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When you own a home one of the most costly repairs you can have is Air Conditioning, but with a little maintenance, you can help reduce future repair costs. This will also help increase the efficiency of your Air Conditioner reducing that evil electric bill you see every month. Here we are going to go over three basic steps we take to keep our unit running right, the only tools we used is a water hose and air compressor. If you don’t have an air compressor no worries, we will tell you workarounds.
Step One, you have to change your air conditioner air filter on a regular schedule, not doing this will cut the unit’s airflow efficiency, raising that evil electric bill in the short-term. If left long enough, a dirty air filter could lead to Air Conditioning service or repair down the road. The frequency of when you change your systems air filter will vary based on the usage of the unit just like an oil change on a car, but you need to be observant of the look of the air filter when changed. If you are changing the air filter and it is really dirty, we recommend that you do it earlier, and if clean than not so much. To keep us on track for replacing our air filter, we buy our air conditioner filters from Filter Easy. We find that they are cheaper than going to our local Wal-Mart for a way better air filters, and they deliver to our door on a regular schedule, so we are reminded to do our air conditioner maintenance.
Step Two, we recommend that you maintain the drain line on your air conditioner, we do ours when we change our air filters, but this may vary depending on the climate you live in. All air conditions will drain water caused by the condensation that is created by the cooling coils in the unit. Failure to keep the drain line clear could lead to your unit shutting off, or if the water pan in your air conditioner overflows it could cause water damage to your home, “Water Damage Bad, Okay”. If you don’t have an access point on the drain line for air conditioner one can be easily installed, below in the picture we have a PVC t-fitting cut in with a cap on one side. If you are putting a maintenance point in yourself, be sure it does not leak because “Water Damage Bad, Okay”
Once you have a maintenance point you can use an air compressor to blow out the drain line, but be careful not to blow the air back into the air conditioner. We stop air from going into the air conditioner with a piece of cardboard we slide in the t-fitting covering the path back to the unit. If you don’t have an air compressor you can also try a shop vacuum to suck the grim that has built up in the drain line. With both solutions be careful not to over-pressure the line, you don’t want to blow out the pipe leading to costly repairs. When we do this we set our compressor pressure to 100 psi, don’t put 300 bar through the drain line, it’s not a scuba tank.
Once you feel you have cleaned the drain line you want to pour an environmentally friendly product in the drain line to prevent algae growth. Using a product that isn’t so nice to the environment would destroy things that your drain line drips on, like your grass, or in our case, the pretty bush that is watered by the drain line.
Picture link to our YouTube Video:
Step Three, once we are done with the hard stuff the fun begins, water fight, LOL. Well, it’s not a water fight, but if you are doing this step with someone you love, it could be a lot of fun. Don’t make air conditioner maintenance a chore, keep it fun.
Spraying off the outside coils on your unit with water improves your air conditioners’ efficiency by increasing the airflow needed to cool down the unit’s refrigerant “Freon”. This step works just like changing the air filters in the house, it allows for better airflow, better airflow leads to cooler summers or warmer winters if your air conditioner has a heat pump.
Picture link to our YouTube Video:
We hope this article helps you have better air quality in your home with lower electric bills and fewer service calls for air conditioner repair. If we have left anything out, or this has helped you, please leave feedback below. Also, it would really help us out by getting your filters from Filter Easy, not only do that have great products, it is really hard to beat their prices.
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Good article!
Thank you, AC is very important to us Southerners.
Thanks for sharing your tips! Routine maintenance is important for HVAC to efficiently operate and function. One can do it on his or her own but hiring a professional HVAC contractor is a better option to avoid accidents and additional problems. Aside from doing it effortlessly, they offer quality and cost-efficient HVAC services, too. They also have the right tools and equipment.
This is simple things a home owner can do to keep there AC running more efficiently. In 20 years probably had an AC repair company 3 times, 2 times for capacitors, once for a new AC installed in a home we just bought.