Latest / Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast / ❄️☀️ Don't Wait—Why Is April Is the Best Time for an AC Tune-Up?

Transcript

❄️☀️ Don't Wait—Why Is April Is the Best Time for an AC Tune-Up? · Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast

• 0:01
  Nathan Schaefer's joining me from Schaefer Heating and Cooling. Nathan, how are you?
• 0:06
  Hey, good, Joe. How are you? Hey, I'm doing fantastic. It's great to have you here on the show.
• 0:10
  Question has come in from one of our listeners, Connie, and she says she loves
• 0:15
  the show to begin with, which is great.
• 0:18
  We just came through another long Ohio winter, and I honestly have no idea what
• 0:23
  condition my air conditioning system is in after sitting unused for months.
• 0:27
  Can Nathan explain what a proper AC tune-up actually involves and why April's
• 0:33
  the smartest time to get this done?
• 0:37
  Oh, good question. Yeah, so it's a perfect time.
• 0:42
  You know, AC contractors are going to become very busy here over the next 30,
• 0:47
  60, 90 days as we go into summer.
• 0:49
  With especially all the ones that don't get their ACs serviced and tuned up
• 0:52
  and ready, they're going to be breaking down.
• 0:54
  The heat's going to be among us. And so, number one, it's much easier to get
• 0:57
  on the schedule now and get that taken care of.
• 1:00
  But as far as for yourself, that gets you that peace of mind knowing that, hey, my AC's ready.
• 1:04
  It's tuned up. It's serviced. It's like, uh, maybe your cars,
• 1:07
  you know, maybe you're supposed to change over 5,000 miles on your car,
• 1:10
  right? Or 10,000, wherever your, your particular car is.
• 1:12
  And you're right there at that marker, just over it.
• 1:15
  Right. And you're getting ready to go on a trip across the United States.
• 1:17
  The last thing you want to do is go take that trip and then service it when you get back.
• 1:21
  Right. Cause you don't know what's that's going to cause and the challenges
• 1:23
  that's going to create on that trip potentially.
• 1:25
  Not saying that it will, but that does definitely increase your chances.
• 1:28
  And so you're going to do it before you go and you put your,
• 1:31
  your car through that strenuous long drive. Same thing with your AC.
• 1:35
  Let's do that now before the heat of the summer gets here. Let's get it served.
• 1:38
  Let's get it clean. Let's get it ready. So April's a perfect time to do that.
• 1:42
  Plan ahead and be proactive.
• 1:43
  Things that's going to be checked on that, though, is most common,
• 1:46
  we're going to clean the drain lines.
• 1:48
  Make sure the condensate pans are clean. Make sure the drain lines are clean.
• 1:52
  The P-traps are clean. And those are filled back up with water.
• 1:55
  We're not sucking air through those, but also, too, that all the sludge and
• 1:57
  things are gone from there from sitting.
• 1:59
  So that you don't have drains backing up and either A, shutting your system
• 2:02
  down and or B, even worse yet, leaking and causing damage in the home or your ceilings.
• 2:07
  Uh, we're going to go through and check a bunch of different start devices that
• 2:10
  make sure your compressor and your fan motors, both inside and outside,
• 2:14
  both turn on and run properly.
• 2:16
  Um, oftentimes those, you're not going to know that they're out of tolerance
• 2:20
  or weak until it's too late.
• 2:21
  And that very simple part can end up causing a much more expensive,
• 2:24
  uh, damage, you know, later down the road to a motor or a compressor.
• 2:28
  Uh, we're going to go through and check all electrical connections,
• 2:30
  safety, uh, items, uh, overall performance of the system.
• 2:35
  So temperature splits, make sure that the refrigerant pressures are good.
• 2:39
  Don't get too technical with the superheat and the subco, all these different things, right?
• 2:42
  There's a whole list of things, about 20 to 30 points that we're going to go
• 2:45
  down through and check to be very thoroughly, make sure that the AC is ready
• 2:49
  and running properly for the summertime.
• 2:52
  Yeah. And Nathan, this is the opposite of what we should be doing in the fall
• 2:58
  for, you know, heating and furnace.
• 3:00
  So people should be used to this, right? We get this done in the fall,
• 3:04
  and we get it done in the spring, one for the heat and one to get ready for the heat. That's right.
• 3:11
