AC Maintenance - DIY

[Dale00]

Do you agree or disagree? .... Routine yearly AC maintenance is best done on your own.

Nothing complicated about it. Change your filters, spray down your exterior coil with a garden hose to flush the dirt (be gentle) and take a peak at the interior coil to see if it is clogged - if so get the special cleaning spray and use as directed. Oh...also keep the interior evaporator coil drain cleaned out. YouTube is your friend.

Seems to me that that "maintenance" (cleaning) is overpriced and a profit center for AC repair businesses. Better done by the homeowner who will save more than $100 for his trouble.

 

[BReeves]

My take on the maintenance deal is you are paying them to be a customer, they guarantee if you have a failure the service fee will be refunded. That just means you have put the service fee down on what may or may not be a future repair and of course you will call the company that did the maintenance. Pretty good racket...

 

[stick4]

After enduring a 100°+ weekend w/o AC several years back b/c I couldn't get my HVAC guy out till Monday I decided that some repairs were simple enough for DIY. Yesterday I bought a capacitor for my Ruud heat pump to have here when the unit breaks down. $14 shpd is all it cost and Youtube shows how to discharge it so you won't get shocked. I also bought the relay for $6.50. $20 worth of insurance. Makes sense to me.

Oh... the link to get the parts is http://www.repairclinic.com/ I just entered my AC model number and the correct parts came up.

 

[druryj]

I agree that a little preventive maintenance is a good thing. However, there are two areas of home repair/maintenance I stay far away from:
1. Electrical anything
2. Plumbing; beyond maybe plunging the toilet
Issues such as stick4 mentions above are a fine reason for a mini-vacation in a nearby hotel.

 

[stick4]

Well truth be known, I have a portable roll around 10K BTU A/C in my shop that we used in the house.

 

[swampratt]

I agree I do all my own repairs and maintenance.
Unless I can have it done for NO out of pocket.
Library is full of knowledge ... Got a book on roofing and read it during breakfast and a buddy and myself stuck a roof on his house that day.
Never leaked.

 

[nofearfactor]

My local Coweta guy who put in my new Armstrong unit and new heater unit about 5 years ago- IF I called him to come over to do the spring maintenance on my units he would do just like what I do (my dad showed me, and my AC guy has also shown me to make sure Im doing it right) and what is suggested above- open the units case, wash out the coils, ask if&when I changed my filters (I regularly change them myself), close it back up, and charge me $90. Same as changing out a bad capacitor or relay (Ive had one bad relay)- he told me he carries a bunch of em on his truck because its his main call, takes a few minutes to change out and he charges $90 plus the part cost.

 

[BReeves]

I agree that a little preventive maintenance is a good thing. However, there are two areas of home repair/maintenance I stay far away from:
1. Electrical anything
2. Plumbing; beyond maybe plunging the toilet
Issues such as stick4 mentions above are a fine reason for a mini-vacation in a nearby hotel.

Depends on who you are and what you are comfortable doing. I have never called an electrician or a plumber. OOPS, take that back when we moved our mobile home out to this property I had to have a licensed plumber run the LP lines. I did all the electrical and water myself.

Our house is old but the AC and heat are still in good working order, the few times it has had a problem I fixed it myself. Think it's a mind set more than anything. If I don't know something I do the research and firmly believe there is nothing I can't do. Set a goal then learn whatever is needed to accomplish what you set out to do.

 

[stick4]

Electric - no problem. Built a 2 car garage and wired it all myself. Plbg - I use to work for Locke Sply so i know a little about it and will crawl under a house just for fun. My one fear is ladders. They're out to maim or kill ppl my age. I firmly believe that.

 

[Buzzdraw]

My experience has been if you (or the tech you hire) cleans the exterior unit once a year the AC stays happy most of the time. I like to wait on the cleaning until after the major creators of the debris end; hat's cottonwood tree cotton here. I simply turn "off" the unit, carefully pull off the steel outer guard then water hose or carefully shop vac it out. Gentle use of either is important. The shop vac is handy to get leaf debris out of the center area below the fan. Don't forget to change the air filter on the inside unit while you are doing maintenance.

Over the years I've replaced a few capacitors (sometimes start, sometimes run) as well as a fan or two. A good parts warehouse with sharp guys behind the counter is your friend.

I've had my complete HVAC system replaced once. It was still running but was long in tooth; about 32 years old.