Do I Need A New Air Conditioning Unit At Home?

It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, tall or short, live in an apartment or own your home, when the summer time is here everyone is looking for air conditioning. If you own your own home do you know what is included in your air conditioning unit? Do you know whether your unit uses electricity or gas for heat. These are a few simple truths that should be known by all homeowners new or old. In this article I will go over a few reasons you may be looking to replace your air conditioning and heating system and what to expect when you do.

Why Would I Need A New Air Conditioning And Heating System?

What are a few reasons that you would need to replace your air conditioning and heating system in your home versus repairing it? The most common reason for changing out a home A/C & Heating system is that it is broken and the repair is more or close to the cost of the replacement. When you have a compressor on the outside air conditioning unit break it can be expensive to cover the cost of the part, labor and freon that is needed to repair the unit. This can most of the time cost as much or close to the cost of a new unit and only come with a one year parts warranty. When a new unit will come with a ten year warranty if purchased and installed from a reputable air conditioning and heating company. Same goes for an evaporator coil on the indoor unit. When the metal tubes rust out and start to leak freon, there is no repair that will fix this problem. The coil will have to be replaced and the freon will have to be filled back up. With new freon law changes and EPA regulations taking in to effect, it can be a challenge to match a new outside unit with an old inside unit, and vice versa. In this case the entire system will have to be changed, sometimes to upgrade to the new freon type.

Inversely if you have constantly had the air conditioning and heating company out, possibly even multiple companies, to look at your air conditioning and heating system, on a more than regular basis, it may be time to consider the cost of a new air conditioning system. Whether you are just changing the outside unit simply replacing and evaporator coil inside or swapping out an Old Furnace, this is all new air conditioning and heating equipment installations. Also you will be in the same category if you decide to change all parts of your air conditioning and heating system simultaneously. Whether it be a noisy or any efficient unit the time to change your AC and heating system will not always be as clear as day. You will have to judge on a few factors like how often the repairman comes to fix the AC or furnace how much he costs, how much electricity your old System is using extra, and the cost of the repair if your system is down versus the cost of a new system and a cheaper electric bill. Sometimes parts are not available more common this year than any other year before but if your parts are not available sometimes you are not willing to wait a month in the middle of the summer, or winter, to get your air conditioning and heating system operational again. This would also prompt you to change your air conditioning system and consider variables previously stated earlier than you normally May. Getting your air conditioning system repaired when it is over 15 years old may not always be the best investment long term.

New A/C Due Diligence

Once you decide to replace your air conditioning and heating system, you still have some work to do. Your due diligence will include a few things before pulling the trigger with your air conditioning and heating contractor. First off make sure any company that comes inside of your home is licensed by the state of Texas department of license and regulations and insured before looking or working on your home air conditioning system. Also it may be a good idea to check all possible reviews and feedback online about the companies before even calling. Referrals are good if you know someone that you can trust they may have already vetted several contractors in your area and you will not have to do that. If not you are going to want to be informed about all good and bad feedback available online prior to doing business with any AC and heating contractor. This sounds like a simple statement but time and time again we come in behind contractors who are not licensed not insured and or have horrible reviews online for the same exact problem we are there to charge the customer to fix. These problems can almost always be avoided by not choosing those type of air conditioning companies.

Once you decide to replace your air conditioning and heating system, you still have some work to do. Your due diligence will include a few things before pulling the trigger with your air conditioning and heating contractor. First off make sure any company that comes inside of your home is licensed by the state of Texas department of license and regulations and insured before looking or working on your home air conditioning system. Also it may be a good idea to check all possible reviews and feedback online about the companies before even calling. Referrals are good if you know someone that you can trust they may have already vetted several contractors in your area and you will not have to do that. If not you are going to want to be informed about all good and bad feedback available online prior to doing business with any AC and heating contractor. This sounds like a simple statement but time and time again we come in behind contractors who are not licensed not insured and or have horrible reviews online for the same exact problem we are there to charge the customer to fix. These problems can almost always be avoided by not choosing those type of air conditioning companies.

