Hail Also Dents Your Air Conditioner Fins, So Photograph Them Too

An outdoor air conditioner sits in the open, often on the side of the house that takes the brunt of a storm front. Its condenser coil is a grid of thin aluminum fins, and those fins bend under hail more easily than almost anything else on the lot. After a hailstorm most homeowners look up at the roof first. The condenser is worth a look at the same time, because the damage it shows can help place the storm, and it is the part of the property most likely to be ignored until the unit stops cooling in July.

Storm and hail

Hail dents the fins in a pattern that is easy to recognize once you know it. Each impact leaves a shallow crater, often with the fins pushed flat in a ring around the center. Fins that lie over restrict airflow, so the unit runs hotter and works harder. A few flattened fins on a condenser is a service matter. A coil where most of the fins lie down is a unit that may have lost capacity, and the question becomes whether straightening is worth doing or whether the unit should be replaced.

The fin damage is useful for a different reason too. Hail large enough to dent a condenser cabinet was almost certainly falling on the roof, the gutters and the soft metal of the house at the same time. Photographs of the condenser, taken with the date visible and a reference object such as a coin or a tape measure in frame, show the size and direction of the storm better than a verbal description does. Keep them in one folder with the roof photographs. An insurer reviewing the file may find a full set of photographs easier to follow than a short one, and whether the condenser is covered at all is a question for your policy and your insurer.

Look at the surrounding parts as well. Hail that dents a condenser cabinet often leaves marks on the cap of a bathroom vent, on the metal guard around a gas meter, on a mailbox or on the window screens on the same wall. Each mark is a point on the map of the storm. When a roofer later reads the soft metal on the house, those marks can confirm which side took the hail, and that matters most where the marks on the roof are faint.

Write down when you first noticed the damage, too. A condenser dented on a Tuesday afternoon and found on Friday is a different record from one found the morning after the storm, and a short note with the times, the weather you saw and the rooms where you heard the impacts will help anyone reviewing the file. Note what the weather did as well, whether the wind was strong, whether the rain came sideways and whether the hail was the size of peas or of marbles. Those details are the kind that get lost within a week.

A practical warning about timing. Do not straighten fins with a comb, a pressure washer or a garden hose until someone has photographed them. Many homeowners brush the fins to restore airflow the same afternoon, and the marks they erase are then hard to show later. Take the photographs first, and only then turn the unit off at its disconnect and clean the coil. Work inside the cabinet should wait until the power is off at the disconnect and the fan is still.

What it costs

The cost of fin straightening depends on the unit, its age and how many fins are down. Ask for it as its own line on paper, with the number of fins or the share of the coil face affected described, and kept separate from the roof price. A condenser repair and a roof replacement are two different jobs with two different parts and two different crews. Folding them into one lump sum makes it hard to see what each one costs and hard to know which piece a policy may or may not reach.

If the coil is badly damaged, the comparison changes. A replacement condenser has its own price and its own install work, which usually includes a refrigerant check, a new pad if the old one has cracked, electrical reconnection and a startup test. Those are heating and cooling items, not roofing items. Keys is a roofing contractor, so a replacement quote for the condenser should come from an HVAC company. Keys can document what hail did to the cabinet and the coil as part of the storm record, and that documentation goes into the same written file as the roof.

Missouri law draws a line here too. Under RSMo 407.725, a roofing contractor may not represent or negotiate a homeowner's insurance claim, and may not say anything about paying, waiving or covering a deductible. That means the conversation with your insurer about the condenser or the roof stays with you, and the contractor's job is to put the damage on paper so you have something to hand over.

When two bids arrive, compare them on what they include rather than on the total. One proposal may list the condenser inspection and the fin work, while another may say nothing about the air conditioner at all. The second is not cheaper if the work still has to be done later by someone else.

What to ask

Before you agree to anything about the condenser, ask these questions of whoever is looking at it.

1. Which fins are bent, how many, and roughly what share of the coil face is affected?
2. Will the photographs be dated and kept with the roof photographs, and will you receive a copy of each one?
3. Is the fin straightening a separate line on the written proposal, with a price that stands on its own?
4. If the coil is not worth straightening, what does the replacement quote include, and which company writes it?
5. Was the unit powered down at the disconnect before anyone touched the cabinet or the coil?
6. Which damage on the house matches the condenser marks, such as the vent cap, the gas meter guard or the screens?

Ask for the answers in writing. A verbal remark that the coil looks fine leaves no record, and a record is what you, the HVAC company and your insurer will each need later.

Keys documents damage on the roof, and that can include storm marks on the house that line up with a condenser. Each written scope comes with photographs and measurements, and those go into your hands. When your insurer asks questions, you answer them. Keys attends as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer, and the file stays yours to keep.