Quote:
Originally Posted by jrref
Another case in point where you want a professional to put gauges on your system to measure the pressures, temperatures, super heat and sub cooling.
When the refrigerant as a liquid goes into your evaporator coil in your air handler, as the hotter air from your home passes over the coil, that cold liquid changes to a gas. If you have a dirty filter, fan motor not running at spec. so there is inadequate air flow, faulty TXV valve, etc., the refrigerant will not change 100% to a gas and a gas/liquid refrigerant mixture will go back to your compressor and make it fail prematurely. Your system will seem like it's running just fine but in reality it's slowly dying. The only way to detect this is by looking at the super heat when measuring the refrigerant with gauges and checking the airflow and current draw of the fan in the air handler. So while most think they are taking good care of their system by changing filters, cleaning the condenser coil and condensate line, not checking the refrigerant which requires specialized equipment and knowledge on how to use it, and not taking certain amperage reading of the fan motors is hiding potential problems that could be shortening the life of your system.
But many will say "Wait a minute, I do minimal maintenance and my system has been running with minimal problems for 15 years". That may be the case but it may last even longer if you detect and fix some of these other common issues which can shorten the life of your system.
|
I am not saying that regular maintenance does not help to diagnose some issues. But, in my opinion, regular maintenance is not worth the cost in terms of return on investment. It benefits the HVAC companies way more than the customers. The same AC systems are used around the world in countries that have worse weather conditions than The Villages, and most of those systems are never maintained. I lived in Saudi Arabia where the average daytime temperature was about 115 degrees, and they did no maintenance whatsoever. I think that spending $100 to $200 every year to have a technician spend an hour checking gauges is a waste of money. If the unit is running and I am comfortable, I'm happy. Can you provide any benefit-to-cost data to justify the cost of a regular maintenance program? I would also add that none of the HVAC companies who promote these maintenance programs offer a written guarantee of repairs or system longevity.