Yes, you need routine maintenance completed on your new, a couple of years old, that system that is of the age where it went to college, but it’s back living in your basement (I did it so I can make fun of it, ok?) or that really old system you have in your home. Think of it in the sense of a car – you wouldn’t drive 40k miles without any preventative maintenance completed on the components, which wear out over time. Your HVAC systems also need some love to ensure they work as they should.
What all goes into the maintenance of an HVAC unit?
Here at Hometown Heroes Heating and Cooling, we offer all our homeowners that we work with the opportunity to enroll in our Constant Comfort Plan, which ensures that those that participate in the agreement with us can say that their HVAC units are running as efficiently as possible. Looking at our program just from the maintenance side (there are other benefits, too), this is two trips a year engagement – once in the fall and once in the springtime – timed out to ensure that the unit that is about to be put to the test for one of the extreme seasons has been proven to be in excellent working order. During the process, our service technicians will provide a thorough inspection and cleaning of the unit, servicing, and testing any moving parts/pieces inside the unit, testing all electrical components, and making adjustments as needed OR bringing to your attention any weak points that exist inside the unit that may become an issue when the weather moves to be more extreme.
Just like the car we referenced, if you don’t change the oil in your car, you won’t have a good experience of it being a dependable machine that can get you where you need to go – heating and cooling systems are not much different.
Lowers the amount of electrical consumption the units will require.
Ensuring the outdoors is free of dirt and debris will allow that unit to operate more efficiently, allowing the thermodynamic process to work appropriately. The indoor side suffers if the outdoor unit cannot effectively reject outdoor heat. Thus, longer run times, thus more electricity consumed by the air conditioner since it’s taking longer to cool the home.
When looking at the indoor side, we must ensure the blower wheel is free and clear of dirt and debris; if there is a lot of dirt and debris lodged onto the blower motor, that will make the “slits” on the actual wheel be smaller. If that area between each part of the blower wheel is clogged, the unit cannot move air well – once again, we are elongating the run times consuming more on the utilities and dropping the ability for the units to be able to move air inside the home.
Avoidance of costly repairs
Our number one goal with maintenance is to be transparent with you. So, we want to stress the systems to their max, like they are running when the weather is extreme, and find all of their weak points before they become cumbersome repairs. This way, we know how close they are to failure, and we can create a game plan on what we can do to make sure your units operate in tip-top shape during the peak usage seasons.
Increases in your indoor air quality
You know this, a filter is associated with your system. It needs to be changed to keep the furnace cabinet and evaporator coil clean and the system pressures inside of it correct. Having the unit professionally cleaned will keep the number of pollutants from continuing to stir through the air as much.
A safety check is completed every fall.
Here we take safety very seriously – so all of our fall maintenance trips come with a combustion analysis to ensure no carbon monoxide in the air stream from the failure of a heat exchanger. Carbon monoxide can be very dangerous – even deadly – to a human at very high levels.
Extension of your HVAC system
Regular maintenance of your system will elongate the system’s life. This idea is related to the run times – the systems are designed to undergo an exact science for the refrigeration cycle to occur well. If there is a disruption in the cycle, or energy doesn’t transfer the way it should, the compressor’s life will be shortened due to the liquid being constantly returned to it, failure of the coils is more prevalent, blower motors struggle to move any considerable air putting back pressure on it making it work harder, and the list can go on and on.
Homeowner HVAC maintenance tasks
Although we look forward to seeing you twice a year for regular maintenance, we still have a few asks of you!
Change the air filter in your unit. The filter associated with your unit ensures dirt is captured, more significant pollutants, and any other air particles. Consult with us on how often you should change your filter – the type of filter will influence what we recommend. A good rule of thumb will be changing your filter every 1 to 3 months.
Clear the outdoor unit of any kind of overgrown weeds or landscaping. Also, be sure to keep anything physical that would block air flow around the unit, and make sure it’s clear of the outdoor unit when in cooling mode or a heat pump in heating mode.
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