An air conditioning emergency is not every failure. It is one that is unsafe, that is damaging the house or the equipment, or that leaves someone at risk in the heat. In Menlo Park, Atherton and Portola Valley, summer days are usually warm rather than extreme, but hotter spells arrive, and then a dead system in a house with a baby or an elderly parent becomes urgent. Emergency calls are taken 24/7 at (650) 567-5385, including from West Menlo Park and Ladera.
Call now, or wait for morning?
Call now if:
- you smell burning plastic or hot wiring, or see smoke from the indoor or outdoor unit;
- the breaker trips again after one reset;
- the outdoor unit hums or buzzes loudly but its fan does not turn;
- water is coming through a ceiling below an attic air handler;
- the system is dead during a hotter spell and someone at home is vulnerable to heat;
- you smell gas near the furnace that houses your AC coil (leave the house first; see below).
It can usually wait for a same-day or next-day visit if:
- the system runs but cools weakly on a mild day;
- one room is warmer than the rest;
- the unit is louder than it used to be but still cools;
- one of two systems in a large home has stopped and the other side of the house is comfortable.
Not sure which list you are on? Call; sorting that out is part of the call.
The first minutes, situation by situation
Burning smell or smoke. Set the thermostat to Off, then switch off the AC and furnace breakers at the panel. If there are flames, or smoke keeps coming, get everyone out and call 911.
Gas smell. Do not touch light switches or the thermostat. Leave the house, then call 911 or your gas utility from outside. Once the house is safe, we take gas-odor calls 24/7.
Breaker trip. One reset is reasonable. A second trip points to a short or a seized motor, and repeated restarts can finish off a compressor.
Ice on the copper lines or the indoor coil. Switch cooling off and set the fan to On so the ice melts faster; it can take hours. Put towels under the indoor unit. Running a frozen system risks sending liquid refrigerant back to the compressor.
Water through the ceiling. In older ranch homes the air handler often sits in the attic, so a clogged condensate line or an overflowing pan shows up as a stain or a drip in the room below. Turn the system off so the coil stops making water, catch the drip and move what you can.
Humming outdoor unit with a still fan. Turn the system off at the thermostat. Without the fan, the compressor runs hot with no air across the coil.
A branch down on the outdoor unit. Shade trees over condensers drop limbs in wind. Switch off the power at the outdoor disconnect or the breaker before you lift anything off the unit.
Keeping the house bearable until help arrives
Evenings here usually cool down, and Portola Valley nights run cooler than the bay side. Open windows once the air outside is cooler than inside; close them and draw the blinds on the sunny side in the morning. Fans cool people, not rooms, so put them where people are. On wildfire-smoke days keep the windows shut and run a portable air cleaner if you have one. Check on anyone very young, older or unwell, and keep pets in the coolest room with water.
How a 24/7 call works
- You call (650) 567-5385. Urgent calls are taken at any hour.
- Triage by phone. We ask what the system is doing, whether there is a smell, ice, water or a tripped breaker, and who is at home. If the equipment should stay off, you hear that before anyone drives out.
- A time window. When a technician can come depends on that night’s schedule; we do not promise an arrival time we cannot keep.
- Make it safe first. Electrical, airflow and frozen-coil checks come first, and anything unsafe is isolated.
- Restore if it can be done safely. Simple electrical parts are often replaced on the same visit. A compressor, a coil or a part for less common equipment may have to be ordered.
- A written next step. If the system cannot be safely restored that night, you get the diagnosis, the parts needed and your options in writing, and a follow-up is scheduled.
Ask about after-hours fees and part availability when you call.
What to tell us when you call
- what happened and when: the noise, smell, ice, water or breaker trip;
- the system type and rough age, and the brand on the outdoor unit if you can see it safely;
- which system failed, if the house has more than one;
- how to reach the equipment: gate codes, a locked side yard, a dog, the attic hatch, a long driveway.
Large Atherton homes often have equipment in an attic, a basement and a side yard; on Portola Valley hillside lots the outdoor unit may sit well below the house. Knowing where to go saves time at night.
After the emergency
An emergency visit fixes the urgent problem; it is not a full service. A scheduled AC repair visit handles follow-up work, and a spring AC tune-up finds weak capacitors and clogged drains before the next hot spell. If the heat fails in winter, see emergency heating repair; our emergency HVAC tips cover both seasons.