Derek Cole walks through nine AC maintenance tasks to get your system ready for summer. Clean the outdoor unit, replace filters every one to three months, seal duct leaks, and get a professional tune-up before the heat hits. Budget now for eventual replacement.
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The sun is getting higher in the sky, which means summer heat is on the way. Are you ready for the weather change? Are you ready for the summer heat? These are the nine checklist items you can probably do yourself for your AC system. Number one, exterior unit. Check it. Check your outdoor unit. Make sure it's free from damage. Make sure nothing is covering it. Make sure there's no caps on it. If you have a heat pump, you probably don't have this problem, but want to make sure it's clear of any kind of plants or weeds or debris. And you want that to be around a two foot radius of the outer unit. So, so you got your outdoor unit two feet on each side. You want it free of debris so that unit can breathe and the coals can breathe. That's very important. You want the coals to be able to have airflow and to have airflow, you want to have that two foot radius around the unit clean of debris, including weeds, grass clippings, sticks, plants, anything in the way. Make sure it's clean. Number two, outdoor unit cleanup. Now, now that the outdoor unit is, you know, two foot clearance around it, it's clean. It's important to clean the outdoor unit itself. The fins, the coils around it is vital to have those clean. Simple to do, just take a water hose, spray it down, make sure everything's out of there, all the dirt and debris. You don't want to use a power wash. You want to be very careful, very careful. Because those fins can bend if it's under too much pressure. So be careful with that. Make sure you don't damage those fins. So be gentle. But you want to clean up any grass, clippings, gunk, anything that's built up on the outdoor coil. So again, kind of like number one, we want it to be able to breathe. And number two, when you get number two, we also want that coil to breathe because any dirt and debris covering it acts like an insulator. Heating and air, or yeah, heating and air, or in this case, air conditioning is all about heat transfer. So in the AC season, you're trying to take the heat that's in the house, remove it and put it outside where it doesn't matter. So you're not, you're not creating cold air. Everything is a degree of heat. You're taking the heat that's inside and pushing it outside. So that condensing unit is important to have it clean. Number three, your filters, air filter check and replacement. Something very important. If you've seen any video before, you know I love Air filters because it's something simple, something you can do, you can check. Something you can take care of so that filter has not been changed in a while. You might want to do that. Check or change your filter. Check it every month. Change it at least every three months. If your filter is not getting dirty and your unit is running, that could be a problem. If your filter is getting too dirty, that's also a problem. So there's a give and take there with how dirty and clean you need your filter to be. So. So check it every month. Make sure you're good to go. And if it doesn't need to be replaced, at least replace it every three months. Number four, the thermostat. It is that time of year. Switch it over. I like to always keep my thermostat on auto. Some folks like to keep it on cool, like to keep it on heat. Make sure that thermostat is switched over for the right season. Go a step further and look at a smart thermostat or a WI FI thermostat. That way you can control the temperature on your tablet, on your phone. It makes life a little easier. You don't have to get to a thermostat to change the temperature since your phone is right there with you. For most people, you can change it from your phone and you actually don't have to go to the thermostat. Number 5. Check your duct work for leaks and any obstructions. Your duct is very important. It circulates all the air in your home. Studies show leaky ducts can affect your efficiency 20 to 30. 20 to 30%. So check your duct system. They, they make mastic. They even have duct sealing which we do quite a bit of available. Because you cannot seal everywhere air is going to flow. So you need a computer and a machine. Air seal can take care of that for you. But you can check your dog yourself. Get some mazdaq. Seal up anything you feel needs to be taken care of. Number six. Minor electrical components. Minor. Very minor. Be careful with this. Safety first. Make sure the power for the unit is off before doing any work. Inspect the electrical lines and make sure the connections are tight and make sure you're good to go. Those kind of quick checks can make all the difference this summer to make sure you all have a failure. So make sure the connections are tight, but turn the power off to the unit before doing anything with the electrical. Number 7. Clean the condensate drain line. This is always a big problem. First. Really hot spell, really hot week. We have a lot of water problems because drain lines are clogged. Drain lines have been used for the winter so make sure those drains are clear. Go upstairs, go, go in the crawl space. Make sure one pour some water in the drain. Make sure it drains out. Make sure it's clear. If it needs to be cleaned out, you can take care of it. Number eight professional checkup. Now obviously this is something you can do but the more extensive items of the AC system I talk about the electrical, the condensate, those things really are better handled by professionals. Has the tools, the knowledge, the equipment, the expertise to take care of it. So you might want to look at that to make sure you make it through the summer with no problems. Number nine plan for the future. If you have an older AC unit in this area, our system that lasts about 12 to 15 years nowadays depending on maintenance and depending on how well sub kept. So if you have an older system, just know time is not on your side. Go ahead and start budgeting for replacement. Start thinking about replacement. We actually have a tool on simmons1hour.com you can actually look at the quote, no charge. You don't have to meet anybody out there. 60 seconds you can take care of it. See it, see what the investment is. Plan for the future. Obviously prices are not going down, they're going up. So you might it might be time to look at something with a risk free tenure, parts and labor guarantee if you have those repair bills stacking up over time. So those are my top nine tips for for AC maintenance and tips for your AC. If you need anything, be glad to help you. Simms1hour.com and if you need that professional tune up we do have our summer cool spay Taggler right now. Just go to simmons1hour.com you'll see the free estimate guide. You can also buy filters. If you go down a little more you can see the summer cool spectacle offer. Take advantage of it. Have a breakdown free summer so you can enjoy the nice cool air inside the house when it's the hot and steam.
