AC Repair
Warm air, short cycling, strange noises or a system that will not start. We find the failed part, explain what it is doing to the system and price the repair before anything moves forward.
4.8★ from 240+ Google reviews
Air Conditioning Services for Homes Across the DMV
Serving Washington, DC, Prince George's County, Montgomery County & Northern Virginia, including Upper Marlboro, Hyattsville, District Heights and Silver Spring.
- One contractor, every job
- The choice stays yours
- One-year install labor warranty
AC Repair, Replacement & Maintenance for DMV Homes
AC systems across the DMV can run from May well into September, which gives small problems plenty of time to build. Coils collect dirt, condensate drains clog, blower wheels load with dust and thermostats drift out of calibration. You may not notice one clear failure at first. Instead, the electric bill climbs, one room stops keeping up, or the AC runs longer without making the house any cooler.
Our AC technicians handle repairs, installations, replacements, seasonal maintenance and emergency calls across Prince George's County, Montgomery County and Washington DC. Which service your system actually needs comes down to what we find when we test it. We figure that out first, then explain your options before anything is quoted.
| Stat | What It Means for Your AC |
|---|---|
| 15–20 years | Typical service life of a central air conditioner, with a long DMV cooling season adding to yearly wear. |
| 66°F | Average July dew point in Washington. High humidity makes your AC work longer to cool and dehumidify the house. |
| 5–15% | Potential energy savings from a clean air filter compared with running the same system with a clogged one. |
| 14.3 SEER2 | Minimum federal efficiency rating for qualifying new split-system air conditioners installed in Maryland and DC. |
One AC Team for the Whole Life of Your System
From the first strange noise to the day the system finally needs replacing, our AC technicians handle the work in between. Repair, replacement, seasonal maintenance, and urgent cooling calls all stay with the same Nero's Heating & Air team.
AC Installation & Replacement
When repairing the old system stops making financial sense, we help you compare replacement options, size the new equipment for the home and install it for the way the house actually cools.
AC Maintenance & Tune-Ups
A tune-up is where we catch the problems that have not yet become breakdowns. We clean, test and inspect the parts that take the most wear so the system is ready before summer asks more of it.
Heat Pumps
Heat pumps handle both cooling and heating from one system. Our team installs, repairs and maintains them, including troubleshooting the airflow, refrigerant and electrical problems that can affect comfort in either season.
Ductless Mini-Splits
For additions, converted spaces or rooms the central system never quite reaches, ductless mini-splits give you targeted cooling without extending the existing ductwork. We install and repair both single-zone and multi-zone systems.
Emergency AC Repair
Some AC failures can wait until morning. A house climbing into the 80s at night usually cannot. Our emergency service is for cooling problems that need someone to look at them now.
Tell Nero's Heating & Air what the AC is doing, how old it is if you know, and whether the problem started suddenly or has been getting worse. Our AC technicians will help you figure out which service makes sense, and if testing points us somewhere else once we arrive, we will explain why before any work begins.
What You’ll Really Pay for AC Service
Nothing gets priced before we know what we are pricing. A diagnostic is $75 and it comes off the bill when we do the work, so the first visit costs you that and nothing else.
From there, the number depends on the job. Repairs usually land in the few hundreds, replacements are quoted in writing after we measure and that figure is binding once signed, and a maintenance agreement is $150 a year for two visits.
The one exception is timing: Sunday, after-hours and rooftop calls carry a $169 fee that is not credited.
- $150 a year for two visits
- $169 Sunday, after-hours and rooftop calls
What changes is the job. What does not change is knowing the price before you say yes.
Central AC or a Ductless System?
Which Suits Your House, Central AC or Ductless
We recommend whichever one your house already supports. Sound duct runs point to central air. No ducts, a converted attic, or a single room that has never cooled point to ductless. What we will not do is cut new duct through a finished house to make central work.
| Central air conditioning | Ductless mini split | |
|---|---|---|
| What it needs from the house | Duct runs in reasonable condition | Nothing but a wall and a small hole for the line set |
| How you control it | One thermostat for the whole house | Each head set on its own |
| Where the energy goes | In a typical home, 20 to 30 percent of conditioned air is lost through duct leaks | No ducts, so nothing is lost between the unit and the room |
| Best fit | Homes where the ductwork is already sound | Additions, converted attics, and the rowhouse bedroom with no duct run to it |
| The catch | Only as good as the ducts feeding it | More equipment to install, and more units to maintain |
Weighing heating at the same time? A heat pump does both from one system, which is as much a heating conversation as a cooling one.