  That's right. Yeah, absolutely. So it's a thorough examination,
• 3:16
  and it's really important, I think, as a homeowner myself, I love when an HVAC
• 3:22
  technician comes out and takes a look at the system,
• 3:26
  cleans things up, and they give me pretty much a clean bill of health.
• 3:29
  Or they may say, you know what? We think this capacitor is going to go.
• 3:33
  Joe, would you like us to change it now? They give me the option.
• 3:37
  Right. Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of times too, people say,
• 3:41
  well, you know, my system's, maybe it's a year old, right?
• 3:44
  Or I just got it put in, or maybe it's, you know, three years old, it's a newer system.
• 3:48
  And I don't need that for mine. Or maybe others are like, well,
• 3:50
  mine's a, mine's a pretty old system. It's 15 years old. And,
• 3:53
  you know, I'm just trying to get by another year.
• 3:55
  I don't need it for mine. Well, in reality, this is very important to do.
• 3:59
  And just as equally important to do on that brand new system as it is that older
• 4:03
  system or anywhere in between, because the whole idea is if it's brand new and
• 4:06
  or newer, we want to, protect your investment. That wasn't a cheap purchase, right?
• 4:10
  When you bought that AC, let's protect it and let's prolong it,
• 4:13
  keep it lasting as long as possible, as well as working as efficiently as possible.
• 4:16
  And if it's that older system, same thing.
• 4:19
  Let's prolong that. If you want to get another year out of it and try to, well, great.
• 4:23
  Let's get it in good enough shape so that we can hopefully get that for you.
• 4:27
  And once again, help it run as efficiently as possible throughout the summer.
• 4:31
  So no matter the age of the system, it's very, very important and very advantageous to get this done.
• 4:37
  Something I recommend to everyone who is listening and watching to this podcast
• 4:42
  that you ask questions of the technician. I do a lot of that.
• 4:48
  So I've learned a lot over the years when you're outside, the coils outside
• 4:53
  are different than the coils on the inside unit.
• 4:55
  The coils outside can get dirty from all kinds of things, from grass clippings to dust to dirt.
• 5:02
  It could be pet hair if there's animals near there, certainly pet hair on the inside ones.
• 5:07
  And, but you, but, you know, be careful, don't pull out your pressure washer
• 5:12
  to clean it type thing. So, so listen to the technician and watch what they do.
• 5:15
  There are some things you may be able to do on your own throughout the year
• 5:18
  to keep it more efficient.
• 5:20
  Yeah, absolutely. We'll walk through things that you can be doing in the meantime
• 5:24
  during the times that we're not there to be able to help eliminate that.
• 5:27
  We're going to help with that.
• 5:29
  And then others are like, hey, I don't want to have to touch it.
• 5:31
  I just want you to take care of it.
• 5:32
  I want to call you and forget it. Right. And we can take care of that,
• 5:36
  too. And that's where things like the memberships and things come into place
• 5:39
  where we just automatically come out twice a year and take care of everything for you.
• 5:43
  And you get a purchase and benefits that come along with that.
• 5:46
  And so, yeah, right now, April, perfect time of year to get it done.
• 5:51
  Get it before the heat gets here. I tell you that everyone that does it are
• 5:55
  the ones that typically end up calling in on 4th of July, right?
• 5:59
  Labor Day weekend, Memorial Day weekend, whatever the case would be.
• 6:02
  That's always when it happens or that Saturday and they're having graduation parties.
• 6:06
  Wherever the case may be, like for whatever reason, those are the hottest days
• 6:11
  and you have all the biggest plans and that's when it breaks and that's the last thing you want.
• 6:15
  So not saying we can promise that won't happen, but we can drastically reduce
• 6:19
  the chances of that happen by getting the service maintained and ready to go
• 6:22
  for the summer ahead, which I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the summer to get here.
• 6:26
  Like she said, yes, that was a cold, long winter. And so bring it on, bring on the heat.
• 6:32
  Absolutely. All of Nathan's information is located in the description of this podcast.
• 6:37
  Feel free to reach out to the people over at Schaefer anytime.
• 6:41
  Thank you, Nathan. All right. Thank you. Have a good day.