Air conditioner repair workers in demand as heat wave descends on Long Island

The heat wave had yet to officially arrive, but Tragar Home Services still made 161 service calls on Tuesday, more than double the usual. The company expects that number to climb as temperatures rise over the next several days.

Tragar, which provides cooling, heating, plumbing and oil delivery across Long Island, operates five offices throughout the region. Company officials say they are already preparing for the heat wave, with extreme heat warnings forecast to begin Thursday and last through Saturday.

"We’ve already seen [an uptick in calls]," Steven Heller, general manager and chief operations officer of Tragar, said. "A trend is happening, once we see the weather, our planning goes into effect. We’re ready and our staff is ready."

As people are beginning to turn their air conditioners on blast, potentially for the first time this year, emergency repair calls are piling up.

"We are equipped," Fred McDonald, service dispatch manager at Tragar, said.

Tragar employs about 30 technicians and has a 16-member installation team. Tuesday’s 161 calls were mostly made up of maintenance calls, which included replacing air filters and servicing boilers, as well as emergency air conditioning repairs. The company mainly serves residential customers, but also maintains some commercial accounts.

"We probably even doubled up on people available," Heller said. "The challenge is we are coming up on a holiday weekend and a lot of people have plans, so a lot of people adapt their schedule to make sure that they are available for our customers."

Newsday accompanied Derek Labarbera on a maintenance call to a home in Hicksville, where resident Olivia Colucci reported her air conditioner was no longer cooling properly.

"I just felt that [the AC] wasn't cooling well, and this was before I knew the heat wave was coming," Colucci, 39, who moved into the building three months ago, said. "Getting older, I’m less tolerant of extreme temperatures. Even in the winter I am uncomfortable. I try to do everything I need to do early in the morning before it gets to a hotter temperature."

Her landlord David Scheiner, 71, has lived on the property since 1995. Tragar installed the home’s air conditioning about 12 years ago.

"We’ve had heat waves in the past, but this seems to be a record breaker," Scheiner said. "We called the AC company just in time."

Refrigeration system leak

Upon inspection, Labarbera found a leak in the AC's refrigeration system.

"We always want to do a leak search and find where the refrigerant leaked out," Labarbera said. "You should never have to put refrigerant into a system. We are going to find the leak and fix it, so the customer doesn’t have this problem again."

Colucci’s AC repair is representative of the most common question Tragar gets, McDonald said. The calls are along the lines of "my house isn't cooling."

"First question is when did you adjust the thermostat?" McDonald said. "If you adjust it at 1 o’clock and it is already 92 degrees, your house isn't going to get down to 68."

McDonald recommends people make sure their AC filters are clean so the machine does not struggle to keep a room cool. Shades and blinds should also be closed to keep out unwanted heat.

During the summer, especially in the heat wave, elderly people are most at risk.

"A lot of times, it’s the elderly who have a lot of trouble, breathing and things like that," Heller said. "We try to prioritize to make sure we get to them sooner, if we can, especially in extreme heat like this."