Air Conditioner Cages: A Smart Decision

Imagine sitting in your house or business and slowly starting to feel the temperature reach an uncomfortable level. Your standing in front of the thermostat and realize that that the inside temperature does not match what you have it set for. There’s a problem. What can I check? The filter? Is the thermostat broken? These are questions any normal person would ask in this situation. Now imagine going outside to see if the condenser is running and realize that it is completely gone. Or worse, looking at a carcass of what used to be your air conditioner, ravaged and scattered across the area like a bomb had went off inside it. This is what happens every single day because of air conditioner theft.

Why me? What made my air conditioner so desirable? The problem of air conditioner theft is not a new one and the thieves do not discriminate. A/C units have been stolen for years, mostly in times past due to a quick sale to a shady contractor who will then re-sell it to someone needing air conditioning. However, now that the economy is in bad shape and copper prices are at all time highs, the focus has shifted to quick Snatch-N-Grab thefts and the units are stripped of the copper and then sold. The thief sells the copper to a scrap yard for pennies on the dollar. They get maybe $40-$50 dollars for an air conditioner that costs you upwards of $3500 or more to replace. This also means no air conditioning or heat. Having no A/C in your home for a while is bad enough, imagine having to conduct business or hold church in the freezing cold or unbearable heat.

This problem in compounded by the desire of wanting a replacement right away, but a fear of leaving it exposed again. What can I do? The crooks will be overjoyed to see that you supplied them with a brand new unit, that is unless they see that you have protected it with an air conditioner cage. The sight of an A/C cage itself would send most crooks down the road to seek for an easier target. This alone gives you the advantage over other theft deterrents such as alarms or simple lighting. These methods help, but do not actually keep your air conditioner from being stolen. They are purely re-active approaches when a pro-active approach is needed. An air conditioner cage by Property Armor by far is the best device you can purchase to protect your investment. They are sold in several different styles and some even actually enhance the aesthetics of your unit as oppose to looking like a crime zone.

Wayne Blackmon, an HVAC business owner has seen several of these first hand. “I have actually been called to a doctors office who had their air conditioners stolen right in the middle of the day, located on a busy intersection. Neighboring businesses admit seeing a van earlier but assumed they were just working on the units.” Mr. Blackmon adds “We work closely with Property Armor which stocks and supplies air conditioner cages. Sometimes the replacement unit itself is not in stock and has to be ordered, but thankfully, the air conditioning protection is usually available when the units are ready to be installed. I usually get a big smile when I get an air conditioner working again, but now I get an additional smile and sigh of relief when they know they are now protected also.”

You can visit www.propertyarmor.net to learn more about the problem, check out solutions, as well as browse through a gallery of past projects.

5 Responses to Air Conditioner Cages: A Smart Decision

1. Portable Air Conditioning Unit says:

   March 28, 2010 at 8:49 am

   Wonderful information… thanks, pls, suggest to buy best portable air conditioning unit…
2. Property Armor says:

   March 29, 2010 at 7:49 am

   Thank you for the post. Your specific application would determine what portable unit would be an appropriate choice.
3. Robert Frederick says:

   November 22, 2010 at 10:40 am

   Cages are OK for some systems but a monitored alarm for your air conditioner may be a great solution..
4. Property Armor says:

   November 22, 2010 at 12:23 pm

   Thanks for the great post. I agree that alarms can help with the copper theft situation. My personal opinion is that they work best with a cage though. An alarm is a re-active approach no matter how you slice it. A cage is a pro-active solution. A simple analogy would be a thief is looking to steal a bicycle. He see’s three outside a department store in a bike rack. One has no protection, one has an alarm, and one has a chain. Which one do you feel would be the first one the thief goes for? The one with nothing of course. What about the next one? The one with the alarm. Why? The bicycle with the chain is far to time consuming to mess with. Granted, the second bicycle with the alarm may be making a ton of noise but the damage has already been done. Even if the thief gets caught, the damage is done. Either way you are most likely financially out of pocket. It really comes down to are you in it to catch criminals or to keep your air conditioner. This is why I feel that a combined approach may be the best route. Thanks again for the post.
5. Nancy Weaver says:

   October 4, 2013 at 12:02 am

   Thank you so much for sharing this very important information. Stealing some parts of our air-condition system is really very rampant these days because they can sell out those parts and earn a big amount of money. That is why, it is essential that we should take an action for this. Having those Air-condition alarms or air-condition cages is one great solution to this problem.