AC Repair Company Tips: Winterizing Your Air Conditioner And Other Seasonal Concerns | Newark, IL
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Air conditioning systems work hard all summer, and then have to survive the winter outside. At Just in Time, our AC repair company team makes winterizing visits to homes in Newark, IL in the fall, and spring maintenance and prep visits to get systems ready to take on the summer heat. When we respond to a repair call, often we find that these and other essential seasonal services haven’t been performed, and the unit needs some recovery care. Compressors may have worked too hard without proper service to keep them running smoothly with sufficient refrigerant, and condensate that wasn’t draining properly might even have frozen in place and caused damage. For our AC repair company, caring for your home’s air conditioning system isn’t just a summer activity. Here are some tips on what’s involved in winterizing your AC unit. Since it is an expensive system that requires expert care to last, most of these tasks are part of our AC company’s winterizing service. A few, such as keeping snow and ice away and checking the covering, are important tasks for you to perform after each storm.
Enclosures: Your AC Unit Is Not Winter Housing for Creatures
Much of the winterizing process for central air conditioning units involves making sure the enclosure is intact and providing additional coverage. What you may not realize is that you’re not just protecting your unit from the elements during rough winter weather, you’re also ensuring that creatures in search of a secure place to build a nest don’t find a way into your AC unit and use the materials they find inside as nest components. That can result in quite a mess as well as expensive repairs at maintenance time when you’re getting ready for summer operation — or even a total replacement. If you don’t have time for maintenance, skipping it could also result in quite a surprise when you try to start your unit for the first time next year. It’s always better to make sure the unit is in good shape with a thorough maintenance service before putting it into operation for the summer.
Shutting Off AC Unit Power
Don’t forget to keep the power off when the unit is not in operation for the winter. Make sure you have labeled the circuit breakers so you can be sure the power is completely off. An accidental adjustment of your thermostat could otherwise cause the unit, carefully wrapped and sealed off for the winter, to try to run normally, leading to all sorts of potential problems due to a lack of ventilation.
Protecting Against Damage From Winter Weather
Every time you shovel your walk or clean your stairs during the winter, it’s time to visit the AC unit and clear snow and ice from on top of it and in the surrounding area. Make sure the cover is still in place after you clean up, and your unit will have a better chance of making it through the winter without damage.
Insulate Pipes
Having our AC repair company place foam covers and other protection can help keep your AC unit’s pipes that connect to the indoors from getting too cold and becoming damaged during the winter. Make sure if you’re doing snow and ice removal nearby that they aren’t affected, and if your home tends to drop icicles or other material down into the area, provide a covering to avoid damage from falling ice.
Condenser Protection
Our AC repair company personnel may protect the delicate condenser with a covering to help your system last through more seasons. This requires a careful hand to not damage the coils while protecting them. The coils should also be cleaned out, along with the rest of the unit, to remove the effects of weather, landscaping activity, and other environmental damage from the previous summer.
Duct Cleaning Service
Your ducts are used year-round for both heating and cooling, but at some point, they need to be cleaned out. When we come to winterize your outside AC unit, our AC repair company can also perform a duct cleaning service, and winter service to prepare your indoor AC equipment from damage while it sits idle through the cold season.
Inside AC Unit Preparation for Winter
After a hardworking summer, the indoor part of your cooling system, the evaporator, and related components, will need cleaning by our AC repair company. If you’ve had problems with drainage, you could have standing water and even algae or bacteria growth that, kept warm over the winter, could develop into something unfortunate. It’s also time to clean the evaporator coils, make sure that related motors and belts are in good shape, and perform another change of your system’s air filters to prepare for good heating performance. If any repairs are needed, now is the time to schedule them with our AC repair company so your system will be ready to go next year.
Do Heating Systems Need “Summer-izing?”
There are a few tasks that heating systems should have in preparation for summer, as they are taken out of active service for the season. We’ll just mention them here, so you can put them on your schedule for consideration when you are starting up your AC next year. They include having your furnace cleaned of soot and scale, replacing filters, and, for systems that use heating oil, it can be beneficial to fill the tank as summer approaches and use an additive to condition the oil and help it stay fresh through the summer.
Your Year-Round Newark, IL AC Repair Company and Heating Specialists
We’re the company to turn to for keeping your home’s HVAC equipment in great shape from year to year, with maintenance and repairs that will keep your family comfortable. At Just in Time, we help Newark, IL families prepare for freezing winter weather with our expert service as your AC repair company. Call our professional AC team for maintenance appointments, winterizing, and summer service as well.