Keeping the air conditioner in your Long Island, NY home both reliable and efficient is often as easy as scheduling routine maintenance. All air conditioners need professional tune-up service at least once each year. Although you can perform regular filter changes, you’ll need a trained HVAC technician to handle everything else. The following is everything that professional AC tune-up service entails.
Airflow Testing
At the start of AC maintenance service, our technicians will test the airflow throughout your cooling system. This helps us detect leaky air ducts, blocked air vents, and other air flow issues. When air conditioners struggle to move air due to built-up debris or closed air vents, they can short cycle, overheat, or shut down.
Poor airflow can result in longer and less productive cooling cycles, higher home energy bills, and rising indoor humidity. If we detect airflow problems during your tune-up, we’ll resolve them or make recommendations for repairs.
Professional Filter Replacement
Dirty HVAC air filters are among the most common causes of obstructed airflow. You should inspect your standard air filter every 30 days and replace it once every one to three months. As part of your tune-up service, we’ll perform a filter replacement. If needed, we’ll also make recommendations for a filter upgrade or an amended filter change schedule.
HVAC Air Ducts
In addition to airflow testing, we visually inspect all exposed ducting. You might have exposed ductwork in your attached garage, utility room, attic, or other areas. We look for perforations, tears, gaps, and more. We also check for signs of pest infestation. However, although we inspect air ducts during annual AC maintenance, your HVAC ductwork still requires annual maintenance of its own.
Thermostat Calibration
Your thermostat reads your indoor temperature and tells your air conditioner when to turn off and on. We’ll make sure that your thermostat is reading your temperature accurately and that it has a steady, reliable flow of power.
When testing your thermostat, we’ll also make sure that it’s in an ideal location. Thermostats that are too close to large, sunlight windows, ovens, and other heat sources often read indoor temperatures as being significantly higher than they are. We can replace or relocate your thermostat as needed.
Indoor Air Handler Maintenance
Home to your air conditioner’s evaporator coil and one of its blower fans, your air handler moves cooled air into your HVAC air ducts for distribution. Our technicians will open and inspect your indoor air handler and clean all of its interior and exterior components.
Evaporator Coil Cleaning
During each cooling cycle, your AC moves warm indoor air over its evaporator coil. Housed in the indoor air handler, this coil holds ice-cold, liquid refrigerant. This refrigerant absorbs heat from warm indoor air as it passes over. If the evaporator coil is dirty, your AC could ice over and freeze, and your indoor comfort will suffer. We’ll carefully clean your evaporator coil while looking for signs of refrigerant leaks.
Outdoor Condenser Maintenance
The outdoor condenser unit holds the compressor, the condenser coil, your air conditioner’s blower motor and blower fan, and various electrical components. To prevent overheating, you should keep the perimeter of the condenser unit clear. This unit should have 24 inches of clearance on all sides throughout the cooling season.
We’ll verify that your condenser unit has adequate clearance. We’ll also check for signs of pests and clean this unit both inside and out. However, we recommend checking the perimeter of your AC condenser at least once each month to clear away any fast-growing foliage nearby. You can do this when performing your regular filter inspections.
Condenser Coil Maintenance
After absorbing heat in the indoor air handler, cold refrigerant becomes a hot, high-pressure gas. This gas moves to the outdoor condenser unit to shed excess moisture and heat. Without adequate clearance for releasing hot air, air conditioners can overheat. Build-ups of dirt and other debris on the condenser coil can cause overheating and other functional problems as well.
When cleaning condenser coils, we use special fin combs and other tools to prevent and correct bent coil fins. We also look for broken fin coils, evidence of refrigerant leaks, and other common coil problems.
Refrigerant Leak Checks
In addition to examining your evaporator and condenser coils for buildups of escaped refrigerant, we perform refrigerant testing. When homeowners operate their air conditioners with active refrigerant leaks, they risk compressor failure. The compressor alternately pressurizes and depressurizes refrigerant to pump it throughout the cooling system. With increasingly less refrigerant to pressurize, the compressor overworks. If your AC has a refrigerant leak, we can perform the necessary repairs and provide recharge service.
AC Condensate Drain Cleaning
AC condensate drains remove the moisture that air conditioners collect during cooling and drying cycles. When you turn your air conditioner off at the end of summer, trapped moisture within its condensate drain could become home to algae, bacteria, and other growths. Buildups of biofilm, germs, and algal blooms within these components can cause air conditioners to leak during the next cooling season. They can also result in problems like:
- Rising indoor humidity
- Unpleasant AC odors
- Short cycling
- Overheating
To prevent pooling water on your floor and all-around substandard AC performance, we’ll clean, deodorize, and disinfect your air conditioner’s condensate drain line.
Electrical Inspections
Our AC maintenance services also include a thorough electrical inspection. We assess the condition of all:
- Relevant circuits and circuit breakers
- Electrical contactors
- Capacitors
- Wiring
We’ll make sure that your air conditioner’s circuits aren’t overloaded, replace worn wiring and contactors, and verify that capacitors can hold a charge.
At startup and during operation, air conditioners consume more power than residential electrical systems can supply. To overcome this deficiency, air conditioners have run and start capacitors. These components constantly draw and harness power. As needed, they provide strong jolts of electricity to get air conditioners revved up and keep them functioning. Having your run and start capacitors inspected before summer arrives is a great way to avoid unexpected mid-season breakdowns.
Blower Motor Maintenance
Blower motors push air throughout your cooling system. We ensure that both the indoor and outdoor blower motors are in good condition. We lubricate all of their moving parts, replace worn parts, and address bent fan blades. These efforts optimize airflow and efficiency. They also allow for quieter AC performance.
Multi-Point, Model-Specific Checklists
Some air conditioners require additional services. We use multi-point, model-specific checklists to perform tune-ups. This ensures that every air conditioner gets the care it needs. It also helps homeowners remain compliant with the terms of their manufacturer warranties.
We’ve proudly served Long Island and the surrounding cities since 1975. We offer expert AC maintenance, replacement, and repair services. To help homeowners save money and time on annual cooling system tune-ups, we also offer high-value preventative maintenance plans.
To sign up for our preventative maintenance plan or schedule annual AC maintenance, contact Cool Power LLC today.
