Hello, my name is Darby Aldrich. I would like to talk to you about the importance of maintaining your air conditioning system. When I moved to a hot climate, I did not realize how vital having a running air conditioner was for living comfortably. When the unit just stopped working one day, the temperature inside the house rivaled the piping hot weather outdoors. We had to go to the community center to keep the kids from feeling sick. While we were gone, we had a local HVAC contractor fix the unit. She let us know that some simple maintenance tasks would prevent that situation in the future. I will use this site to closely explore those tasks in great detail. I hope you can use the information to keep your air conditioner running like new. Thanks.
An air conditioning unit needs to be well maintained if you want it to run efficiently and save you money on your electric bill. This will involve you doing some simple maintenance tasks as well as scheduling an appointment with a professional technician to come to service the unit annually. It is important for you to be sure to take care of the following tasks before the technician arrives or else they will end up doing these simple things and charging you extra for it. Here are the chores you need to take care of yourself.
Change the Filters
It is imperative that you clean or change the filters for your system. This will include the return air filter as well as any that are on the unit itself. When the filter is filled with dirt and dust, the air cannot flow through properly, so the unit has to work harder. The harder it works, the higher your electric bill will be. Additionally, the harder it works, the greater the chance that something will break or wear down. This will result in more repairs. Maintaining the filters is easy, don't let this simple task cost you more money because you neglected it.
Clean the Fins and Coils
As air is pulled into the unit, any dust in it can get trapped in the fins or on the coils. In addition to dust becoming trapped, debris like leaves and paper can also be pulled against the fins, which obstruct airflow. Take a few minutes to go outside to remove anything pulled against the fins of the unit. Then, open the top of the unit and use a hose to spray water from the inside out. This will clean any dirt or dust from the fins. Once you're done with this step, carefully spray down the coils, too. You can also buy a coil fin to gently run through any coils that have bee smashed together. However, if you are not comfortable doing this, it might be best to leave it to the technician. You do not want to damage the coils.
You should try to do these tasks the morning of or the day before having the technician come to service the system. They can then let you know how often you should do these simple tasks, as it will depend upon your unit and where you live. The professional will take care of a few other tasks inside the unit and will look everything over to make sure there is nothing that looks like it is going to cause a problem in the near future.
Share4 December 2018