How We Run AC Service Calls Across the DMV
We do not dispatch every job from one dot on a map.
We route appointments around where the day's work already is. That matters in a service area this spread out. A same-day call in Virginia is easier to take when somebody is already working nearby, rather than making every job start with a drive across the DMV.
After hours, the owner may be the one who shows up.
When the regular team is off and an emergency cannot wait, Julian still handles many of those calls himself. The person running the company is not removed from the work homeowners are calling about.
We are comfortable giving you a straight answer.
Nero's Heating & Air was built to be the kind of local company that tells you what the system needs, what can wait and what is not worth spending on. If a job falls outside what we actually do, we would rather say that than sell around it.
Your AC Service Call, From First Contact to Final Check
- Step 1.
Tell us what changed.
Our office asks what the AC is doing, how long it has been doing it, and anything you know about the system. That gives the technician useful context before arrival.
- Step 2.
We narrow it down.
The technician follows the readings until the problem makes sense. What sounded like one issue on the phone can look very different once the equipment is tested.
- Step 3.
You get the options.
We explain what needs attention, what can wait and what each option costs. New-system estimates are written and become binding once signed.
- Step 4.
We make sure it holds.
After the work, we run the system through a full cycle. Repairs carry a 30-day labor warranty, installations one year, and we check back around six months later.
Where Our AC Calls Take Us
Cheverly is home base, but the work spreads well beyond it. On a normal week, our AC technicians may be in Washington DC, Prince George's County, Montgomery County, Charles County, Southern Maryland or Northern Virginia.
The cities listed below are where we work most often, not a hard boundary. We can sometimes take a call farther out when the day's route already puts someone nearby.
Prince George’s County
- Cheverly
- Upper Marlboro
- Bowie
- Bladensburg
- New Carrollton
- Greenbelt
- Riverdale Park
- Hyattsville
- College Park
- Laurel
- District Heights
- Mount Rainier
- Oxon Hill
- Clinton
- Suitland
- Forest Heights
- Capitol Heights
- Lanham
- Largo
- Glenarden
- National Harbor
- Fort Washington
Charles County
- Waldorf
- La Plata
- Indian Head
Southern Maryland
- Lusby
- Chesapeake Beach
- North Beach
- Dunkirk
- Owings
- Huntingtown
- Prince Frederick
- Solomons
- California
- Saint Leonard
Northern Virginia
- Alexandria
- Arlington
- Falls Church
- Fairfax
- Fairfax City
- Vienna
- Springfield
- Burke
- Annandale
- Reston
- McLean
- Tysons
- Woodbridge
- Dumfries
- Occoquan
- Manassas Park
Book an AC Visit
Repair, Tune-Up or a New System
Phone, text and the form all reach the same office, and all three book the same four things: a repair, a tune-up, a replacement quote or an emergency call. Whichever you use, you get a person rather than a recording and an appointment rather than a callback.
You Will Know When We Are Coming
Once the visit is booked, a confirmation goes out with the day and the window, so you are not sitting in a hot house wondering whether anyone is coming.
Same Day When the Schedule Allows
We aim for the same day or the next one. In a July heat wave that is harder, and we say so on the call rather than leave you on a maybe.
Gallery
Reviews
4.8“[He] explained us why one of the older systems was not communicating well with our Nest thermostat and why instead of repairing and wasting our money we should consider a newer more efficient communicating system.”
Rohit S.
FAQs
Usually yes. Most manufacturer parts warranties follow the equipment rather than the installer, provided it was registered when new. Worth digging out the paperwork before you assume otherwise.
Spring or fall, roughly March to May and September to November. Demand is lower, scheduling is easier, and you are not left without cooling through the hottest two weeks of the year.
Usually yes. Efficiency ratings are published for matched pairs, so a new condenser on an old coil rarely performs as rated and can shorten the manufacturer warranty on the new equipment.
Not always. An existing thermostat usually works with a like-for-like swap, though two-stage and variable-speed systems need one that can control the extra stages. Ask before the install.
A load calculation, which weighs insulation, windows, orientation and air leakage rather than floor area alone. Sizing on square footage by itself usually produces a system that is too big.
