With As Much As NW Floridians Need Their A/Cs, Preventive Maintenance Should Not Be Ignored

One of life’s great disappointments is coming home to find out your air-conditioning system has conked out. It was a bad day at work, the thermometer outside is at 92 degrees and your indoor thermostat shows 88 degrees. It’s late in the afternoon and your “hot and bothered” day just got even hotter and more bothered!

There’s a great way to avoid this situation. It’s called preventive maintenance. Air conditioners are like anything else mechanical — they have to be maintained. And they tend to go out at the worst possible time — just when they’re working the hardest. Getting air-conditioning service twice each year can reveal things that are worn, broken, dirty or loose that can cause a failure of your system. Neglecting standard preventive maintenance is a problem waiting to happen — at the worst possible time.

Here are just a few of the things that a service technician will do and check during a preventive maintenance call:

•Lubricate the fan motor where possible.

•Clean condenser coil and straighten bent or damaged fins.

•Check refrigerant level.

•Check evaporator coil and clean if necessary.

•Clean out evaporator drain.

•Check and tighten loose electrical connections.

•Calibrate the thermostat if needed.

•Check the expansion valve.

•Clean or replace the filter as required.

As you can see, a lot can go wrong in an air-conditioning system. Having a semi-annual maintenance check is the best way to catch things that may go wrong, correct them and be ready for the hottest of days ahead. Many of the checks that a technician does will reduce the strain on your system and save you in energy costs. So a good preventive maintenance plan keeps you from getting surprised, saves you money in lower operating costs, makes your unit last longer and catches problems early when they’re less costly to repair.

If you haven’t had your air-conditioning system checked in a while, contact us at Action Heating and Air Conditioning. We can schedule a preventive maintenance plan that assures your unit is in good working order and ready for the hottest of Northeast Florida days.