EXTREME HEAT

A/C rentals up as North Texans cope with triple-digit heat, broken air conditioners

North Texas summers are hot, but it's extra hot

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On Monday, there wasn't a cloud in the sky over North Texas. It was forecast to be the hottest day of the year as the temperature soared into triple digits.

"It's not so bad once you get used to it," Arnold Ngundo said out on a late morning run. "I still run, don't matter. Come rain, sunshine, snow, sleet; I'll still run."

But some things don't always run in this heat, like air conditioning.

"I was on the phone with my mom; I was like, what do I do? Suffer with no air conditioning when it's 106 outside," Karsyn Barnett asked.

Barnett is a new first-time homeowner. Before her moving boxes were even unpacked, her air conditioning started leaking, and she was having a hard time finding an A/C tech to fix it.

"Everyone's really busy because everyone's A/C units are going out," Barnett said. "This is my first home. All of my life savings went into this."

Barnett found a compromise between having no air conditioning and paying for an expensive fix by renting an A/C unit for a few days.

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"Almost all of our customers did not know before they called us that they could rent an air conditioner," Rescue Cooling Rentals Founder/CEO Matthew Burton said. "They think I either need to take my family and pets to a hotel, or I need to just sweat here and wait for the A/C tech to fix it."

Burton said business at the company's Grapevine warehouse spikes as the temperature spikes.

"So our warehouse, as you can see, is pretty empty today," Burton said. "That's because of the temperatures that we're seeing."

Burton said employees have been working almost round the clock delivering rental A/C units.

"The portable one from Rescue (Cooling Rentals) has kind of ... bought me some time, I guess, to make more decisions," Barnett said.

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