Learning About HVAC Repairs

Summer will be here before you know it, and you need to be prepared. Your air conditioner needs to be properly maintained before summertime every single year. Too many people go years without ever even thinking about this, leading to air conditioner breakdowns on hot days. If this happens, you could be waiting weeks for a technician to have an available time to come fix your unit. Here are some important tips for getting your AC ready for summer.

1. Test It Early

While you probably don't want to test your air conditioning in the dead of winter, you need to do it well before summer comes. If you have a day in March or April that is fairly warm, that's a good time to test your air conditioner. You only need to do it for a few minutes so you can see how cold the air is that's coming out of your vents. Turn it on the temperature that you normally would in the summertime. After only a minute or so, cold air should be coming out of your vents. If it doesn't feel very cold, schedule a technician to come out and take a look at it. You want to make sure the AC is up and running before your first hot summer day.

2. Check Condensation Pipes

When your air conditioner runs, condensation builds up inside of it. As the condensation builds, it will get pumped through a pipe that runs out of your air conditioner and into a designated drainage area. If the water doesn't drain properly, you could face costly repairs to your unit. Before your turn it on each year, check the pipe to make sure it isn't clogged with any dirt or debris. You can do this with a plumbing snake. Stick it through the pipe and makes sure it goes all the way through without any effort. If you feel any debris inside, you can get a long duster or pipe cleaners to clean it out. If you have a shop-vac handy, that will do the trick as well.

3. Spray Out Filters

If you remove the top to your air conditioning unit, you will see filters against the walls of the inside of it. These tend to build up gunk and debris throughout the season and need to be cleaned out. It can be done easily with a garden hose. Put a spray nozzle on your hose and make sure your air conditioner is turned off before removing the top. With the spray nozzle, spray out the inside of the unit so all of the debris are washed away. Once the filters are clean, you can replace the top and use your air conditioner as normal.

4. Schedule an Inspection

An inspection by a licensed HVAC technician is the only way to know for sure that your air conditioner is running properly. Even if it seems to be working better than ever, you don't know if something in your unit is on its last leg. Just like other machinery, your air conditioner is made up of several small parts. All these parts are independent, yet dependent on each other. This means that one small part can break on its own at any given time, and if all of the parts aren't in working order, your air conditioner isn't going to work properly. With an inspection, a technician can tell if any of the parts in your air conditioner are going to break soon and replace them if needed. A blown capacitor is a common reason air conditioners break down, so make sure yours gets properly inspected.

Don't wait until your air conditioner breaks down to take care of it. Perform proper maintenance and get an inspection from a service like Always Ready Repair before summer comes. It will allow your home to stay cool so your family can live comfortably.