In my experience as a HVAC technician and as a HVAC contractor i can safely say there are easy things a homeowner should do if possible to help maintain their unit. The first thing you can do as a homeowner to avoid costly air conditioner repairs is to simply change your filter. We recommend replacing your filter every 30 days. If you have pets that shed it may even be possible to need to change it every 2 to 3 weeks. Let me tell you why this is so important. The main thing you filter does is protect your evaporator coil. Your evaporator coil has tiny slots on it that help guide the air through it. So what your filter does is catch all of the dust dirty or even hair that is being pulled towards your system before it gets to your evaporator coil. This coil is about 4 to 5 inches thick and the debris can actually be impacted into the coil in the middle of it. This is a problem for many different reasons but to begin with they can be very expensive to clean. If its just a little dirty we can usually use a coil brush and maybe some self rinsing coil cleaner to get everything off of the coil. This is one of the reasons getting a Ac maintenance done is so important because if we come out every 6 months we can catch this before it becomes a bigger problem. If its completely impacted all the way in the middle we have to pull out the coil and spray it coil cleaner. What this does is foam up and push out all of the debris and than we wash it off with water thoroughly. A tip if you want to know if your coil is impacted is shine a light through the coil and if its not visible on the other side than you know your coil is impacted. At newtons heating and air conditioning we try to avoid pulling the coil out as much as possible. The coil cleaner is very caustic and I’ve seen where when we use it, it can put a hole in the coil and cause it to have a leak. This is especially true for newer equipment because instead of the coils being made of a think copper the new coils are made out of aluminum and it seems like if you just flick these coils they have a leak. In addition when your coil is impacted it is terrible for your system and cause damage to your compressor not to mention your indoor air quality decreasing and numerous other side effects. So in conclusion just by changing your air filter you can avoid costly air conditioner repairs. If you like this article and you would like to see more you can visit our website at www.newtonsheatingandairconditioning.com
One of the most common air conditioner repairs and what you can do as a homeowner for people in Clearwater, Saint Pete, Largo or just all of Pinellas county
