As of mid-September 2026, my AC in Houston has been running pretty much all day since spring, and this is the time of year the refrigerant top-off comes up. I used to picture refrigerant like gas in a car. The system burns a little every summer, somebody adds some back, and you call it maintenance.
I thought it was a fill-up. Turned out it’s a symptom. Even CenterPoint Energy’s own home energy tips describe a seasonal tune-up as technicians cleaning components, testing sensors, tightening electrical connections that loosen over time and verifying refrigerant levels in cooling systems. The word it uses is verify.
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What the Department of Energy says
The Department of Energy’s page on common air conditioner problems gives two reasons a unit runs low on refrigerant: either it was undercharged at installation, or it leaks. Then it says it plainly: “If it leaks, simply adding refrigerant is not a solution.” The fix it describes is a trained technician fixing the leak, testing the repair, and then charging the system with the correct amount of refrigerant…