approach zero leakage. He concludes by urging homeowners to check these areas and call a professional if needed.
Chapters
There's not much airflow in my home when my air comes on. What causes that problem?
Poor airflow. It could also be, going back to the first question, if your unit is freezing up, you could have poor airflow as well. So a couple things could be side by side there. So you want to check that to make sure it's not freezing over for the poor airflow. And another thing is when you have a dirty unit, A dirty indoor blower motor and a dirty wheel. See what happens when you have the blower motor which pushes the air in the house, right? So that pushes the air in the house and uses what's called, we call a squirrel cage, but it's a blower wheel that actually pushes the air in. So if you look at the blower wheel, it's kind of like a cup. It has all these little fins on it all around the circle and it's taking air and it's throwing it and it's pushing it. All right, it's pushing it in the house. So when that becomes dirty, when you have dirt and dust buildup on it, it becomes flattened. So now you're trying to push air like this. Obviously not as effective as the cup, right? So one thing to look at is make sure your unit is clean. We go to quite a few systems where our blower wheel needs to be taken out, taken outside, cleaned, sprayed down, dried off, and then put back inside because it is so much of a cake of dirt and dust on that blower wheel that it's going from a cup to straight, and therefore it's not catching the air, it's not throwing it back in the house. So outside of that, in the freezing unit, check your duct system to make sure that's happening as well. Again, the EPA says that, you know, 20 to 30% of your duct air loss is from the duct system because of leaks. So make sure all All that is sealed up. We have technology available now that can actually seal your duct system down to almost zero of leakage. Check that out, make sure. But really the big cause outside of airflow is a dirty blower motor, dirty blower wheel. Again, when that air cannot anymore, when the air cannot get through to the inside of the house to the duct system. That's going to cause an airflow problem. So make sure your unit is clean, make sure your duct system is sealed, and make sure you don't have that freezing going on with your system. So if something feels off, if something feels like it's not normal, you know, go out there and just kind of look it over, check it out, see what's going on. And always, you know, call us if you need us.
