A/C Maintenance? (furnace, window, Air Conditioner, water heater)

[acegolfer]

Other than changing filters regularly, what do you do for A/C maintenance?

[Barking Spider]

I have my HVAC serviced once a year. They clean the coils and check systems to ensure they are working correctly. Many times a routine service can show when components are wearing out, or in need of repair, even though it seems like it is working ok. For instance, a capacitor will typically start showing issues before it just goes out.

A routine service does not cost a lot, and can prolong the life of the system.

[Lodestar 77]

So, do your replace/repair anything found during the routine service call or wait until the part actually breaks and the unit stops working?

[399083453]

Talking about a window unit or a whole house central air conditioner?

[cdelena]

Hose out the fins outside every year or so. That's it.

[tickyul]

Clean those coils at least once a year, clean the drip-pan so the slinger-ring is not throwing dirty water onto your condenser-coil.

[irootoo]

We have ours professionally serviced annually.

[irootoo]

We have our A/C serviced on an annual basis.

[gentlearts]

If you mean whole house HVAC, we use a service for $179. a year. They clean and check the heating and cooling 1x@ every year, and there is a discount involved on parts if repairs are needed.

We are retired, so we watch our pennies. We let the service go for 2 years, but then had a service call and re upped. We think it was a lightening strike that knocked out our AC this time.

My point is, you want to make sure your system is healthy, and this requires it being checked before it goes haywire at an inopportune time. If you are a detail person, you might not need a service agreement. If you aren’t, it will be a good safety net.

[Barking Spider]

Originally Posted by Lodestar 77

So, do your replace/repair anything found during the routine service call or wait until the part actually breaks and the unit stops working?

I am a firm believer in preventative maintenance. To me, waiting for something to break before you do something about it does't make any sense.
Very few people (none that I know) wait until their tires wear thru and blow out before they replace them. Same goes for changing oil or routine maintenance with cars. It would be foolish to wait until it breaks down before doing anything.

Yet somehow, people equate home maintenance items differently. I hear it all the time about waiting until a water heater fails before replacing it. Or the "they don't make them like this anymore, so I'm going to keep using this energy hog 1950's furnace until it dies."

Just about everything we use needs a certain amount of routine maintenance to keep it performing.

The short answer to your question is I rely on my HVAC tech to advise me if I need to replace something now, or wait. In fact on our last service, there was an slightly lower than normal reading on a component. He suggested we wait until the next service to see if it gets worse. He felt it didn't need to be replaced right now. Obviously, you have to have a certain level of trust with the HVAC contractor.