subject: Troubleshooting Before Calling For Air Conditioning Repair [print this page] In the summer your air conditioning unit is important. Your unit keeps your family cool, comfortable, and in some weather healthy. So is there anything you need to do to keep your unit working properly, longer? Maintenance is really quite simple on these units and they can keep air conditioning repair to a minimum.
Maintaining your unit really shouldn't take up much of your time. When you find yourself vacuuming your home vacuum your air filter. This could be the single most important thing you do for your unit. Since your unit is sucking air in and filtering, it's a good idea to step outside now and then and wipe down the outside fins as well. Your unit should be turned off and unplugged during this part. If you choose to actually wash the fins or hose them down that is okay too, but be sure to unplug your unit. It is also important that you change the filter every six months. It's a good idea to have your unit maintained by a service professional before cooling season starts every year. This can catch big problem before they start.
Some things to troubleshoot before calling for service include whether the unit is blowing out cool air into the room. Is the thermostat set to cool? Also, go out to your fins and see if they are sucking air in. If all of those things seem fine go and see if your machines float switch is floating. If the float switch is floating this could indicate a drainage problem. If you use your shop vac to suck out any clogs and it's still not better you will need air conditioning repair. Troubleshooting can keep you from paying for service calls when it's something silly that is wrong.
Say you are sitting on your couch and water is dripping on you. You go and check it out. You realize it's coming from your window unit. You unplug it and begin cleaning up the mess and considering what might have happened. You realize that your curtains have been in front of the unit blocking the cold air from blowing into the room. The curtains are soaked. What happened here isn't good. A mess was made, but let the unit dry out. Keep the unit unplugged until it dries out. The unit malfunctioned because it was blocked. Make sure curtains are not in the way of the unit again and it should not malfunction.
Having checked these few things can save you from calling for air conditioning repair when a curtain is blocking your unit from working properly. Running through this simple list can also lead to valuable information for the service technician. Know your machine and save yourself a few dollars.
