AC Maintenance & Tune-Ups

Once a cooling season for a straight air conditioner. A heat pump gets two visits, because it works all twelve months and the winter half of its life puts different wear on the same parts. Filters are separate and more frequent — most one-inch filters want changing every month or two during heavy running, and a four-inch media cabinet lasts a season.

March through May. Late enough that outdoor temperatures let a technician run the system properly and read pressures that mean something, early enough that anything found can be fixed before you depend on it. By the end of June the schedule is driven by breakdowns and a routine visit waits behind them.

Not quite. An inspection is assessment only — condition, readings, remaining life — and is what people usually want before buying a house or taking on a rental. A tune-up includes the cleaning and the adjustment. We do both, and if you book an inspection and it turns into a tune-up on the spot, that is a conversation before the work rather than after.

Yes, for two reasons. Manufacturers make documented annual service a condition of parts coverage, and a new outdoor coil in a Jersey backyard collects cottonwood in its first June exactly like an old one. New equipment also gives you a clean baseline set of readings, which is the most useful thing you will ever have when something changes in year seven.

You can gently rinse the outer fins with a hose, from the inside out, with the power off at the disconnect. What you cannot do from outside is clear the packed layer in the middle of a multi-row coil, and a pressure washer will fold the fins flat and make the situation permanently worse. Keeping shrubs, fence panels and dryer vents clear of the unit does more good than any amount of rinsing.

The mechanism is real even though the size of it varies by system. A dirty condenser raises head pressure, and the compressor draws more current for the same cooling. A restricted filter cuts airflow, so the equipment runs longer for the same result. Clean both and the machine does the same work with less energy. What maintenance reliably buys, though, is avoided breakdowns and a longer service life.

A tune-up is the single visit described on this page. A plan schedules it for you every year, covers the heating equipment as well, and puts you ahead of the queue when something breaks in a heat wave. If you own both a furnace and an air conditioner, the plan is the simpler arrangement. See maintenance plans.

Yes. Ductless heads need their own routine — the blower wheel and the drain pan inside a wall cassette are the two things that go wrong, and both need the unit partly stripped to reach. Rooftop and packaged equipment is scoped on the commercial service page, usually as a contract with several visits a year.