How to keep AC units from breaking in the summer heat

HURRICANE, WV (WOWK) – You don’t think about it until you don’t have it – your air conditioning unit is something you might forget about from time to time, but experts say regular maintenance can help keep it from breaking and leaving you stuck in the heat.

“We just say, ‘It’s like rotating the tire on your car, changing the oil in your car,'” said John Caruthers, Owner of Best Virginia Heating and Cooling. “That stuff has to be done so that the system can run just very effectively, in how the manufacturer recommends, especially with the very hot weather.”

Caruthers said their team responds to broken air conditioning units all the time in the summer. Even though they have teams to fix the issue, he recommends preventing it from happening in the first place.

“The better we can reduce the humidity and the temperature, you know keep that heat out, the more comfortable everyone is going to be,” he said. “So back to just changing your filter, we talk about that all day every day, and then on the outside. If there’s any debris around your unit, we don’t want a bunch of grass and debris around the unit because that’s just going to be more restriction on the unit.”

Caruthers also recommends preventative maintenance every six months, you can do that yourself or by hiring a contractor. Because at the end of the day, it’s easier and less costly to fix issues before they get worse.

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