Failing to schedule routine maintenance for your air conditioner could leave your family in a hot, miserable home this spring and summer. You schedule maintenance for your car, and you maintain other important areas of your home — such as your gutters and lawn — but failing to make an appointment for a yearly tune-up for your cooling system could spell trouble for your family’s spending budget and overall comfort.

Why is AC maintenance so important?

Not only will regular maintenance potentially extend the usable life of your air conditioner, but it can also help prevent breakdowns along the way. An air conditioner that’s not properly maintained will have to work harder to keep your family cool, and the extra strain could lead to an untimely system failure. If that happens during a heatwave, you may be waiting a while for a trained and experienced cooling professional to make their way to your home, since they likely have many other repairs to handle.

During a cooling maintenance appointment, a technician will perform a visual and physical inspection of all working components in your system. He or she will clean the parts and make sure there isn’t a build-up of dirt and dust that could prevent a component from working as it should. Additionally, the technician may be able to detect potential problems before they lead to a breakdown. This could save you a lot of aggravation (and money!) further on down the road.

Annual maintenance could help your air conditioner be more efficient. This doesn’t just mean a more evenly cooled home, but it could also mean that you’re saving money on your energy bills.

Consequences of NOT scheduling routine AC maintenance

Now that you’ve learned about the importance of scheduling an annual air conditioner tune-up, here are the consequences of failing to do so.

Your home won’t be evenly cooled

If you have a dusty, dirty air conditioner, it’s likely not going to have the power needed to efficiently cool all rooms and levels of your home, and the extra strain could cause a breakdown of the unit. Additionally, if your ducts are blocked with debris, or have holes allowing for air loss, you’re going to have noticeably warmer areas in your home. A trained technician will be able to pinpoint the problem areas in your cooling system, or in your ducts, and help you to get the issue(s) taken care of.

Higher energy bills

Proper AC maintenance could potentially help your unit run more efficiently. A clean air conditioner, one that’s free of debris, will be able to more easily keep up with your temperature settings, and this may translate into lower energy bills than with a unit that’s not cleaned and maintained.

Less frequent and expensive breakdowns

With an annual AC maintenance appointment, your system may experience less downtime in the form of breakdowns with expensive repair work needed. During a tune-up, a technician will often be able to detect potential problems early, before they become big problems. Taking care of preventative work NOW, ahead of the summer heat, could save you a lot of money and frustration. Additionally, with proper maintenance, you could help to extend the life of your cooling system. This means you may not need to worry about shelling out hundreds or thousands of dollars on a replacement system as soon as you otherwise might need to.

Take care of your AC and it’ll keep your family comfortable

To help you maintain your home’s air conditioner, Oncourse Home Solutions offers an affordable Cooling Maintenance Plan. This plan includes an annual tune-up appointment for your air conditioner, which will include a check of all your system’s vital parts. Ready to learn more? Give us a call.