Central AC won't cool down the house below 86 degrees... Help!

Hi! I will fully admit that I know pretty much next to nothing about how central air conditioning units work, so I hope someone can help my family! I live out of state from them, so I'm posting this on behalf of my mom and little brother.

Basically, no matter what temperature the thermostat is set to, the house will not cool down below high 80s (usually, it hovers around 86-89 degrees). This isn't just the second floor - the first floor is this hot. My mom has coverage through American Home Shield and she has had contractors out to the house five times now. The first contractor, who came out the first four times, found a minor problem with a fan on the third visit and claimed he fixed it (said it was blowing air the wrong way). The house cooled down from 86 degrees to 85 degrees after he did this, with cooler air flowing through the vents... and then the cool air stopped and it went back to its usual 86-89 degrees. When he came back the fourth time, he said nothing was wrong.

The second contractor says the issue is actually that our condenser fan outside is dented on two sides. The thing with this is that this happened about three years ago because of a cleaning crew that accidentally hit it with a pressure washer. It seems strange that it should only be affecting the cooling abilities of the air conditioning system now. Since it hadn't been causing any trouble before, my mom just thought it was cosmetic damage and not a big deal.

We are now getting a third opinion on this before we go with the second contractor to fix the condenser fan. Does that problem sound plausible? I don't understand how something like that could be preventing the house from cooling down, if it wasn't doing that for three years prior, unless it caused internal damage that took a while to develop?

Could the first two techs have missed something else entirely? Is there anything I can tell my mom to look for or request the third technician to specifically check?

Thanks a lot! I would appreciate any help that would end my hour-long phone calls with customer service reps.

submitted by /u/svspiria
[link] [comments]