How to Avoid Costly Air Conditioning Repairs

Let’s face it, repairing your air conditioning system in San Diego, is not a joke as it can be extremely expensive, especially if you are doing so during the hot and humid months of summer when you need it the most. But the thing is, these kinds of repairs happen when you fail to take care of the unit prior to the hot weather. See, when you ignore your AC when it needs care, be sure that it will ‘ignore’ you when you need it the most. It doesn’t have to get to this though, just schedule regular preventative maintenance, and if you find it too costly to fix, just replace it entirely. Furthermore, if you don’t do this, not be surprised to find your monthly electricity bills increasing dramatically. In this article, we will look at ways in which you can avoid costly repairs on your AC unit. It’s pretty simple actually.

For starters, seasonal checkups on your AC by an AC professional is always recommended. Having your unit regularly checked by a technician will always guarantee better performance at all times as he or she will ensure that they follow a particular maintenance schedule. So, if you are one of the individuals with a super tight schedule and can’t find time to maintain the unit yourself, get someone to do it for you. But if you are able to do it yourself, you need to create a maintenance checklist where you will include the following tasks:

Replacing or cleaning the air filters – depending on the type of filters you use, they need to be cleaned on a regular basis without fail. And after some time you will have to replace them. The reason being, when your air filter gets dirty, it increases the chances of a breakdown or failure of the entire AC system. Dirty filters make your unit overwork, which in turn, results in the frequent breakdowns which are pretty expensive to fix. So, always ensure that your filters are kept as clean as possible to prevent all these problems.

Properly inspect and oil all the moving parts – you need to ensure that the fans and the motors are properly oiled. If they are not properly oiled, they will be sluggish, which will overwork the AC unit, making it wear faster. They may also cause other major problems which may be super expensive to fix. Still, remember that whenever the AC unit overworks, its power consumption increases, which means your monthly electrical bills will increase as well.

Inspect your refrigerant levels – how efficient your AC unit can be, depends on the refrigerant level which you maintain. If it is too low, it will have a negative impact on your AC unit – the same case applies when the level is high. Basically, whenever the levels drop 10% lower than normal, the cooling coils becomes less efficient, which means that the unit system will have to work harder to try and produce the same cooling power. When this happens, the unit can wear out easily, meaning that you will have to put in more money to repair it and not forgetting that your monthly electricity bills will skyrocket. So you need to ensure that the refrigerant level is balanced for optimum efficiency. Ensuring this balance is pretty complex, so it’s better you call an AC technician to do it for you.

Calibrate, clean and level your thermostat – when you calibrate your thermostat, you ensure that your unit runs as peak capacity. Also, if yours is still a manual thermostat, you really need to switch to a digital one since a manual tends to get broken easily, which means more repair money. But with a digital thermostat, you will enjoy a number of benefits, including being able to set varying temperatures for different days. What’s more, ensure that you clean your thermostat regularly, and have it checked annually as part of your AC tune-up and repair. This way, the major problems that may arise if it is not properly maintained are avoided.
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In summary, for your air conditioning unit to operate efficiently and without any problems, you really need to get on top of it. In case of problems, ensure that it is repaired as early as possible before it gets worse. Clean your unit regularly to avoid dirt build-up, which could cost you a fortune if they mess something up.