Why Regular AC Maintenance Saves You Money

Scheduling regular AC maintenance will keep your Charlotte, NC home both cool and comfortable during the hot, humid months of summer. It’s also an easy and effective way to save money. At Integrity Heating & Cooling, we help locals conserve cash and energy with comprehensive AC tune-up services. Read on to find out how pre-season AC maintenance can cut your spending.

Extend the Lifespan of Your Air Conditioner

On average, residential air conditioners last 15 to 20 years. However, due to recent refrigeration changes, variable-speed motors, and other efficiency upgrades, some of the latest ACs can last 25 years or longer, especially if they’re well-maintained.

Annual AC maintenance is a multi-pronged process:

• Checking for and replace worn parts
• Optimizing blower fan speeds and performance
• Lubricating moving components
• Cleaning evaporator and condenser coils
• Eliminating airflow obstructions

These and other maintenance tasks limit cooling system stress. They minimize the work that air conditioners must do to get homes cool and keep them that way. The result is less wear and tear and the ability to enjoy existing cooling systems longer.

Increase Cooling System Efficiency

Well-maintained air conditioners tend to be more efficient than those receiving limited care. This is certainly the case when it comes to heat transfer. To cool your home, your AC moves warm indoor air over its evaporator coil. Cold refrigerant inside the evaporator coil absorbs humidity and heat before rushing to the outside condenser. Your AC then sheds this heat by way of the condenser coil while routing collected moisture to the condensate drain.

When evaporator coils are dirty, cold refrigerant cannot readily absorb heat. Worse still, dirty condenser coils have a hard time releasing heat. By cleaning coils during AC maintenance, we support efficient heat transfer. Air conditioners with clean coils run both fewer and shorter cooling cycles.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reports that routine filter changes can improve AC efficiency by up to 15%. Clean air filters promote good airflow. However, professional AC maintenance protects and improves airflow in many other ways. For instance, we’ll make sure that your outdoor condenser unit has adequate clearance. We’ll test airflow throughout your HVAC air ducts, clean your air handler, and verify that all your HVAC air vents are open.

Limit the Need for Repairs

Dirty coils, blocked condensate drains, airflow obstructions, and loose or worn parts can lead to problems like icing, intermittent shutdowns, overheating, and short cycling. If you call Integrity Heating & Cooling for AC maintenance service before summer arrives, there’s a good chance that you’ll avoid problems like these entirely. Many urgent, last-minute AC repair requests are for maintenance-related issues.

Enjoy Lower Repair Costs

Routine maintenance is also a great time for our HVAC technicians to spot and fix small and still-developing issues. Taking care of problems early on lowers homeowners’ repair costs and helps our clients avoid the need for early AC replacement. For instance, when testing your air conditioner’s refrigerant levels during AC maintenance, we can identify the need for recharge service or determine whether your last HVAC contractor overfilled your refrigerant. In either case, timely intervention could prevent compressor collapse and sudden compressor failure.

Preserve Your AC Manufacturer’s Warranty

Did you know that annual AC maintenance from a licensed HVAC company is a likely requirement of your AC manufacturer’s warranty? If you haven’t done so already, take the time to read through your warranty documents. Warranties are promises from manufacturers to cover the costs of fixing or replacing systems or components when defective, poorly assembled, or otherwise faulty due to manufacturing errors. However, warranties aren’t one-sided agreements.

In exchange for the financial protection that your warranty supplies, you agree to take reasonable precautions to prevent breakdowns and premature system failure. Most AC manufacturer warranties require homeowners to pay for professional installation, regularly change HVAC air filters, and avoid do-it-yourself system modifications. They also require homeowners to pay for comprehensive tune-up services at least once each year.

If you skip pre-season AC maintenance and your air conditioner breaks down, your AC manufacturer could void your warranty outright. Even if negligence doesn’t result in the loss of this guarantee, delayed or skipped maintenance could lead to future claim denials, lower claim amounts, or annoying claim processing delays.

For over 35 years, we’ve helped homeowners in Charlotte optimize their cooling systems with expert AC maintenance and repair services. We also offer AC replacement services and access to an impressive selection of top-quality, feature-rich AC models. As a local and independently owned heating and cooling company, we provide consistently excellent customer service, and we proudly stand behind our work with a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. Get in touch with Integrity Heating & Cooling today to schedule AC maintenance in Charlotte!