There's a tiny electrical component inside your air conditioner that's critical to its operation. The contactor is a small switch that operates similarly to a relay. Like a relay, your contactor allows a low-voltage control source to engage and disengage high-voltage power. Unlike a relay, the contactor in your AC can take power from two 120V sources and provide the necessary 240V for your compressor.
Since the contactor's job is to engage and disengage the compressor, your air conditioning system cannot function without it.
If you've recently bought your first house, you may not be familiar with air conditioning maintenance and repair. If you've always lived in apartments, then someone else handled problems with your AC. Now that you own your own home, you need to keep up with maintenance on your AC and stay alert for signs the equipment needs to be repaired. Here are three signs your AC could be malfunctioning and it's time to call an air conditioning repair company.
