HVAC Preventative Maintenance

Spring cooling visit: condenser coil cleaning, evaporator coil inspection and cleaning as accessible, refrigerant charge verification by superheat and subcooling, capacitor microfarad measurement against rating, contactor inspection, compressor and fan motor amp draw against nameplate, condensate drain and pan clearing plus float switch test, blower wheel inspection, static pressure measurement, temperature split, thermostat calibration, and filter replacement.

Fall heating visit: burner cleaning, flame sensor service with microamp verification, igniter resistance test, heat exchanger inspection with combustion analysis where warranted, gas pressure check, venting and draft verification, CO measurement at supply registers, safety control and limit testing, temperature rise measured against nameplate, sequencer and heat strip testing on electric heat, and on heat pumps a reversing valve and defrost cycle test.

Both visits end with a written report containing the actual numbers. That is what makes maintenance predictive instead of ceremonial — a capacitor drifting 15% below rating tells you it will fail this summer, and replacing it in April costs a fraction of what it costs at 5 p.m. in July.

Priority scheduling, which is the benefit that matters most in the two weeks each year when everyone's system fails at once. Members go ahead of the general queue in a July heat wave and during the first cold snap of winter.

Discounted repairs when something is found, no overtime pricing at any time, and the documented annual service most manufacturers require for full warranty coverage — which is worth real money if a compressor or heat exchanger claim ever comes up.

And continuity: the same company sees your system twice a year, has the previous readings on file, and can tell you that your capacitor has drifted, your static pressure has risen, or your subcooling has changed since last spring. Trend data is something no one-off service call can give you.

It prevents most of what we get called out for: dirty-coil capacity loss, plugged drains and tripped float switches, capacitor and contactor failures, frozen coils from restricted airflow, furnace lockouts from dirty flame sensors, and limit trips from neglected filters. Those are the majority of service calls in this climate and nearly all of them are visible in advance.

It also holds efficiency. A condenser coil packed with Valley dust and an evaporator starved by a loaded filter can add substantially to summer runtime, and runtime is the entire bill in August. Documented airflow and charge is how you keep a system performing near its rating instead of drifting away from it.

It does not make equipment immortal, and it will not fix a design problem. If your ducts are undersized or your system was oversized in 2004, maintenance keeps it running but cannot make it comfortable — that takes a duct assessment or a properly sized replacement, and we will tell you which rather than selling you visits that cannot solve it.