I’ve seen in several threads people mentioning getting their home air conditioning serviced once a year as standard practice. What all do you expect the service man to do?
I don’t work on residential a/c, but I do work on it in an industrial setting. And I can’t see anything on the machines that would benefit from yearly maintenance that the average homeowner couldn’t do him or herself.
In my experience, air conditioners exist in one of three states:
It works
It’s dirty
It’s broken
doesn’t need maintenance. 2. can be done by the homeowner. And 3. requires a service call, NOT a regularly scheduled visit. Unless you have something rather exotic, a home unit has no belts to check, no bearings to grease, and no fluid levels to check.
Cleaning a unit requires a garden hose for the outside unit, a $3 dollar filter replaced inside, and a $5 can of coil cleaner for the indoor coil at most. You can check to make sure the fans run, and the condensate drain line is unplugged yourself.
If anything on the unit breaks, there’s not much option but to replace the part. But a properly installed system will NOT require recharging or replacement of gas. The same charge of refrigerant will work for 15 to 20 years. The refrigerant doesn’t break down with age or use. The most likely breakdown is going to be a leak developing because of excess vibration or a line rubbing on something sharp. Again, these are things anyone can look for themselves.
Maybe I’m too close to the problem, but to me, paying for yearly maintenance on your a/c seems like a scam.
I did routine maintenance for an A/C company one summer. Your point #2 was not an option for most of my calls. Either “Dad” had died or was no longer capable of doing it, or both adults were old enough to have no clue what needed to be done, or rarely, the family was just too busy with other things and didn’t want to be bothered with one more.
All I’ve ever done was to impress on the homeowner the importance of regular filter changing, and (if necessary) provide, as part of the installation, a filter drawer on the return plenum so they aren’t effing with the system cabinet (and associated safety switches). I’ve only had to clean systems when the filter was either the wrong size or missing completely.
I know that none of the statements below are likely to apply in non-tropical, developed countries, but here is how it is for us in Indonesia:
Our house has 9* air conditioners, all of which are mounted fairly high on the wall. The filters get full of gunk pretty fast in the polluted Jakarta air. Labor is very cheap. My husband and I have really full schedules since we spend a minimum of 2 hours a day in the car thanks to traffic.
With that scenario, it obviously makes sense to pay somebody to come out. Besides which, with that many air conditioners it is not uncommon for one or two of them to need fixing periodically.
We don’t use all of them regularly, I hasten to add. Five of them are infrequently turned on.
Thank you GOBLINBOY. I can win my argument with my SO.
My unit was installed 19 years ago this month. I have faithfully replaced the filter when ever the thermostat tells me to. A few years back, I flushed out the compressor unit, washing away debris and leaves. The unit has given me no trouble, ever. I succumbed to her ranting and called a guy who did the following.
Told me to replace the filter when the thermostat tells me to.
Flush out the out door unit ( He did this and found it pretty clean.)
Checked all electrical lines and connections.
Charged me $169.00 plus tax.
Never again.
I recently moved in cheaper but hotter area - until now, I have never had any reason to know anything about air conditioning.
I found a message board (do your own search) for HVAC pros - it has several forums reserved for "professionals (who can pass their mmebership “test”), and a few open to the public.
My impression: they are looking for every cent, will not bad-mouth another “pro”, and refuse to discuss good vs. bad work beyond the mantra “install (workmanship) is everything - you pay what we say, and like it”. Anyone complaining about rip-offs get reamed a new one quickly.
Short form: a properly installed system needs cleaning, A bad install (some of the owner-posted pics are amazing!) requires fixing - nothing requires annual check-ups.
If you need yearly replacement of refrigerant, there is a leak - a honest person would tell you and/or fix it - just stringing a customer along (for $200-500/visit) is dishonest, and not at all unusual, from that site. Current record: one owner who was paying for a new compressor - EVERY FRIGGIN’ YEAR.
And they are terrified of the new (pre-charged) DIY-oriented split systems - they are losing market to them.
Yes, the pro’s big ace is their EPS 608 card, which allows them to (legally) buy refrigerant - the new systems, pre-charged, bypass that step.
For the honest, competant, consciencious HVAC folks who read this - no apologies. You know there are many rip-offs in your industry - I have known honest HVAC’ers - too bad they are so hard to find.
If you have to call the techs motre than once to fix a problem, maybe you need to find another company.
A specific: an owner was quoted 20 hours to install a (single head) mini-split system. With a staight face. Backed up by one and all.
Thank you all for your answers. Time and convenience are some legitimate reasons to have someone else do your work for you. I admit, I wasn’t thinking of people who might not to be able to physically do the work when I made my post.
Itfire, that is exactly what I was talking about. Good for you for taking good care of your unit for so long.
usedtobe, I haven’t heard of an DIY systems, but the thought of one makes me cringe a bit. There’s so many ways to mess up an install that can end up costing you in the long run that I’d rather see someone pay more up front to get it done right. Yes, there’s a lot of rip-offs out there, but hopefully you can find someone honest to set you up right.