Why Should You Have A Pre-Season Start And Check On Your Air-Conditioner?
There are many reasons why you should. If I was asked what the number one reason is I would have to say peace of mind.
Knowing all is well before you actually need to use it helps provide peace of mind.
Preventing large problems by addressing minor ones probably would be considered my second choice as top reasons why.
You see, there are so many things that have to happen CORRECTLY in order for your air-conditioning system to deliver.
I could make a list of all the things that have to happen and maybe I will in future articles but let’s narrow this down for now to a few things that have a major effect on whether your A/C starts and runs or just sits in the yard and hums at you.
Over 30 years in the HVAC Trade.
You’re going to see a few things that happen over and over again in the Pre-Season. Everyone’s air-conditioner has been sitting there in some cases under 2 feet of snow!
You go to work and it’s 57 degrees outside you get home at night and it’s 78 in your home!
You or your dear loved one flips the switch and the old air-conditioner is slapped out of it slumber.
75% of you luck out and miss a bullet by inches as the A/C starts pumping out cool air. The other 10% of you know either instantly or within hours that you have a problem!
Those that fit in the majority get air-conditioning and since there’s not a huge load in their home, it doesn’t take much to pull the interior of the house down to the set point temperature the thermostat was set to.
75% of you go to sleep that night feeling as though all is well and you’d be fair to say that but the truth is that everything is only “well enough.”
“There are 3 things that come to mind that could be wrong with your central air-conditioning system and you wouldn’t even realize it until your system is put into the true air-conditioning season. Extreme load conditions.”
Problem is that during the low-load conditions, typically April through May…
…If you have one or more of these 3 things going on in your system, you’re not only doing harm which will lead up to a major break down, you’re also running your system in-efficiently so it’s not only wearing it out faster but costly you more money to operate it at the same time!
O.K. the three things are:
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- Dirty Coils – Evaporator and/or Condenser
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- Low Refrigerant level
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- Open or Weak Capacitor(s)
I have been in this trade over 30 years and in my opinion those are the top three reason for your air-conditioner system to end up with a major problem sooner or later.
In my next article I’ll address each of these area’s a little deeper.
Thanks for reading and really – seriously consider having a pre-season start and check on your central air-conditioning system.
You’ll be glad you did and it can really pay off.
Even if you only had these 3 things checked and confirmed you could rest assured that your A/C stands a better chance than 75% of the people who do nothing at all.
HVAC David Schaible
Licensed heat and air contractor
