Keeping your air conditioner functioning at peak performance is crucial to keeping your home cool throughout the year. Without it, you’ll likely spend much of the summer sweating through the rest of the year. Luckily, there are some easy steps you can take to extend the life of your AC unit and avoid expensive repairs down the line. You can extend the life of your central air system and prevent costly repairs by ensuring it gets proper maintenance on a regular basis. In this blog post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about regular AC maintenance so you can keep yours running smoothly for years to come!
- Change Your Filters Regularly
If you’re lucky enough to live in a climate where the summer months are cool, you’ll likely have more than enough time to change your AC unit’s filters and clean out your furnace’s coils each fall. However, this isn’t the case for everyone. In these cases, it can be especially important to change out your AC filters regularly. Without filters, your central air system will get clogged with dust and dirt. Eventually, even the smallest particles will begin to build up and damage your system. When this happens to your AC unit, you’ll likely notice it starts to perform less optimally. While you should change your filters more often in cooler parts of the country, changing them once a month is generally enough to keep your system in optimal condition. If you live in a hotter part of the country, though, you may want to change it more often.
- Clear Away Dried Leaves and Other Debris From vents and registers
When you change out your filters, your next step should be to clean out any debris and leaves from your air ducts and air registers. This isn’t only important for extending the life of your filter, but it will also help prevent damage to your system throughout the year by keeping your vents free of obstructions. When leaves and other debris get caught in your central air system, it can cause major issues. Most often, this will result in your system not performing as well as it could. For example, leaves in your ducts may cause your system to lose cool air. If debris or other materials are blocking your air registers, your system will also lose cool air. Blocked registers are especially problematic in the fall and winter because they can lead to your furnace getting blocked. Blocked furnaces can be dangerous because they can lead to house fires and other serious issues.
- Keep the Exterior of your Home Dry
One of the best ways to keep your central air unit running smoothly and prevent costly repairs is to keep the exterior of your home dry. In humid and tropical climates, you should keep your exterior surfaces like your concrete, brick, and vinyl-sided homes very dry. On the other hand, in dry climates like the interior west coast of the United States, your exterior may be perfectly fine to get a little moist. If you live in a humid climate, you should make sure to keep your exterior surfaces like your concrete, brick, and vinyl-sided homes very dry. On the other hand, in dry climates like the interior west coast of the United States, your exterior may be perfectly fine to get a little moist. If you live in a humid or tropical climate, you should make sure your exterior surfaces like your concrete, brick, and vinyl-sided homes are very dry. On the other hand, in dry climates like the interior west coast of the United States, your exterior may be perfectly fine to get a little moist.
- Check the Tension on Your Strings Regularly
One of the most important things you can do to ensure your central air unit lasts as long as possible is to check the tension on your air conditioning system’s strings regularly. This will help you prevent damage to your system from getting out of alignment. The tension on your AC wires is extremely important, especially if you live in an area that is prone to harsh weather conditions. Extreme heat, like that found in deserts or very humid climates, can cause your wires to become damaged or even break. When this happens, your entire central air system will likely need to be replaced. The amount of tension on your AC wires is determined by the number of amps your furnace uses and the temperature outside. The lower the temperature and the higher the humidity, the lower the amount of tension you should use.
- Don’t Leave Your Outdoor Fans Running When you’re not using them
When you aren’t using your central air unit, you should make sure to turn off your outdoor fans. This will prevent your system from getting damaged by dust and dirt. If you leave your outdoor fans running when you aren’t using them, your air conditioning system will get damaged by dust and dirt. This happens because these fans are constantly blowing dirt and dust into your central air unit. When this happens, your system will likely struggle to perform as well as it normally would. This is especially dangerous during the summer months when you leave your AC unit running constantly. When you do this, you’ll end up with a system that isn’t as well maintained as it could be and could potentially fail after a few years.
- Turn Off your lights when you leave a room
Another important way to prevent damage to your central air unit from occurring is to turn off your lights when you leave a room. This will prevent the air from becoming too cool or too warm in different parts of your home. The cool air that your central air unit generates can be ideal for rooms like the living room, dining room, and bedrooms that get a lot of use. However, if you leave these rooms in the dark when you aren’t using them, they could end up getting too cool. In extremely hot climates, your air conditioning system could get too hot if you leave rooms in the dark when you aren’t using them. This happens because your system is generating more heat than usual and your home isn’t designed to handle such high temperatures.