This week we’ve been busy with Spring A/C check ups, cleaning outdoor coils, crawling around in attics, replacing filters, refrigerant refills. The week went by so fast I can’t believe it’s already Friday. The cold weather slowed us down just a bit because it’s really impossible to check refrigerant unless your outdoor temperature is at least 65, but 70 is better. So early in the week I was cancelling our check ups right and left but it freed us up some time to catch up on some “projects” for our current customers. On Tuesday morning we were in Plano replacing a warranty condenser fan motor and capacitor for a customer. Funny story, the little boy next door, came over to the fence, as we were working and played his guitar for us. He couldn’t have been more than 10-11 years old. It was pretty cute. But this same customer had been worried for several years about the leaves getting into the bottom of the air conditioner. And I get this question a lot from my customers, wondering if the leaves in the bottom of the air conditioner are hurting anything. The answer is “no”. Trane has even made the bottom pan of the air conditioner out of plastic to prevent rust and corrosion when this happens. The main part of the air conditioner that needs to be of concern is the condenser COILS. They need to be cleaned and rinsed at least once a year. I preach this over and over in my blogs but is is SO important. The leaves in the bottom are just sitting there and don’t hurt a thing. But this customer wanted them removed and a screen added to the top of her Trane air conditioner that we had installed for her a couple years ago. So we removed the top, scooped out the leaves for her and rinsed it with a hose and then installed screen to the top of the unit. And as I explained to her, this will keep the leaves that fall off the trees from getting into the unit, but she has problems with rats, mice or maybe even squirrels. There are always half-eaten acorns in the bottom of her pan of her air conditioner. I explained to her that rats, mice AND squirrels can flatten out and get into any space they want and if they decide to keep squeezing into the air conditioner by going under the coils it’s not going to prevent that. Guess we’ll find out next year. But she was very happy with the screen and the way it turned out and we were happy with our “serenade”.
Then later on Tuesday afternoon, we made a trip out to North Dallas to take care of a project for a customer that we had installed a Trane air conditioner and Trane evaporator coil for the year before. We left the existing furnace, as it wasn’t very old and furnaces tend to last longer around here since we don’t have the extreme cold temps like we have the extreme hot temps. The problem was, she had purchased the house about a year before we installed the Trane equipment and whoever had installed the furnace for the previous owners had not installed a filter base and the filter had to be changed INSIDE the furnace by removing panels. Not only that but the “duck-walk” over TO the furnace was quite treacherous even for us, so we knew we couldn’t ask her, as a single mother to do the job. She wanted to wait about a year after the equipment install due to her financial situation and then maybe address the filter situation the following Spring. Well, this was the following Spring and the weather was cool and crawling around in the attic while it’s cooler outside is ALWAYS a good idea. She had two systems for her home and we installed filter bases in both systems. It turned out really nice and the filter bases accommodated 4″ pleated filters which can be good for anywhere from six months to a full year, which made it convenient for her. We also ran a dedicated 8″ duct over to a corner bedroom that was not getting enough air flow due to the fact that the trunk line that fed a bedroom was just tapped off too many times before it made it to this room. I will post pictures of the new filter bases on Monday, be sure to check it out on our Facebook page and also on our Google + page. So, another satisfied Acme Air Conditioning customer. Thanks for reading, see you next week!
