Routine Maintenance

It’s common knowledge that professional medical associations recommend every person see their primary care physician for a check-up, at least once a year, to have a look under the hood, so to speak. Your family doctor checks your blood lab values, your weight and listens to your heart and lungs to ensure there’s nothing unseen that could develop into a larger, more painful problem down the road. Dental associations tell us to get our teeth cleaned and our teeth, gums and mouths x-rayed and investigated for the same preventative, well-being oriented care.

Well, your HVAC system is a lot like the lungs of your house: a vital organ! When it’s sealed up tight, as it should be to keep environmental pollutants out and keep an air conditioned, comfortable atmosphere in; it provides the majority of the air we breathe at home. To keep it functioning at peak performance, you should call Comfort Zone to have it regularly inspected, cleaned and maintained for its continued good health and yours.

We conduct a full inspection of of your air conditioning unit inside and out when we make a maintenance call to your home or business. We make sure the coils are clean, as dirty coils reduce unit performance making it less energy efficient; therein more expensive. We clean the drain.

“I’m nitpicky about the outside. I pull the tops to inspect for leaves and I pull them out. I make sure there is No Debris in the outside unit! When leaves, debris and moisture accumulate on the metal bottom of the unit, it can cause rust and corrosion which eventually leads to problems down the line,” Ralph Harrison, owner/operator of Comfort Zone.

“The major compressor companies have all told me that the #1 cause of compressor failures is worn contacters. The contacter is the switch that the thermostat tells to turn the outside unit on and off. Outside, exposed to the weather, the contacters can get pitted or worn out leading to electrical issues and compressor failure which, in most cases, is so expensive to replace outside of the warranty that it makes more sense to just replace the unit,” Ralph Harrison.

Most routine maintenance is done in the spring and fall to get them tuned up in anticipation of more extreme weather demands on air conditioning and heating systems in the summer and winter.

Some companies charge as much as $150 for routine maintenance. That’s too much. They do it because it’s a slower season than summer or winter. We’re not out to gouge customers. We charge a fair rate. That’s the way that I would want to be treated. We charge our regular rate of $95/hour to do the full inspection and basic, normal clean out of a maintenance call. If I find a problem that’s outside the scope of maintenance, for example, I see a particularly nasty coil that will necessitate dis-assembing and removing it from the unit, a longer, more complicated process, I let the customer know and we discuss their options and costs. Like, when you go to a mechanic for an tune-up & inspection and they find a problem that’s outside the scope of that service,” Ralph Harrison.

If we do see a dirty coil we have to pull out to clean, we use Nu-Calgon professional coil cleaner. We only use brands we know we can trust. The same with a dirty fan or a bad blower motor, we see that a lot. We pull it and wash it. A dirty fan or a bad blower motor will affect the performance and air moving capability of the unit.

“Inside units that are properly maintained are usually trouble-free, if they’ve been installed properly. When I install a unit, I know the system, I know the ducts are tight and not sucking in air from the attic, so not they’re not allowing dust to get in and dirty up the coil,” Ralph Harrison.