Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning Blog

Month: June 2018

AC Maintenance Necessary

If you navigate around this site a bit or read through some of our previous blogs, then you will notice very quickly that we are strong advocates of annual air conditioning maintenance. Yes, annual. Yes, every single year. Why? Because there is just no better way to keep your AC working like new, without investing in a new air conditioner every year! When a professional tunes up your system annually, you will enjoy a great cooling experience.

We cannot stress that last bit enough. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. An AC tune-up is definitely worth doing, and only by scheduling this service with trained professionals can you hope for it to be done right. If you think you can read a few blog posts or watch an instructional video in order to learn how you can tune up your AC yourself, think again! This is definitely a job for air conditioning professionals in Loveland, CO.

A Waste of Money? Quite the Opposite!

It’s an argument many have made—many of whom have learned the hard way that routine AC maintenance is definitely worth the minor cost of the service! My air conditioner is fine—if it’s not broken, why fix it? There is a fundamental flaw in this logic, that flaw being that AC maintenance is not about fixing problems, but rather preventing those problems from developing in the first place.

This should be obvious, with the service being called “preventive maintenance” and all that, but some people still fail to see the connection. No, there is no way to completely eliminate the risk of running into operational problems with your air conditioning system from time to time. When your system is kept in the best working condition possible, though, it is far less likely to run into such problems. That saves you money on repair costs and even a premature replacement.

You Do Want to Live Comfortably, Right?

If so, then you are definitely going to want to schedule routine air conditioning maintenance. There is a major difference between an air conditioning system that starts up when you need it and one that actually excels in its operation. If good enough is good enough for you, that’s fine. If you’re serious about living comfortably, however, you need more than a good performance.

You need a great one, and that is what routine air conditioning maintenance allows for. Only when every component of your air conditioning system is pulling its weight, from motors to fan belts and everything in between, can your system truly function at peak performance levels. Do not allow “minor” issues to cause very real problems very shortly down the road. Instead, work with our team to keep your system working properly!

With annual air conditioning maintenance, you discover problems early on so that immediate interventions can be made. You can help to extend the life of your system. You boost energy efficiency so that you can actually pay less for greater comfort. If all of this sounds good to you, and we cannot imagine why it wouldn’t, check out our maintenance program today.

Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning is big enough to serve, small enough to care.

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When the heat of summer is at its peak, you are obviously going to want your air conditioner to be up to the challenge of cooling your home effectively and reliably. That being said, you should also realize that your air conditioner is not and should not be a freezer. If you see ice on the system, particularly on the evaporator coil in the indoor unit, your response should not be “wow, my system is really keeping things cool this year!”

The truth of the matter is that ice on your air conditioner suggests that there is a problem with your system. We’ll be discussing two such problems today. One is quite simple to resolve. It is actually one of those few air conditioning problems that you can resolve on your own. The other is much more serious, and puts your system at considerable risk. If this is the case, you’ll need air conditioning repair in Loveland, CO right away.

 

It Could Mean That You Have a Refrigerant Leak

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first and foremost. If your evaporator coil is iced over, particularly if you also notice frost or ice on the refrigerant lines themselves, then you could definitely have a refrigerant leak in your system. Refrigerant plays a vital role in the air conditioning process, so this type of leak could really spell trouble for your system—potentially very expensive trouble.

Your air conditioner doesn’t consume fuel to generate coolness in the way that a heater may consume fuel to generate heat—and it doesn’t consume refrigerant at all, period! If you have a low refrigerant charge, it means that you have a leak. It could have been improperly charged at the factory or by a technician during a dry install, but that’s far less likely.

Refrigerant evaporates in the evaporator coil, which allows heat to be drawn out of the air. If there isn’t enough refrigerant, then the coil can get too cold and condensation collected on it can freeze up. Having the leak sealed and the refrigerant charged to the proper level will resolve the issue.

You May Just Need a New Filter

Before you contact us with concerns about a refrigerant leak, you should check to make sure that your air filter is not just really dirty. It sounds strange, but this could actually be the cause of a frozen evaporator coil. How? Restricted airflow.

If airflow is sufficiently restricted, the coil will get too cold as too little heat is drawn out of the air. When that happens, you guessed it: condensation freezes on the coil. This is just one of the reasons why it is so important that you keep a fresh air filter in your air conditioning system. They’re cheap, they’re easy to swap out, and they really do make a difference! Don’t let a dirty filter cause problems for you.

Schedule your AC services with Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning.Big enough to serve, small enough to care.

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