What Happens When You Neglect AC Maintenance?
Air conditioner maintenance improves the efficiency of your cooling system and can lead to better indoor comfort. When you neglect AC maintenance, the opposite outcomes occur. The cooling system loses efficiency, indoor comfort is hindered, and you run the risk of enduring costly repairs. Poor indoor air quality and premature AC failure are likely to take place as well. Let’s take a closer look at what happens when you neglect AC maintenance in your Louisville, Kentucky, home.
Frequent Breakdowns
Air conditioning maintenance should be scheduled once a year in the spring. Parts on the cooling system won’t last forever. Some need replacing every few years, while others might last much longer. However, without maintenance from a professional HVAC technician, parts don’t get replaced as they should. This often results in frequent cooling system breakdowns. Frequent AC breakdowns and repairs are costly and greatly impact your indoor comfort.
Loss of Cooling Efficiency
A well-maintained air conditioner has a higher likelihood of operating with optimal energy efficiency. Neglecting maintenance means the parts won’t be running at their peak performance potential, which translates into excessive energy consumption. Each part will have to work harder to keep your home at your desired temperature.
Neglecting maintenance also means you run the risk of operating the cooling system with the coolant level low. Low coolant results in the AC taking longer to cool the air. The air conditioner will work harder and longer to cool your home, which further increases its energy consumption and reduces efficiency.
Poor Indoor Air Quality
Your cooling system can do more than cool your home and keep you comfortable. It can also impact your indoor air quality. As air flows through the system, a filter captures airborne allergens, such as dirt, dust, pet dander, and pollen. Without maintenance, the air filter becomes dirty, and it eventually clogs. When a cooling system has a clogged air filter, this results in unfiltered air making its way into your home’s ductwork and through the air vents.
If you or someone in your home suffers from allergies, asthma, or another respiratory health condition, it’s important that you change the air filter on a regular basis. During a maintenance session, an HVAC technician can provide other suggestions on ways to ensure the cooling system is improving the quality of air in your home. For example, the technician may suggest ductwork cleaning or adding an air purifier to the cooling system.
Damaged Ductwork
The longer your cooling system goes without maintenance, the higher the chance they will break down or get dirty. Some parts may even become damaged over time.
Take your home’s ductwork, for example. If a portion of the ductwork has a tear or hole in it, this means cooled air will escape through the damaged portion before being distributed into a room in your home. This will result in cold and hot spots throughout the home. It also means your air conditioner will have to work harder to keep your home at your desired temperature. The harder your system works, the more energy it consumes. This results in excessive energy consumption, higher cooling expenses and unnecessary wear and tear.
Shortened Lifespan
The average lifespan of an air conditioner is between 10 and 15 years. When you neglect maintenance, you risk shortening the air conditioner’s lifespan by several years. A system that runs season after season without maintenance may eventually quit working all of a sudden. When this happens, you’re left having to replace the cooling system, knowing you could have avoided the premature failure had you invested in regular HVAC maintenance. With this in mind, don’t look at maintenance as a costly expense. Instead, view it as an investment to keep your AC running longer and efficiently.
Contact us at One Choice Mechanical, LLC at 502-242-8204 to learn more about the importance of AC maintenance. You can also schedule your next AC maintenance session.
Image provided by Shutterstock
