AC Installation in Gaithersburg, Rockville and Olney, MD
If your air conditioner is past repair, or your home never had central cooling, we put in a system that fits the house. We do not copy the number printed on the old unit. Mora Heating & Air installs central air conditioning in Gaithersburg, Rockville, Olney, Derwood, and up the corridor through Germantown and Clarksburg. You see everything that is included before you decide, and we tell you plainly when the equipment you already have is worth keeping.
It starts with a visit. Your technician measures your home, looks over the ductwork, and writes up a proposal that lays out your equipment options. You know exactly what is included before you agree to anything, and nothing gets booked until you have approved that proposal.
Signs your air conditioner is ready to be replaced
It is past twelve to fifteen years old
Around here, most central air conditioners give you twelve to fifteen years. Once a unit is older than that, the big parts tend to give out one after another. Planning the replacement on your own timeline beats scrambling for one in the middle of a July heat wave.
It still runs on R-22 refrigerant
R-22 has been phased out and is no longer made. If your system needs an R-22 recharge, it is showing you two problems at once. It has a leak, and it runs on a refrigerant nobody produces anymore. That pairing nearly always means it is time to replace it.
The repairs keep piling up
A capacitor one summer, a fan motor the next, then a refrigerant leak after that. Once fixing something becomes a yearly ritual, you are pouring money into a system that keeps wearing down underneath you.
The house never really feels comfortable
Some rooms stay warm, the air feels sticky, and the unit seems to run without a break. That can come from a system on its way out, or from one that was the wrong size to begin with. Measuring the house during the visit tells you which of the two you have.
A major part has already failed
A burned-out compressor or a leaking coil is where most systems reach the end. On older equipment, that one repair eats up a good chunk of what a new system costs. And the new system comes with a full warranty behind it.
Your summer electric bills keep rising
As coils get dirty and parts wear, a system loses efficiency. When your summer electric use creeps up year after year and nothing about how you live has changed, the unit is straining harder and giving you less for it.
How we put in a new AC
The visit and straight sizing
Your technician measures your home, checks the ductwork and the electrical, and sizes the system to the house rather than to a rule of thumb.
A written proposal with real options
You get it in writing. Which units you can choose from, how much power each one uses, and what the job covers. Nothing is left for you to guess at, and you pick the option that suits you.
Installation day
We take out the old equipment and haul it off. Then the new outdoor unit and indoor coil go in. We run the lines and hook up the power. We clean up before we leave.
Testing before we call it done
We weigh in the refrigerant and confirm the charge, measure the airflow, and run the system through a full cycle. This step is the difference between a system that is installed and one that is installed correctly.
Closeout and warranty
We put the warranty in your name. You keep the paperwork.
Sizing and choosing the right system
Bigger does not mean better. An air conditioner that is too large chills the air before it has time to pull the humidity out, so the house ends up cold and clammy. All that starting and stopping also wears the equipment down early. The right size comes from measuring the house itself: how it faces, its insulation, its windows, and its ductwork.
Efficiency ratings count, but a matched system counts for more. A high efficiency outdoor unit bolted to an aging indoor coil will never reach the rating on the box. Your proposal covers the full matched system. If your furnace or indoor unit is close to the end of its life, doing both at once is usually the tidier route. A heat pump is also worth a look, and your technician will tell you honestly whether one suits your home.
Replacing air conditioners in Rockville, Olney and Clarksburg homes
The houses we work in cover about seventy years of building, and the right installation is not the same from one to the next. In the 1950s Twinbrook ramblers in Rockville, and the 1960s and 70s ramblers near Olde Towne Gaithersburg, the ductwork is often too small for today's equipment. A proper installation works with that instead of strapping a new unit onto an old problem. Humid summers here make correct sizing the line between comfortable and clammy.
Olney went up mostly between the 1970s and the 1990s, so a lot of those houses are on their second or third system. The most common thing we find is a replacement that was sized too big for the ducts actually in the house. It starts and stops, it never pulls the humidity down, and it wears itself out early. In Clarksburg, Arora Hills and Clarksburg Village went up over a short stretch. So the original builder systems reach the end together, and a whole street lands on the same decision in the same couple of summers. Out past the gas mains around Boyds, the alternative is propane or electric heat. So the cooling decision and the heating decision usually get made together, and a heat pump can cover both.
What we check besides the broken part
A part that failed had a reason for failing. Low airflow. A dirty coil. A wire running hot. A drain backing up. If that reason is still there when we leave, the new part is on the same clock as the old one.
So the visit covers the rest of the system, not only the piece that quit. If we find something that was working against it, we tell you what it is and what it would take to put right.
AC Installation questions, answered
What size air conditioner do I need?
The size comes from measuring the house, not from its square footage and not from copying the old unit. Insulation, windows, which way the house faces, and the state of the ducts all move the number. Going too big is the usual mistake. It chills the air in minutes, shuts off before it dries the house out, and wears itself out early.
How long does an AC installation take?
A straight replacement with no electrical changes is usually one day, and you have cooling again that evening. Jobs that add electrical work, or that need the plenum and transitions rebuilt for the new unit, can run into a second day. Your written proposal names the expected time before you approve anything, so you can plan around it.
Should I replace the indoor coil too?
Almost always, yes. The outdoor unit and the indoor coil are built as a pair. A new outdoor unit bolted to an old coil will never reach the rating on the box, and it tends to fail early. Your proposal covers the matched pair so you get the performance you paid for.
What SEER2 rating should I get?
SEER2 is the efficiency number, and higher means less electricity for the same cooling. Higher-rated equipment costs more up front and gives some of that back on your summer bills. What actually decides your comfort is correct sizing and correct installation, so we start there and then talk about the rating.
Is it better to repair or replace my air conditioner?
Age and the type of refrigerant carry most of the weight. Small parts are worth fixing at almost any age. A compressor or coil failure on a system past twelve to fifteen years, especially one on R-22 refrigerant, usually points to replacement. Your technician lays both numbers side by side.
Do you install heat pumps instead of air conditioners?
Yes, and it is worth asking about. A heat pump cools in summer and heats in winter from the same equipment. For homes on propane or electric heat, it often makes better sense than an air conditioner plus a separate heating system. We walk through both on the visit.
Do you register the warranty for me?
Yes. We register the warranty in your name at the end of the job and hand you the paperwork. Warranties that never got registered are one of the most common problems we find on equipment somebody else installed.
Call Mora Heating & Air or send a request, and we will get your cooling estimate on the calendar.
Or tell us what your system is doing
Send us the details and we will call you back. If the house is very hot or very cold right now, calling is faster.