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Polar Express HVAC & Refrigeration

Air Conditioning

AC repair in San Antonio, measured before it is quoted.

Polar Express repairs AC in homes across the San Antonio metro, with 24/7 emergency dispatch and same-day service on most repair calls. One flat-rate price is approved in writing before work begins for warm-air, frozen-coil, electrical, refrigerant, and drain repairs. TDLR license TACLA00127982C.

Warm air out of the vents, an outdoor unit that will not start, water showing up on a ceiling. We find which one you have, then hand you one price to say yes to.

Call 24/7 · (210) 376-0781Book Service
  • Licensed TACLA00127982C
  • Since 2023
  • 4.9 Google rating

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An air conditioner in San Antonio never gets an easy season. Cooling weather here runs from about April into October, the air is humid enough that the system spends every afternoon pulling water out of your house, and the cool overnight break that gives equipment a rest in a drier climate does not really arrive. That workload is why the failures show up in the same short list every summer: a swollen capacitor, a pitted contactor, an indoor coil that iced over because the airflow died, a slow refrigerant leak somebody kept topping off instead of finding. Polar Express repairs residential air conditioning on every brand across the metro, day or night, with a flat-rate price you approve before the repair begins. Locally owned, owner-operated, and licensed in Texas under TACLA00127982C since 2023.

What we handle

AC Repair covers more than one failure.

The complaint that gets called in is rarely the whole job. These are the things a technician is actually looking at on this equipment.

  • Capacitors, contactors, and hard starts

    The most common repair in this trade and the fastest one to confirm with a meter. A weak start capacitor is why a compressor hums and refuses to turn over on a hot afternoon.

  • Refrigerant leaks, located and repaired

    Finding where the charge went, fixing it, and weighing in a correct charge. A yearly top-off is a subscription rather than a repair, and we will say so plainly.

  • Blower and condenser fan motors

    Motors, bearings, run capacitors, and control boards on the two fans that move every cubic foot of air in the system. When either quits, everything downstream looks broken too.

  • Frozen evaporator coils

    A block of ice on the indoor coil is a symptom, not a diagnosis. We thaw it, then chase the airflow restriction or the low charge that put it there.

  • Compressors and outdoor unit failures

    Diagnosis, component replacement, and a straight read on whether a failed compressor is worth replacing in a system of that particular age.

  • Condensate drains and float switches

    Clogged drain lines, overflowing pans, and the safety switch that shut your system down on purpose before the ceiling had to pay for it.

Signs and causes

What you are seeing, and what usually causes it.

Read these before you call. Knowing which one matches gets the right parts on the truck, and a couple of them are worth acting on in the next ten minutes.

  • The system runs but the air is not cold

    Air arriving at the vents close to room temperature usually means the system has lost its ability to move heat outside: a low charge from a leak, a condenser coil blanketed in dust, or a compressor turning without pumping. It is not a thermostat setting, and turning it down colder only lengthens the run time.

  • The outdoor unit hums and will not start

    A compressor that buzzes for a second and then trips out is almost always electrical. A failed start or run capacitor, a burned contactor, and a locked rotor all sound identical from the driveway, and telling them apart is a meter reading rather than an opinion.

  • Ice on the copper line or the indoor coil

    Ice forms when the coil runs colder than design, which happens when airflow drops or the charge is low. Switch cooling off, leave the fan running so it melts, and call. Running a frozen system pushes liquid refrigerant back toward the compressor, and that is the expensive failure.

  • Water stains on a ceiling or a wet closet floor

    Most San Antonio homes hang the air handler in an attic, so a plugged condensate line finds its way out through the drywall instead of onto a slab. If a float switch already killed the system, that switch did its job, and the drain still has to be cleared before anything comes back on.

  • It never shuts off, and the house is still humid

    A system running continuously without reaching setpoint is fighting something: a filthy condenser, a failing capacitor, duct leakage into a hot attic, or equipment oversized enough that it never dehumidifies properly. Damp air at 76 degrees feels worse than dry air at 78, which is why the comfort complaint often arrives before the temperature complaint does.

What it costs

You approve the price before the work starts.

