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Spring Cleaning Your Air Conditioner | Waldrop Plumbing-Heating-Air

Taking Care of Your Air Conditioner in Spring

If you’re like most homeowners, when warmer weather arrives and the days begin to get longer, you begin making a list of tasks to do around the house. This list often includes things like dusting off furniture, cleaning out your closet, and wiping down essentially every surface in your home — among other things.

While you’re deciding when to undertake these chores, it’s important to remember that one of the most important tasks to put on your checklist is performing a bit of HVAC system maintenance. Once spring has sprung, it’s time to do a bit of spring cleaning on your air conditioner to ensure it’s ready to run all summer long.

The Outdoor Unit

Between bitter cold temperatures, snow, and rain, your outdoor AC unit likely took a beating from mother nature over the past few months. In order to get your system ready for the warmer weather ahead, you have to do a bit of cleaning and prepping. Before you begin any work, make sure the system is powered off or any power to the unit is cut entirely for safe cleaning.

Clear Out the Surrounding Area

There’s a good chance that there’s a lot of branches, leaves, and debris in the area surrounding your unit. Since this can inhibit your system’s airflow, it’s necessary to clear away debris and allow several feet of open space around your unit.

Clean the Condenser Fins

If you look inside your unit, you’ll see blade-like fins that are responsible for bringing in air for your system to use. Since the unit can also suck in leaves, branches, and debris as well, you should vacuum out anything that had made its way into the system. Just be sure you’re taking precaution as to not bend the fines when cleaning and keep track of any screws if you have to remove the top grate.

The Indoor Unit

Once you’ve taken care of your outdoor unit, it’s time to head inside. For starters, you should still have your unit powered off for safety purposes.

Change Your Air Filters

Your air conditioner relies on the air filter to catch dust and other debris before it has a chance to make its way into your system. In order for your unit to function properly, the filter needs to be changed every 30 to 45 days. If you forgot to change it, the dirty filter can inhibit the airflow in your unit and cause it to work harder than it should have to in order to function.

Check Your Vents

Your vents allow air to travel around your home with ease and need to be cared for. First off, you should make sure that there aren’t any pieces of furniture in front of the vents, as this can block airflow and create a pressure buildup within your air ducts.

You should also vacuum your vents to get rid of any dust, pet hair, or other debris that could be stuck around the grates. That debris could make its way deeper in your air ducts and circulate around your home every time your system cycles on — which means you and your family will breathe it all in.

To prevent it, it may be wise to consider having your air ducts professionally cleaned. During your cleaning, your technician will also be able to tell if you’re in need of duct repairs or replacements.

Schedule a Tune-Up

While you can do a bit of cleaning to get your air conditioner ready for warmer weather, only a professional tune-up will ensure it is. Your technician can make necessary adjustments to your system as well as spot any issues and resolve them before they become bigger problems.

Trust the Team for Your AC Needs

When it comes to providing the right services quickly, no one does it better than Waldrop Plumbing – Heating – Air. Here, our people deliver the difference. With our team of NATE-certified HVAC technicians, we accurately assess the needs of our customers so that we can provide quality service we’re will always stand behind.

Schedule a service with us today!

Sammy

Greenville, SC

Waldrop has taken care of our HVAC since our house was built (2006). We get maintenance twice a year – spring and fall. This year, Kevin suggested the Phenomenal Aire unit. It cleans the air

Cheryl

Marietta, SC

Had the best experience with Waldrop, we will forever be in their debt. Not only the most professional group of men but the most honest, stand by your word company! I would recommend Waldrop to

KarmannGT

SIMPSONVILLE, SC

A friend recommended Waldrop after he had a visit last week. Our A/C was not cooling as well as it should, and the Split “Smart” thermostat was doing crazy things on the first and 2nd

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