Benjamin Franklin famously said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Of course, Mr. Franklin never knew about the joy that is modern air conditioning. If he did, he might have changed his phrase a little: when it comes to your home air conditioning unit, an ounce of prevention is worth several pounds of sweat!
Even though summer is winding down, the likelihood of an air conditioning failure remains high for a couple of reasons. As days stay hot and late summer storms introduce tons of humidity into the air, your unit not only has to run frequently for long periods of time, and it also must work hard to remove that humidity and effectively cool your home.
And since nobody wants to spend any longer than they absolutely must without a functioning air conditioner, now’s the time to go about scheduling a preventative air conditioner maintenance visit from your friends at Pruett Air Conditioning.
Air Conditioner Maintenance You Can Do Yourself
There are a few steps you can be taking to make sure that your air conditioner stays in good condition for conditioning.
- Filter: Check and clean or replace your air conditioner filter at least once a month. If your home is particularly dusty, or if you have a lot of fur babies sharing the space with you, you may need to check, clean or replace your filters more often.
- Keep It Tidy: Regularly check the area around your air conditioner’s outside unit. If grass, shrubbery, or other plant life has grown up around the unit, trim it back so that the unit can enjoy good, unimpeded airflow. Those azaleas may look great, but if they’re blocking airflow to your AC, your unit can’t operate at its maximum efficiency or effectiveness.
- Clean It Up: The delicate cooling fins around your air conditioner’s condenser coils can easily get clogged with dirt, dust, leaves, grass clippings, and other debris. Taking a few minutes to hose out or vacuum out the fins (taking extreme care not to bend a fin or damage a coil tube) can dramatically improve your HVAC system’s performance.
Expert AC Maintenance Can Save You Money and Discomfort
Having your unit regularly inspected and maintained can help keep you cool by identifying and correcting issues before they become expensive problems. When Pruett’s expert HVAC specialists make a maintenance visit to your home or business, they’ll take steps that can help prevent some common HVAC failures:
Starting Capacitor Failure
This is one of the most common problems we see, and it’s not a repair one that someone without training in handling high-voltage components should attempt.
Your air conditioning unit contains an electrical component called a “capacitor,” sometimes referred to as a “cap.” The capacitor is like a battery, only instead of slowly delivering a small amount of energy over a long period of time, it delivers a quick burst of high-energy electricity almost instantly. It’s how the motors in your condenser fan and compressor are able to get up and running quickly and overcome the inertia of sitting still. When your cap goes down, it takes the whole unit with it.
During maintenance, a technician will run an electrical test on your system’s starting capacitor(s) and advise you if it’s time for a replacement.
Refrigerant Issues
Whether you call it “Freon” or “Puron,” the amount of refrigerant in your air conditioner has to be exactly right in order for the unit to work properly. An overcharged or undercharged unit with too much or not enough refrigerant can’t cool your home effectively, and even a unit with a tiny leak will fail fairly quickly.
Not only that, but even the newer, more environmentally sound refrigerants are still not a good addition to our atmosphere, so leaks pose both a comfort hazard and an environmental one.
Checking your AC service level is a quick job for a heating and cooling specialist and can identify leaks or other service issues early on so that they can be properly addressed.
Compressor Failure
Nothing in your air conditioning unit works as hard as the compressor. It’s the beating heart of the cooling system, taking gaseous refrigerant and compressing it back into a liquid so that it will re-evaporate in the evaporator (clever names we have for these things, don’t we?) to cool the air that passes through the evaporator’s coils.
The compressor’s pistons or turbine run at very high speeds and require perfect balance and consistent lubrication to run properly. Even a small imbalance or loss of lubricant can cause a compressor to fail, shutting down the cooling system until it can be replaced.
When an HVAC professional inspects your home AC system, they’ll check your compressor’s balance and operating temperature to make sure it’s running smoothly.
Electrical Failures
The capacitor isn’t the only electrical component that’s prone to fail in the heat. Corrosion of electrical terminals, wiring, and other components is a constant concern in the humid months, and frequent inspection of contacts, wires, and terminals can spot issues before they become trouble spots.
Hot? Cold? Call the Man! Pruett Air Conditioning Is Here to Keep Your Home Comfortable Through the Long, Hot Summer Months
There’s no need to sweat the heat. When you have air conditioning needs, let Pruett do it! Our technicians are ready to provide top-quality service. Call today: 478-953-4986
Pruett Air Conditioning has offices in Warner Robins and Eastman, GA, so no matter where in Middle Georgia you’re located, Pruett is your local HVAC company.
- Bonaire
- Byron
- Centerville
- Cochran
- Dublin
- Eastman
- Fort Valley
- Kathleen
- Macon
- McRae
- Perry
- Warner Robins