Springtime Maintenance Tips for Your Air Conditioning Unit

Surviving the hot summer weather every year means one thing to most people: turning on the air conditioner. Whether you cool your home with a window air conditioner or a larger air conditioning unit, it is a good idea to perform some basic air conditioner maintenance before turning it on.

Regardless of the type of air conditioning unit you have installed in your home, you should consider replacing any unit that is more than 5 years old with a newer, more energy-efficient model. Much like your home heating system, air conditioners use a lot of energy and your electricity bill is going to spike during the peak heating season.

While your air conditioner does most of work while cooling your home, it also makes sense to reduce the amount of work it has to do. One good way to reduce your overall cooling expenses is to learn ways to keep the hot air outside and the cooled air inside. So think about ways to keep your home or apartment cool by minimizing the loss of cool air. Cooling outside air over and over again is simply throwing money away. You should learn ways to keep the cooled air inside your home for as long as possible. The trick to keeping cool air inside is to discover places where it can leak out. Floor registers, windows and beneath doors are three places to begin.

Next, it is important that your air conditioner be kept free of dust and dirt accumulations that will restrict or block the flow of air through the air conditioning unit. Remove the front panel cover and filter of your window air conditioner and wash them in warm water and a mild detergent. Once they are dry, you can return them to the unit. While they are drying, use your vacuum cleaner to remove anything that shouldn't be inside your unit, such as cobwebs and dust demons.

Proceed with looking over the condition of the unit's cooling fins. Because the A/C unit depends upon an unimpeded flow of air across the cooling coils, the fins shouldn't be bent or smashed together in any way, Cooling fins are easily bent out of shape if struck by any object. The best way to open them back up is to use a wooden or plastic kitchen or crafting tool. This might take a little time, but air must flow easily across the cooling fins in order for the air conditioner to function efficiently.

The maintenance and service of central air conditioners is more technical and will be covered in another service guide. For most homeowners, maintaining these units is only a matter of basic cleaning and replacing air filters. Keep in mind that unusual noises, such as banging and clicking are signs of trouble and should be left to the pros. Once trouble begins, you should be on the look out for any sign of smoke or the smell of rubber or plastic burning.

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