If your car breaks down, you make alternate arrangements until it’s fixed. However, if it’s your home’s heating or cooling system that conks out, it’s not so easy. Poorly timed malfunctions can leave you without conditioned air during excessive temperatures in winter and summer, and you’ll likely have to pay expensive emergency repair costs. The best solution is to prevent problems in the first place with seasonal HVAC maintenance.
How to Do Seasonal HVAC Maintenance
There are a few routine maintenance jobs that you should perform on an ongoing basis. Inspecting and changing your air filter is important, as well as general cleaning of equipment. Doing these jobs alone will help reduce the likelihood of problems, but still doesn’t cover lot of the necessary maintenance of heating and cooling systems.
One good option is to purchase an HVAC maintenance plan from a trusted service provider in your area. A technician will come by at a specified interval — often once or twice a year — and perform a thorough checkup, cleaning and any needed service or repairs. There are many benefits of professional seasonal HVAC maintenance:
- Much cheaper over time than emergency repairs
- Often discounted labor or parts
- Keeps your system running at a high efficiency
- Faster service if something does break down
The exact service that you’ll get depends on the provider you choose. In general, a service plan will cover the following:
- Inspection of your condensate drain for clogs
- Checking all safety controls
- Lubrication of any moving components
- Tightening connections of electrical components
- Testing thermostat function and optimizing settings
- Cleaning your air conditioner (both sets of coils)
- Measuring and adjusting refrigerant level of air conditioner or heat pump
- Cleaning equipment and checking fuel connections
- Checking airflow and adjusting if necessary
Many of these jobs aren’t easy or safe for you to do on your own. While the cost may seem unnecessary at first, over time it will pay for itself as your system maintains peak efficiency to keep energy bills low and you prevent costly breakdowns.
If you have any other questions about seasonal HVAC maintenance in your Yuma area home, contact Hansberger Refrigeration and Electric.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Yuma, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about seasonal maintenance and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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