What is involved during an air conditioning or heater service?

A “service” on your heating and cooling equipment is essentially maintaining the system and actively finding faults if any are present, we would consider this a preventative maintenance. By servicing your equipment frequently, this aims to prolong the lifespan of your appliance, ensure it runs optimally and most importantly that it is safe to operate.

Many people get their appliance serviced too late and as a result main components are often changed when preventative maintenance could have found problems and rectified them before major repairs needed to be made.

The aim of a preventative maintenance is in the word itself – preventative! We aim at finding problems that could occur and prevent them from snowballing into major problems.

We would recommend that you get your heating and cooling equipment serviced every 1-2 years depending on how often you use it, what type of equipment it is and what type of setting you are using it for. Generally, in a residential setting, we would recommend you service your equipment once every 2 years while in a commercial setting we may recommend you service it once every 3-6 months. A best way to remember a service schedule is by seasons – before summer and before winter.

There are many tasks carried out during a service depending on how old the system is and how well maintained it may be.

General tasks carried out in a split system or refrigerated ducted system would be but not limited to:

Checking and cleaning return air filters
Checking and cleaning all grills and covers
Test all condensation drains
Check for mould, fungi, stagnant water, dirt, grime or any pollutants in indoor evaporator coils
Check fan operations
Check gas pressures
Check all electrical components
Check and clean any dirty indoor or outdoor unit coils
Check duct work and airflows

Tasks carried out during an evaporative cooler service could be:

Inspect the wear and condition of the unit
Clean and flush the filter and cooling pads
Drain and clean the water reservoir to stop vermin from entering
Remove dirt and grime before washing with soapy water
Empty and clean the pump basket, filter and distributor channels
Isolate water supply line
Isolate electrical supply
Close off all air vents throughout the home

Tasks carried out during a gas ducted heater service:

Carried out carbon monoxide levels and ensure no leaks are present
Check for cracks, damage or rust in heat exchanger
Check for gas leaks
Check burners and injectors
Check and clean return air filters
Check and clean any supply and return air grills
Check duct condition
Check all electrical components such as fan motors, belts, PCB’s, pressure switches etc

All the above are just examples of what a licensed contractor should be looking for during a service and will advise you on the frequency of how often you should be servicing your heating and cooling equipment.

At Kingston Air, we provide a wide range of preventative maintenance schedules and will supply all necessary documentation for your warranty and personal reference.