If you follow our blog, you’ll see that we talk about maintenance quite a bit. This is for good reason, maintenance is important! Too many homeowners dismiss this service as a “luxury” that only the lucky few who can afford it get for their HVAC systems. That’s not true at all.
Your air conditioning and heating systems need care just like the vehicle you drive does.
During your HVAC maintenance tune-ups, our technicians will thoroughly inspect, clean, and adjust components that need it, in order to help your home comfort system operate smoother and last longer. Ultimately, this is great news for your budget. But what actually happens during your AC maintenance tune-up? Read on to find out.
The Power of Professional Maintenance
Air conditioning maintenance jobs should only ever be completed by trained professionals. That said, there is one task that you can and should do on your own—and that’s to change or clean the air filter. Our professionals are happy to show you how to do this if you’re not already aware.
Changing a clogged air filter improves airflow and air conditioner performance overall so that your cooling system doesn’t have to work as hard to do its job. With this out of the way, your HVAC professionals can handle the rest of the tune-up, which includes:
- Inspecting your evaporator and condenser coils to make sure they are unobstructed, clean, and fully able to both release and absorb heat as they should.
- Checking your refrigerant levels to ensure they didn’t drop. If your system is losing refrigerant, it means that there is a leak somewhere along the line that must be located and repaired as it can lead to compressor damage fairly quickly. You will also need a recharge, too.
- Inspecting the electrical connections and tightening them wherever necessary.
- Cleaning the condensate drain and pan so that moisture from the evaporator coils does not overflow them.
- Cleaning and lubricating the compressor and fan motors to prevent mechanical stress that can lead to these motors burning out.
- Checking that the thermostat is reading the temperature correctly, and recalibrating it if it’s not.
- Replacing or cleaning the air filter as needed. As we said above, this is a task you can and should be doing on your own, every 1-3 months; however, we will certainly check on this for you just to be on the safe side.
All of these steps and more are important to keep your system performing as efficiently as it’s meant to, for as long as it’s meant to. As long as your air conditioner is well-maintained, it can last about 10-15 years. But without routine tune-ups (once a year for a traditional air conditioner, every six months for a heat pump system), this lifespan can be cut in half.
Additionally, maintenance helps prevent up to 85% of the repairs that your air conditioner may ever need in its lifetime.
Don’t let the weather get you down, call Brown’s. Reach out to Brown’s Heating & Cooling today for expert HVAC maintenance in Monument, CO.