What Is Covered In An Air Conditioning Service? | Fort Worth, TX
If you live in Fort Worth, TX, then you already know your AC has to meet many demands during the summer season. Of course, summer in Texas is not excluded to the summer months; it pretty much butts up on the spring and fall months as well. Given this fact, it pays to invest in an air conditioning service once a year to ensure that your AC system is ready to meet the demands of Texan weather. In fact, it is the very best thing that you can do for your AC if you want it to continue to run without any issues.
However, if you have never had an air conditioning service, then you might be curious about what it entails. There are a lot of different variables that go into creating the perfect service, and each of these variables ensures that your AC is capable of going the distance during the hot summer months in Fort Worth, TX. If you are not sure whether or not it is worth it to book a service, then this is the perfect guide for you.
Sometimes understanding what something is makes it easier to ascertain why you need something. If you don’t know what happens during an air conditioning service, it will be hard to see its worth, but once you understand the process, you will likely wonder why you have never booked one before. After all, as a homeowner, there are a lot of proactive tasks, and it can start to get overwhelming to try to keep up with all of the things you are supposed to do so that your home stays in working order.
The good news is that an air conditioning service is a relatively easy task to keep up with. All you are responsible for doing is calling an HVAC system and booking the visit. The technician will take care of every other task for you during the visit and then will offer you a detailed invoice that shows everything they found and did during the visit. They take all of the guesswork out of the visit, and unlike a repair visit, you don’t have to worry about paying for anything outside of the initial service visit if you don’t want to.
However, the information it offers you is invaluable. Not only will the technician clean up your HVAC system as part of the air conditioning service, but they will offer you insight into the current condition of your unit so that you can start to budget for any repairs or replacement possibilities that might be lurking in the future. Most people prefer to know these things in advance versus being caught off-guard by discovering they suddenly have to deal with a replacement that they were not prepared to do. This is just one of the many things we will discuss in greater depth within this article.
If you have never thought about whether an air conditioning service is something you need, then this guide may shed some light on why the rest of your neighbors have an HVAC technician out to their homes at least once a year. Of course, this guide only covers some of the larger benefits of an AC service; if you have any questions or want to learn more about air conditioning service in Fort Worth, TX, we encourage you to reach out to us. We will happily go over any questions you have so that you feel confident you’re making the best choice.
How Long Does AC Service Take?
Most people lead busy lifestyles these days, so it is understandable if someone is concerned about how long their air conditioning service will take. After all, this factors in heavily when it comes time to decide if this is something that can be both budgeted for and completed. While it can vary based on the size of your home and the size of your AC unit, a safe estimate is usually two to three hours. In some cases, it may be much shorter, but if you are prepared to spend two to three hours with the AC technician, that should be sufficient.
The time of air conditioning service also heavily depends on how often you have your AC system serviced. One large part of air conditioning service is cleaning out your system, so a system that has been cleaned once a year will have less dirt and debris than a system that has never been cleaned. With that in mind, it is reasonable to expect to spend more time with the HVAC technician if this is your first time booking an AC service versus the second or third in the last few years. Of course, this should not discourage you from booking a visit. In fact, it should encourage you to book the service because you want to get all of that excess dirt and debris out of your system, so it no longer impairs the functionality of your AC system.
Do I Need to Prepare for AC Service?
The other big question that people have before an air conditioning service is whether or not they need to prepare for the service. This is a reasonable question, but the good news is that there is not much you have to worry about before your AC service in Fort Worth, TX. There are a few things that you can do to help make the process a bit simpler for the technician, but you could just wait for them to show up and take care of those tasks at that point. Therefore, preparation should never be a concern when booking an air conditioning service for your home.
If you want to prepare in advance for your AC service, the benefit will be that it will likely take less time since things won’t need to be rearranged during the visit. Once again, it is completely up to you, but the few things that you could do also won’t take much time. It is helpful, for instance, to clear out your driveway and park away from your outdoor AC unit if it happens to be on the driveway side of your home. This makes it easy for the HVAC technician to access the unit during the cleaning process. You also will want to put away any bikes or scooters that may be out in your drive, so there are no fall hazards.
Remember that your AC unit has an outdoor and indoor unit, so you must clear a pathway to the indoor unit. It is usually recommended that you create a clear three to four-foot radius around your indoor unit, if possible, so that the HVAC technician has plenty of room to work. This also helps ensure that your property stays safe during the process.
Finally, remember that the HVAC technician will need to check out your thermostat and some of your air vents (usually on the first floor of your home). Therefore, you will want to make sure that these things are accessible, and if there is any furniture blocking access to the vents, you can consider moving them to help make the process go a little smoother. However, once again, you don’t have to do any of this in advance if you don’t have time to get to it, and the HVAC technician will work with you to ensure everyone gets what they need from the air conditioning service.
What Happens During an AC Service?
There are three things that happen during an AC service. The first is cleaning, which includes everything inside and outside of your indoor and outdoor units. The first objective of an air conditioning service is to ensure that everything is thoroughly cleaned so that you have acceptable indoor air quality inside of your Fort Worth, TX home.
The second objective is to inspect all of the components of your system for rust and/or damage. Some people are surprised to learn that components are already broken or performing at a lowered quality, forcing other components to compensate for them and increasing overall wear and tear on the system. Identifying these issues and then letting the homeowner know is the best way to increase the efficiency of your system.
The third objective is to write up a detailed report so that the homeowner knows the exact condition of their AC. This is an extremely useful part of an air conditioning service and the part that you can use to make good decisions in the future about your AC unit.
How Can I Use the Information After an AC Service?
After the AC service is over, the HVAC technician will compile a list of recommendations that are extremely useful to you as a homeowner. They will include recommended repairs based on what they see while they are performing your air conditioning service. This is one of the most important aspects of your AC service because it allows you insight into the wear and tear inside of your AC unit, which you otherwise would not know until a component breaks.
It is to your benefit to make any recommended repairs to help ensure that there is no disruption in your AC unit’s operation. However, you are never obligated to make any of the repairs during the air conditioning service; some homeowners just prefer to go ahead and have the repairs made so that they don’t have to schedule a second HVAC visit. Sometimes it is not an even option because the parts need to be ordered, so you can schedule the repairs when it is convenient for you.
The HVAC technician also might make some usage recommendations, such as recommending that you change your filters more than every three to five months. In some homes where there are pets or a lot of dirt, you need to change your filters more often to keep the quality of your indoor air at an acceptable level.
Finally, they will also offer an estimate of the lifespan of your unit. If you have an older unit, they will give you an honest idea of how many years the AC unit has left in it. This is not to pressure you into replacing your unit in Fort Worth, TX, but instead to prepare you so that you can start to budget for a future replacement.
How Frequently Do I Need to Schedule an AC Service?
Most people will find that once a year is all that is necessary for a successful air conditioning service, but if you own a home with a lot of traffic or a lot of dust, then you might consider booking an AC service a bit more often. Homes with children, pets, or allergies might want to have their AC cleaned on a more regular basis to ensure that the air they breathe remains clean and their AC works at its highest efficiency level.
The best way to find out what is best for your home is to talk to your HVAC technician after you book your AC service. They will see the condition of your AC and can recommend how often you should have your AC cleaned out. This is the best way to get a customized service schedule that will work for your home. It is also a good time to ask them if you need to schedule a furnace cleaning as well.
With that in mind, if you are ready to schedule an air conditioning service in Fort Worth, TX, contact One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth today. We will schedule a time that works for your schedule and send out a trained technician to clean out your HVAC system.