Touchstone Heating & Air Inc. Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Air Conditioning Maintenance’

The End of Maintenance? You May Need a New AC

Monday, March 8th, 2021

ac-units-scrapyardIn our past two posts, we wrote about the importance of having regular AC maintenance each spring. We could post plenty more about this topic, since it’s that important—you can have most of your potential AC problem vanish thanks to keeping up with maintenance. There is one AC problem you can’t avoid this way, however, which is that the time will come when your air conditioner must be replaced. Maintenance will postpone that day, but no cooling system can last forever, no matter how much care it receives.

This year might be the year. You schedule maintenance with our technicians, we examine the AC, and explain that it’s not likely to last much longer unless it has expensive repairs—repairs that won’t be worth it compared to replacing it with a new AC.

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What Can Go Wrong With an AC That Isn’t Maintained

Monday, February 22nd, 2021

old-acOur last post was our annual reminder about scheduling air conditioning maintenance every spring—or a bit before spring for Florida because of the way our seasons work. But we aren’t finished with all we have to say about AC maintenance yet. It’s important enough for a second reminder as well as some more in-depth information about what makes maintenance so critical.

So we’re going to go into “scary mode” in this post. We’re not alarmists, but when it comes to air conditioning in Alachua, FL, we’re experts who have seen what can go wrong when an AC isn’t given regular professional care. We want you to avoid these problems, so putting a bit of a scare into you is healthy. It’s much better than being trapped with no AC on a 90°F + day!

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Maintenance for the Air Conditioning—It’s Time Again!

Monday, February 8th, 2021

time-service-clockIt’s not yet officially spring. That doesn’t happen until the third week of March. But Florida weather is Florida weather, and we have to be ready for hot spells at almost any time, and the season for air conditioning seems to start earlier each year. We’re sure you’ve used your AC a few times during the last couple of months, which is when people in many other parts of the country have their furnaces going full-blast through the day to fend off below-freezing temperatures. 

What we’re getting at is that now is a time to plan for your regular air conditioning maintenance to get ready for the coming hot weather. 

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How Our HVAC Pros Can Help Your Cooling in Late Summer

Monday, August 10th, 2020

wrenchesThe later summer can be the worst when it comes to heat and humidity, especially in Florida. It can also be the worst when it comes to air conditioning system performance—a lot of pressure and stress have built up on the AC components in the last few months, and when it gets even hotter, the system may start to lose capacity or even break down.

It doesn’t have to be this way, not when you have a great Gainesville, FL, HVAC contractor who can help you out. We have more than two decades of helping North Central Florida homeowners enjoy the best cooling. Here are ways we can help you with cooling during the risky late days of summer.

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How to Stop AC Drain Clogs

Monday, May 4th, 2020

washing-an-air-conditionerYou might see the words drain clogs in the title and think, “Wait, Touchstone isn’t a plumbing company.” True, but we’re air conditioning professionals with a long history of helping people stay cool in Florida weather, and so we know all about a specific type of drain clog: the air conditioning system drain clog.

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The Top 5 Reasons to Schedule a Pre-Season AC Tune-Up

Monday, February 24th, 2020

AC-repair-contractorSpring arrives officially next month. And in Florida, it’s already unofficially here. Time to prepare your home’s central air conditioner for another sweltering summer slam. How do you do that? Call your reliable professional HVAC technician (spoilers: that’s us) and tell them you want a pre-summer AC tune-up and inspection.

There are many reasons for pre-season tune-ups, and we’ve picked the five biggest. So put your hands together, we’re counting down…

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Going on Summer Vacation? Tips for What to Do With Your AC

Monday, June 17th, 2019

summer-vacation-dogSummer is here, and you’re planning a summer trip. Although you have plenty on your mind about what to pack and how to plan, there are a few things at home you’ll need to think about before you go. One of these is your air conditioning in Lake City, FL. Is it better to shut the entire system off while you’re on the trip to save energy? Or should you let it stay on?

At first, it sounds odd to leave the AC on while you’re away from your home for more than a day. That’s just a waste of energy when nobody is in the house to enjoy the cooled air. If saving energy is your main concern, then shutting off the air conditioner is the best choice. However, in many situations, we recommend keeping the air conditioning system on—although with the thermostat at a higher temperature.

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How and When to Change the AC Filter

Monday, May 6th, 2019

pleated-air-filter

Spring air conditioning maintenance helps your cooling system to run at higher efficiency and avoid air conditioning repair in Alachua, FL. It also extends the service life of the system.

A professional does most of the maintenance during a scheduled visit. But there are a few maintenance tasks you’ll have to do on your own during the summer and fall, and the most important is changing the air filter in the HVAC system. This filter is what protects the inside of the air conditioner from dust and lint the blower fan draws through the intake ducts. The professional will change the filter during maintenance, but after that, you’ll need to make the periodic filter change yourself.

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A Helpful AC Tip to Clean the Condensate Drain

Monday, April 22nd, 2019

water-dropletsIt’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of your air conditioning system. It’s about to shoulder an immense amount of work as the hot and humid season in Florida settles in, and you don’t want it to go up against the heat without the proper preparations.

One of the essential  air conditioning services in Lake City, FL to schedule is professional preventive maintenance. Nothing is better at fixing up an AC for another summer. Our Energy Savings Agreement is the fast, easy, and affordable way to set this up.

But once the professional maintenance inspection and tune-up is done, there are a few maintenance jobs you can do over the season, such as changing the air filter and cleaning the condensate drain—which we’re going to examine below.

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Questions to Ask Your Maintenance Tech About Your Old AC

Monday, March 25th, 2019

AC-technician-at-the-doorThe time is here once again—time to schedule your air conditioning maintenance in Lake Butler, FL or elsewhere in North Central Florida. If you’ve signed our Energy Savings Agreement, then you’re ready to go! Just call our office to set up your maintenance appointment. If you haven’t signed up yet, then you’re almost ready to go! Just call our office to sign up, and we’ll take it from there.

Spring AC maintenance is usually straightforward. Our techs inspect your cooling system, clean and adjust it, and then inform you about anything they’ve noticed that may require repair work (such as a loss of refrigerant to leaks). However, if you have an air conditioning system that’s in the 10 to 15-year range (or older) and/or you’ve noticed it isn’t working as well as it once did, we recommend asking the tech a few questions about the AC’s future. It may be time to have it replaced.

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