How to Prepare Your Central Air Conditioner for Spring

Spring is the perfect time to get your central air conditioning unit in peek efficiency. A little work now will save you on your light bills, and possibly prevent costly repairs.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• water hose
• basic hand tools
• manifold gages
• machine oil

1. 
   Run capacitor

   Begin outside with the condensing unit. This is really the heart and lungs of your central A/C system. To begin find the breaker to the condensing unit and flip the breaker to off. Remove the screws to the control panel of the condenser unit and use voltage meter to check for voltage to unit. If voltage has indeed been turned off then begin inspection of controls and components. Begin with the run capacitor. visually check the capacitor looking for two things. First see if capacitor is leaking. You will know it is leaking if it has a sticky residue on it. Then check the capacitor to see if the capacitor is shorted or blown. this can be done by looking at the top of the capacitor, does it look domed or rounded at the top? if it shows any of these two replace the capacitor. Very important, the capacitors ratings must be the same, if the rating is no longer visible then take the condensing units model number down and it can be looked up by a parts store for the correct run capacitor.

2. 
   Definite Purpose Contactor

   Now visually check the contactor. You will be looking at the points. This is where the contactor closes to complete the current to the fan motor and compressor. If the points look pitted or burned, then replace it. Also check all the wiring, if any wires look burned, or the spade clips look bad the replace wires and/or spade clips. Now you can close the component panel.

3. Now open the top of the unit, this is where the condenser fan motor is. remove all the screws around the side to allow the top to be removed and placed to the side carefully. Now take your garden hose with a spray nozzle and wash your condenser from the inside out. You want to wash the condenser this way so not to push dirt and debris further into the condenser coils. You are washing the reverse direction of the air pull. It is better to start at the top and wash downwards, you will be able to see the dirt and debris being washed out of the coils. I do not recommend the using of chemicals, because if not used properly this will result in damage to the coils fins.

4. 
   Condenser fan motor

   Next look at the fan motor and look to see if this is an oilable motor, if it is it will have some small caps to remove and add oil. remember to place the caps back on the motor.

5. Now you need to flip the breaker off to the indoor unit so that you can oil the indoor motor and check the indoor fan motors run capacitor. You will do this the same way as you did outside, visually checking the capacitor for leaks and oiling the fan motor if it is an oilable motor. Now replace the filter and reset all the breakers. This maintenance should be done at least twice a year. If you do this regularly you will save hundreds on your light bill and repair costs.

Tips & Warnings

• Always check for voltage as breakers can often be mislabeled.