We will not print a repair price on this page, because the same complaint covers a part that rides on the truck and a compressor changeout that does not. Here is what we can commit to instead. A technician diagnoses the system at your house, explains in plain language what failed, and puts one flat-rate number in front of you for the fix. Nothing gets opened up until you say yes, and that number holds whether the work takes forty minutes or most of the afternoon. If the honest recommendation is to stop repairing a system this old, you will hear that before you hear a parts list.

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What moves the number

  • Which part failed, and whether it rides on the truck or has to be ordered
  • Whether the system is holding its charge, since a leak search and a recharge are separate work
  • Refrigerant type, because older and newer systems do not carry the same cost per pound
  • Where the equipment sits, since an attic air handler in August is a different job from a garage closet
  • Whether the visit is a scheduled appointment or an after-hours dispatch
  • The age and overall condition of the system, which decides whether the repair is worth doing at all

How the job runs

What happens between your call and a working system.

  1. Step 1

    What we ask on the phone

    Whether the outdoor unit is running, what the thermostat reads against what the house actually feels like, and whether anything is iced or leaking. Those three answers usually decide which parts get loaded before the truck leaves.

  2. Step 2

    Diagnose rather than guess

    Static pressure, temperature split, superheat and subcooling, amp draw, and capacitor values under load. Parts get named after the readings, which is the difference between a repair and a shopping trip.

  3. Step 3

    One number, then the work

    You see the flat rate for the fix before it starts. Common capacitors, contactors, motors, and control boards travel with the technician, so a large share of these calls finish on the first visit.

  4. Step 4

    Prove it cools before we go

    The system runs, the readings get taken again under load, and you get walked through what changed. Anything heading toward its own repair gets pointed out now so it does not surprise you in August.

Questions

Straight answers, before you call.

Still not covered here? The person who answers the phone can usually settle it in a sentence, day or night.

Call (210) 376-0781

An air conditioner that runs without cooling has usually lost its ability to move heat outside, and four causes account for most of it: a low refrigerant charge from a leak, a condenser coil blanketed in dust, a frozen indoor coil, or a compressor turning without pumping. A technician separates them with pressure and temperature readings in a single visit. Guessing between them is how a capacitor problem turns into a compressor invoice.

Most residential AC repairs finish in one visit, frequently inside an hour or two once the diagnosis is done, because the components that fail most often are the components a technician already carries. The jobs that run longer are leak searches, coil replacements, and compressors. You will be told which of those you are looking at before the work starts, not afterward.

If the unit is iced over or tripping its breaker, switch cooling off at the thermostat and leave the fan on. Ice has to melt before anything can be measured, and every reset on a struggling compressor takes life off the end of it. If the system is simply running warm and nothing is frozen or tripping, leaving it going while you wait is fine.

Yes, including systems somebody else installed and systems whose paperwork disappeared with the previous owner. Brand matters far less to a repair than the age of the equipment and whether parts are still manufactured for it. Where a component has genuinely gone obsolete, we say so directly rather than quoting you a part that is going to take three weeks to find, and we lay out what the alternatives cost.

Three, and none of them need tools. Pull the air filter and hold it up to a light, because a filter packed shut starves the coil and causes a good share of the freeze-ups we see. Confirm the breaker for the outdoor unit has not tripped and the outdoor disconnect is still seated. Then look at the outdoor coil for grass clippings, cottonwood, or a fence built too close to it. Leave refrigerant, wiring, and capacitors alone, since a capacitor holds a charge after the power is off.

Polar Express provides one written flat-rate price for AC repair in San Antonio, and the customer approves it before work begins. The price depends on the failed component, whether a refrigerant leak must be located and repaired, and equipment access such as an attic air handler. The quote does not grow with an hourly meter. The $50 off any repair offer applies, one per household, and cannot combine with other offers.

Polar Express offers same-day service on most AC repair calls across San Antonio, backed by 24/7 emergency dispatch every day, including nights, weekends, and holidays. The person answering the phone provides a real arrival window based on the current route and the urgency of the no-cool call.

Related services

The work that usually comes with this one.

Nearby

We run this service across the San Antonio metro. These are three of the areas we cover, and the full list lives on the service areas page.

One call, day or night.

Licensed, locally owned, and answering the phone around the clock. You get the diagnosis in plain language and the price before the work starts.

Call 24/7 · (210) 376-0781Book Service