Summer is closing in, and if you haven’t yet scheduled your air conditioning maintenance in Clearwater, FL or elsewhere in our service area, this is one of the best times to get it done. We aren’t exaggerating when we say this is the most important service for your comfort during the coming summer.
But what if you can’t manage to have a maintenance tune-up and inspection scheduled before summer starts? You might think that you’ve missed the window and therefore you’ll have to wait until next spring to have it done.
This isn’t true! There is no “expiration date” when it comes to AC maintenance (or any type of HVAC maintenance). Although spring is an ideal time for it, the only absolute necessity is that you have it done annually.
Why Annual Maintenance Is Key
The point of maintenance is to help an air conditioning system resist the effects of the strain of doing its job. Any device that does as much work as an AC system during the spring (especially in a place that can get as hot as Florida) will accumulate significant wear and tear that will result in it aging early.
A single summer of work for an air conditioner is more than enough to negatively affect its performance the next year. This makes maintenance an annual job in order to have the impact it’s supposed to have.
Let’s imagine this with an analogy to a vehicle. Let’s say that every summer you need to make a thousand-mile car trip and drive back. That many miles on a car is an enormous amount of wear. Before you make the trip, wouldn’t you want to have the car given a tune-up and inspection? Get the oil changed, check the tires for wear and tear, check the battery, change the air filter, etc. And the next year, before you make that trip again, you’d want to have the same tune-up—because the car has put on all those miles.
It’s the same with an AC. You’ll put the equivalent of a thousand miles on your cooling system during one of our summers. Maintenance takes care of vital jobs that will alleviate that “mileage” and ensure the system is prepared for another summer: check refrigerant pressure, look for refrigerant leaks, clean the condensate drainage system, clean the indoor and outdoor coils, test amperage, test airflow, change the air filter, tighten connections, lubricate motors, and more.
What Might Happen Without Regular Maintenance
Here are some of the negative outcomes you might encounter if you don’t have routine annual maintenance:
- An abrupt system breakdown, probably on one of the hottest days of the year
- A premature need to replace the air conditioner
- Repairs that otherwise would’ve been unnecessary
- A higher cost to run the air conditioner because of wear and tear
- Poorer performance with reduced airflow and comfort
- A voided manufacturer’s warranty
We hope this has convinced you of how important annual maintenance is. Even if you can’t squeeze it in during spring (and with our help, it’s not difficult at all to find a convenient appointment), make sure you don’t skip it.
Reach out to us today and Experience the Balanced Air difference!
