How To Evaluate The Condition Of Your AC Unit

How to Evaluate the Condition of Your AC Unit

It’s important to take some time to evaluate the condition of your AC to avoid serious breakdowns that seemingly come out of nowhere. When you evaluate your unit, you can determine what level of care and service it requires, whether it needs a tune up, repair or a replacement.

Determine the Need for Professional Tune-Up/Maintenance:

Generally, you should have your AC tuned up at least once per year. However, the summer months can put a lot of stress on your unit, so make sure you evaluate the condition of your AC by checking its air filter frequently. If you find that it is getting much dirtier faster and you need to replace or clean it more often than you normally would, you’ll need professional maintenance to assess if something may be wrong with the unit. It’s a good idea to consider a tune-up every 6 months to make sure everything is OK, especially if you or anyone in your family suffers from allergies. A professional technician will also be able to properly clean your unit especially in areas you wouldn’t think to clean yourself. This will ensure that the air conditioner is functioning properly and reduce airborne pollutants in your home.

Determine the Need for Repairs:

It’s most likely that during the tune-up you’ve scheduled, your technician will discover any repairs that need to be made. But between scheduled maintenance, you can monitor the performance of your air conditioning system to evaluate its condition and judge if it needs repairing. Keep an eye on the utility bills you receive. If they increase, something is likely wrong with the system and it is compensating by working longer than it should need to. You should also monitor if your air conditioner starts blowing hot air or if it’s experiencing air conditioner leaks. In these cases of evaluating the condition of your AC, it’s best to schedule a repair with a professional as soon as you can.

Failure to schedule a repair can result in further damage to that part and potentially to other parts in the unit, quickly increasing the cost of repairs.

Determine the Need for Replacement:

This is likely the most difficult part of AC evaluation. After you’ve owned your system for about 10 years, you may begin to note that repairs are costing you more than they used to and are occurring more often, even with proper maintenance. This is the result of general wear and tear and signifies that you may need to replace your unit for a new, more efficient model to save money again.

10 years is also the time that most warranties on air conditioning systems expire, so the cost of some bigger repairs and replacement parts significantly increases as well. Purchasing a new unit with a new warranty and better efficiency may be the best option for your home comfort.

If you take the time to consider these tips to evaluate the condition of your AC unit about once a month, you’ll find that you can determine a comfortable pattern in monitoring its performance and understanding how your system works.

Martino HVAC has been proudly serving the GTA and Quinte Region for over 30 years. We are fully committed to providing the very best service for customers.

If you have any questions about how to evaluate the condition of your AC unit or anything regarding your home comfort systems, feel free to contact us, or click here to schedule a service appointment.