Be Ready For Summer With These A/C Maintenance Tips

Treat your air conditioner right, and it will treat you right. Don’t make it work too hard and it will keep you cool during the next heatwave. If it has to overwork to do the minimum then eventually it will go out on you. 

Don’t shorten its life by neglect.

As summer approaches, you should be thinking of what you can do to help your A/C run efficiently. If you don’t do a few routine checks before the heat wave arrives, you risk losing your A/C when you need it most. 

Here are some easy ways to keep it cool without a break.

Keep it clean

Before the season begins, it is a good time to give your air conditioner a good tidying up. 

You’ll need to check the owner’s manual to see exactly what this entails for your specific unit. The gist of it is that the fins need to be vacuumed as they have been accumulating all the dust in the air of your home.

Gently run a hoover hose extension over the fins to get all the dust out without applying too much pressure. Depending on your model some of them can be soft.

If you do bend some of them, then take a knife and gently pry them apart to make sure air is passing through easily.

Give it a test run

Before you have your first hot day, give your A/C some run time. Turn it on and listen if it is making any funny noises. Also, check the coolness of the air coming out.

It may be hard to determine how cool it is if the air in the room is also cool. But, if it feels warm you know you have a problem. It isn’t a bad idea to call for an AC Repair if you feel like it isn’t working properly. If you’ve already cleaned it and changed the filter yourself then you will save some money as the technician will only need to work on repairs. It may be as simple as recharging the cooling fluid.

Change the filter

I have a whole article about how important it is to change the filter, so click the link to learn more details. The simple version is that the restricted airflow caused by a clogged filter will have your A/C working overtime. 

The added strain can wear parts out or cause it to overheat. All this besides the cost of the unit working harder and using more electricity.

Unclog the condensate drain

Check your hoses at the end of the season rather than waiting for the beginning of the next. Those hoses can accumulate condensate which will attract bacteria and have you blowing it around your home when you turn it on.

Have you ever smelled that musty aroma when you first turn your unit on early in the summer? That’s from water left in the hoses.

This is a collaborative post.