Air Conditioning Maintenance Guide: A Checklist for Spring

Want to know the secret to owning a long-lasting air conditioning unit that needs few repairs and doesn’t waste much energy? Regular preventive maintenance. There are some air conditioning maintenance tasks that you as a homeowner can do yourself and some things that a professional should do for you.

Make air conditioning maintenance a part of your spring cleaning to-do list and ensure that your air conditioner works well throughout the upcoming steamy Arkansas summer. You can probably handle the following tasks:

• Inspect your A/C or heat pump air filter, and if it’s dirty, change it. Get in the habit of a monthly inspection.
• Clean the evaporator coil and condenser coil and remove surrounding debris, if necessary.
• Straighten out the coil fins with a fin comb, if necessary.
• Dip a stiff wire through your unit’s drain channels to clear out clogs.

Make doubly sure your air filter is clean because a dirty or clogged filter will impede the flow of air through your HVAC equipment. This makes your A/C or heat pump work harder to achieve the thermostat temperature, wasting energy, wearing out parts, and not providing even cooling.

Ask a professional to do more advanced spring maintenance on your air conditioner. The professional should do the following tasks as a part of a routine maintenance service call:

• Inspect the refrigerant for correct amount, and if the level is low, recharge and look for leaks.
• Inspect ducts and seal any leaks.
• Inspect all the electric connections of the unit and clean and tighten as needed.
• Measure the airflow through the evaporator coil.
• Measure the voltage and current on the motors.
• Lubricate motors and all other moving parts.
• Inspect the blower components and clean and adjust as needed.
• Inspect the belts.
• Make sure the thermostat is accurate and working well.

A professional can also show you how to do the simpler maintenance tasks yourself. Call the professionals at Paschal Heat, Air & Geothermal for more information on the maintenance of your HVAC systems. We serve homeowners in northwest Arkansas.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Northwest Arkansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about A/C maintenance and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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