Quote:
Originally Posted by jrref
Although the outside condensor coils will get more dirty than the inside evaporator coil, the evaporator coil can still get dirty needs to be cleaned. If your evaporator coil gets dirty, even a little, your efficiency will drop, maybe significantly because the coil won't remove the heat properly from the inside air passing through it. Also, while they have the air handler open, if you have a heat pump they will check to make sure your Auxillary heat is working as well and they will also check the reversing valve on the condensor to make sure that works as well.
So, to put things in perspective, although yearly maintenance can prevent some common failures there are some it can't. But for example, say your reversing valve on your heat pump, if you have a heat pump system, is stuck in the cooling position, if you don't check it during a maintenance, when you need heat, the system will fail or if your start capacitor is out of spec., it may still work but the first time we get some really hot weather it will fail because heat is what destroys this particular device so, in a sense you are preventing getting stuck for an emergency call. At the end of the day many don't really understand the complexity of your HVAC system and rely on doing some basic maintenance, which is fine, but in reality you need a professional from a reputable HVAC company to check the system and do any needed maintenance at least once a year if you want to reduce the risk of getting stuck at an inopportune time.
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Are you sure that most HVAC companies check the items you mentioned in your post? And, if they do and they find an issue, do they repair it for free? If not, I think that some homeowners would feel scammed and refuse to pay for the repairs. I doubt that they send their best technicians for maintenance visits. On their website, Sunkool shows a 21-point checklist of items they perform, but I don't see these items listed. Also, if you read the list, I don't think they spend enough time at the house to perform all of the items on their list. Personally, I think most HVAC companies are more interested in getting the $100 or more maintenance fee. Some even recommend coming every 6 months. If I were trying to prevent failures, I would replace the start capacitor every 3 years or so, but I have not heard of a single company that does this. Call me skeptical.