Once you have chosen an air conditioning contractor, they will set a day for the installation. When the installers arrive most of the time they have never been to your house and you have never talked to them. They have been given instructions on what to do, it may be a good idea to go over with them the overall game plan and any details you wanted done specifically. Before they start, if they are working inside of your home they should be setting up drop cloths to protect all of your flooring and or wear shoe coverings in places where drop cloths are not reasonable. Make sure if they need to access the garage for your attic that your driveway and garage is empty of cars. Leaving your car in the driveway and or garage even if it is out of the way is always asking for trouble. Things happen stuff accidentally falls out of the attic access, people trip and unknown things happen. It is always best for these things to happen without your vehicle within scratching or denting range. If there is a gate that has not been opened make sure that it gets opened before the installers get there. Installers will be happy to take the gate off but are not necessarily fence and gate carpenters. They may even reinstall the gate or fence but not necessarily to the same quality it was originally installed also any deteriorated materials may not go back together as easily.

Remember The A/C!!!

Keep all of this in mind going forward as a homeowner new or old. Finding a good air conditioning and heating company is not always easy, make sure you do your due diligence in advance and check everything that you can to make sure they are holding up their end of the bargain. Air conditioning and heating equipment is expensive to change so make sure you get your money’s worth. It is a state law that air conditioning and heating contractors are required to offer a one-year parts and labor warranty on anything they sell you. If this warranty is not upheld the company may be in a position to lose their state issued and regulated license.

How Many Home AC Repair Calls Are AC Maintenance Related

It is estimated that more that 70% of all home air conditioning repair calls are AC maintenance related.

Home AC Repair Calls Can Be Largely Prevented

It is estimated that more that 70% of all home AC repair calls made during the summer are AC maintenance related. Getting everything out of your air conditioning system includes you putting in your maintenance work to make sure the AC can take care of your home all summer long. After reading this blog post and putting in a little work you should be over 70% better prepared to stress your air conditioning system to the max when it is above 100 degrees in the TX summer. So stay with us while we describe ways to prevent your air conditioning system from going bad prior to it needing to.

Heat Transfer And Air Movement

Your unit transfers heat from inside the building to outside. When your in the business of heat transfer with air, you will always have a filtration system, where you don’t have a filter you will be required to clean it in regular intervals, usually once a year minimum. The inside air conditioning unit is very hard and expensive to clean and will take the assistance of a licensed professional air conditioning repair company, so you have a filter. The outside unit is a lot easier to clean with a water hose so usually we do not have a filter on our outside air conditioning unit. Getting your inside unit clean is a matter of keeping it from getting dirty. Change the filter regularly which is usually once a month. As for the outside unit, most homeowners are not aware but cleaning the outside unit is singlehandedly the most important thing to do to increase the lifespan of your homes air conditioning system.

Getting Your Outside Air Conditioning Unit Clean

Cleaning your outside air conditioning unit is not very hard to do correctly, it is also not hard to do wrong and completely total the unit and need a new one. Getting your water hose ready and turn off the unit at the main breaker panel or the disconnect. After the unit is off you can just get your water hose usually on the full setting and just start washing the vertical sides of the unit. More water and less water pressure, cleaning solution made just for this helps release the dirt preventing damage from too much water pressure. If the unit has a dense hail guard pointing down you will have to point the water spray upwards more and go in an up and down motion. As you start keep an eye to make sure you are not damaging the delicate fins of metal by bending them at all. Getting them bent as you pass over them means you need to reduce the water pressure. Cleaning most outside air conditioning systems at residential homes is usually a 15 to 20 minute job. It just takes a little bit of time to work off the dirt without using too much pressure being in a rush. Definitely never use a pressure washer. Cleaning your unit at least once a year in the spring before you get to the hot days that require the unit to come on is a great time to clean it. Check your air conditioning unit outside mid summer to make sure that it is not too dirty some units must be cleaned more than once a year.

Summertime AC repair is in need. With temps above the 100 mark this last week. and nothing lower than 90 in the near future, you could say it is going to be hot!

AC Repair Specialist McKinney

Does the thought of going multiple days waiting at your house without AC sound horrible? Well we know it does and that is why we schedule appointments ASAP and send out technicians who know what they are doing on a professional level.

Bringing The Correct AC Repair Parts

Most parts should come from the distributor of the home AC unit manufacturer. In order to get the correct part with the most possible lifespan out of the part and the unit. As for some parts such as AC motor capacitors, AC condenser contactors, AC thermostats and Freon, those should always be stocked on an AC repair truck. When the parts are ordered and brought out for the final repair, its always good for your AC repair technician to order the correct ones.

AC Repair Vs. New AC

Our technicians have been in the AC repair industry for a minimum of 15 years. When they encounter an AC unit at a customers home they believe needs to be replaced they will always leave an estimate for the repair cost. This is the best way to let the customer know about the risk of repairing an old AC unit at their home. If it is an expensive repair they will always leave the AC repair Vs. New AC estimate.