The dog days of summer in Northwest Connecticut are right around the corner, and no one wants to be caught off guard with an air conditioning system that doesn’t work efficiently the first time the thermometer hits 90!
It’s time for your Annual A/C maintenance day – a few simple steps to ensure your unit is ready for its summer job.
First a quick A/C anatomy lesson: Your unit has essentially an indoor air-handling unit and an outdoor condenser. The outdoor condenser is the part you want to clean because it just spent a long cold winter collecting dirt, leaves, and maybe even a mouse home. If you aren’t a Do it Yourself kind of person – it’s always best to bring in the experts but most of the maintenance below can be handled by a homeowner.
Here’s how to get your Air Conditioner Ready for Summer
- Be Safe
Because you’re A/C unit is powered by electricity, the first step is to turn off the circuit breaker before you do any kind of maintenance work on the condenser. You should also have what’s called a “Disconnect Box” at the condenser unit as a second layer of safety. The box will contain a lever, switch or fuse – make sure this is disengaged as well. Now you are ready to get to work.
- Put in New Filters
Depending on how dirty the filters look – you may be able to clean them, but our suggestion is to replace them at least yearly. In warmer climates where the A/C is used more than a few months out of the year, you would need to replace them more often. Clogged or dirty filters will inhibit the airflow and reduce your A/C’s efficiency and in turn, will ultimately raise your electric bill.
- Check the Coils.
The way your A/C unit works is air moves across condenser coils – if they are blocked with debris, it needs to get cleaned out. Once you’ve accessed the coils – you may have to take an outer box off first – clean them gently with a refrigerator coil brush (it’s a thing!) or one of the soft brushes that come with your shop vac. Be super careful not to bend anything in the process. Be gentle and don’t tug on any wires or use a hard scrubbing motion.
- Clean away the debris of Winter!
Even if you covered your condenser over the winter months, leaves, and as we said above even a mouse house or two can sneak into your unit. First, make sure everything is cleaned out of the base and if your unit has a drain, make sure that is clear as well. You can then use your handy shop vac to clean out the blower fans and then make sure any excess water is cleared up. Once you have all the debris cleared away you can put your unit back together.
- Check your Coolant Lines
As we said in our little A/C anatomy lesson above, your unit has 2 sections, and they need to be connected. The coolant lines go from your inside air handling portion to the outside condenser and if installed correctly should be covered with some type of insulation. Check to make sure everything looks solid – with no cracks or fraying. If you do see issues the insulation should be replaced
Time to TEST
Once you’ve gone through the steps above, it’s time to put everything back together and test the unit. Make sure your thermostat is turned OFF in the house and then restore the power to the unit – make sure you address both your home circuit breaker and the disconnect box at the unit. Turn your thermostat to cool and make sure the unit kicks on. Leave it going for at least 30 minutes to ensure you are getting cool air in the house and it’s working properly.
If you are NOT getting good cool airflow there could be an issue with your internal system and that is NOT a DIY job – it’s time to call in the experts at Baribault Fuel to check your system. Give us a call at 860-274-3284 to set up a time for one of our Air Conditioning Experts to inspect your system and identify the problem.
