When a technician comes to your home to perform maintenance on your HVAC system, there are 4 major things they MUST do. With this article, we hope to provide you with some facts that will make you a more well-informed consumer!
Check Your Capacitors
The typical A/C system has two capacitors: one on the furnace and the condenser (the outdoor unit). Before we go any further, we’d like to explain a capacitor. In terms of how they look, they’re metallic, cylindrical, and a few inches tall.
As for what they do, they start your furnace and condenser and keep them running. If your capacitor goes out, one of two things will happen: your system will continue to run, but the motors they’re supposed to start will slowly burn up, or one day you’ll try to turn on your system, and it won’t start.
Each capacitor has a “rating”; this number represents how much electricity it’s supposed to give off. You’ll want to ask your technician if yours is within the manufacturer’s prescribed range.
Clear Your Drain Lines
In most cases, the drain lines look like a long piece of PVC piping that’s attached to a furnace and runs to somewhere next to the condenser. How it works: when you run your furnace on a hot day, a part inside of it forms lots of water and drips it into a pan. Your drain line carries that water from your pan to outside your house.
Drain lines have been known to get plugged up with debris. When this happens, the water they carry backs up inside them, causing your drain pan to overflow and spill. Since many furnaces are installed inside attics, all that water will destroy parts of your ceiling.
So you must ask your technician to clean your drain line.
Wash Your Condenser Coil
Generally, the outer frame of your condenser will look like a cage or a metal frame with slits on it. Behind this outer frame is your condenser coil. It has two jobs. One is to transport refrigerant where it needs to go. The other is to make sure that as refrigerant passes through it, the refrigerant cools down. Different issues can occur if the refrigerant doesn’t cool.
One of the common reasons why the refrigerant wouldn’t cool properly would be if your condenser coil was dirty. As a homeowner, you can keep your condenser coil clean by spraying it down with a hose every once in a while. However, if you find that you don’t have time to do this, or your outdoor unit is located in a spot where it gets really dirty all the time, then ask your technician to clean it for you.
They have the tools to pop off the top and clean it inside and out. This isn’t something we recommend that any homeowner attempt themselves.
Tape Up Air Leaks
When you run your A/C during the summer, some of the precious air that’s supposed to cool you down can leak out of your furnace before it gets to you. A quick side note, some people aren’t aware that their furnaces are involved in heating and cooling. Now back to furnaces leaking air. This happens because furnaces aren’t always designed to be airtight.
To fix this issue, just ask your technician to feel for any areas with excessive amounts of air leaking out. And if they find any problem areas, cover them with metal tape.
There are many more tiny details that your technician should attend to, but we think the top 4 are drain lines, capacitors, condenser coils, and leaky areas. To ensure that you’re getting quality service on your HVAC system, go with Absolute Heat & Air! To schedule your maintenance or repair, click here.
