Central Air Maintenance: 101 A Guide For Homeowners

Central Air Maintenance 101: A Guide for Homeowners

The modern-day air conditioner owes its legacy to the first unit invented in 1902. Since then, people have benefited from cool indoor air.

With today’s rising temperatures, we can’t imagine a world without the cooling relief of central air. But without regularly performing central air maintenance, that could easily become a reality.

Central air maintenance is critical to ensuring that your machine is running efficiently and that it’s there for you when you need it. More importantly, maintenance is cost-effective in that it’s cheaper to maintain this appliance than replace it.

If you’re new to maintaining your air conditioning, there’s no need to panic. Below are a few things you can do before the summer hits to maintain your unit.

1. Change the Filter

Changing the filer is number one in air conditioner maintenance. A dirty filter restricts airflow and can also lead to contaminated air circulating in your home.

All you have to do is slide out the older filter and replace it with a new one. You’ll probably want to do this more often in the summer months when your system is running more regularly.

2. Know Your Maintenance Schedule

How do you determine when and how to do maintenance? Simply look for the manuals that came with your unit.

These guides are definitive and specific to the machine you have. They’ll tell you exactly when and how to do HVAC maintenance according to the extensive testing and analysis performed by the manufacturer.

3. Trim Your Plants

This isn’t a gardening tip, it’s actually one of the most common AC problems when it comes to ensuring airflow gets to your central air machine. Having adequate airflow on all sides of the unit ensures that it can run at its peak efficiency.

So take out your gardening tools and clean up leaves that may have collected around the unit. You’ll also need to trim bushes, trees, and any other plants that are around.

4. Wash Your Unit

As we mentioned, your machine needs access to uninterrupted airflow in order to perform efficiently. That means that things that have built up over the fall, winter, and spring months need to be cleaned away.

To clean your unit on the outside, all you need is a garden hose and a hard stream of water. Wash all sides of the unit, including the bottom.

5. Only Run it When You Need It

It’s pretty intuitive that the less you actually use your air conditioner, the longer it’s going to last. Take the opportunities to reduce its use when and where possible.

First, buy a programmable thermostat. That way, you can adjust the temperature lower in the daytime when nobody is in the house.

Second, you can keep the interior of your home from heating up and triggering the air conditioner. That’s accomplished by simply closing blinds or drapes in the hottest hours of the day when the sunlight is pouring in.

Need Central Air Maintenance? Call the Pros

Central air maintenance takes time and effort, especially before heavy use in the summer months. But taking that time now means not having to replace your unit sooner than necessary.

But if you simply don’t have that time, let the pros handle it. Find out more about our maintenance services here.