Lone Star Cooling and Heating
Get help with Maintenance & Tune-Ups
Call Lone Star Cooling and Heating, have us call you, or describe the issue.
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Call (325) 219-0005Seasonal service that cleans, tests and adjusts heating and cooling equipment ahead of the season it is needed for, catching worn parts, dirty coils and slow drains while they are still small problems.
01Maintenance
Most visits are simply the season coming round. Some begin with a sign that something has changed.
Equipment that has gone a season or more without service keeps running, but dust, wear and small electrical faults build up out of sight. A maintenance visit cleans and tests the system and finds the parts that are starting to weaken.
The first hot or cold week is when weak parts tend to give out, because the system suddenly runs for hours at a stretch. Checking it shortly before then means problems surface while there is still time to repair them.
A system that runs longer to deliver the same comfort often has a clogged filter, a coated coil or a small refrigerant leak. Service restores what cleaning and adjustment can, and identifies anything that needs a repair.
A new rattle, a faint musty smell at the vents or cycles that last longer than they used to can be the early sign of a loose part, a slowing drain or a dirty coil. A service visit is a good time to have them traced.
A filter left in too long restricts the air the whole system depends on. It strains the blower, cuts heating and cooling, and in summer can let the indoor coil freeze. A fresh filter fixes the restriction, and a visit checks whether anything suffered.
02Urgency
Routine service can be planned around the calendar. A few signs mean the system needs attention now.
None of this services the system. All of it keeps people safe until it has been looked at.
Leave the building without switching anything on or off or using a flame, and call the gas utility or 911 from outside.
Get everyone out into fresh air and call 911. Stay outside until responders say it is safe to go back in.
Switch the system off at the thermostat, and at its breaker if the panel is safe to reach. Leave it off until a technician has looked at it.
Maintenance & Tune-Ups
Serving Abilene, TX.
03How often
The answer follows the equipment, and in particular how many seasons of the year it works through.
A system that only heats, such as a boiler, or equipment that only cools, has one busy season and a long rest. One visit shortly before that season starts covers what it needs.
A heat pump heats and cools with the same outdoor unit, so it never has an off season. A furnace paired with an air conditioner shares its blower, filter and ducts across both. Either is usually serviced twice: the cooling side in spring and the heating side in fall.
04What it catches
A visit is part cleaning and part measurement. The measurement is where most of its value lies.
Heating and cooling equipment wears in ways that stay hidden while it still runs. Capacitors lose strength, electrical contacts pit and burn, coils gather a film of dust and grime, drain lines grow slime, and burners and flame sensors pick up deposits. None of this stops the system at first. It shows up as longer cycles and higher bills, and then as a breakdown on the day the system is working hardest.
A technician measures what can be measured, such as the current each motor draws, the strength of each capacitor, refrigerant pressures and the air temperature on either side of the equipment, and compares the readings with what that equipment should show. Parts reading near the edge can be replaced at a planned visit rather than in an emergency, and the building gains a record of how the system is aging.
05Between visits
A service visit looks after the equipment. A few simple habits carry it through the months in between.
06Questions
The usual pattern is once a year for each side of the system: cooling in spring and heating in fall. A heat pump does both jobs with the same equipment, so it is commonly serviced twice a year. Equipment that works unusually hard, or sits somewhere dusty, may need attention more often.
Yes. New equipment still collects dust on its coils, still sends water down its drain and still depends on a clean filter. Early visits also record how the system performs when new, which gives every later visit something to compare against.
The main jobs are checking the filter and changing it when it looks dirty, keeping leaves, plants and stored items away from the outdoor unit, and making sure supply and return grilles are not blocked by furniture. Water near the indoor unit or a new noise is worth reporting rather than saving for the next visit.
A smell of gas, a carbon monoxide alarm, a burning electrical smell, or no heat or cooling in dangerous weather: urgent. A system that runs longer than it used to, a new noise or one room that is off: worth a visit soon, but not tonight.
What the system is doing, when it started, what the thermostat is set to and what it reads, and whether the outdoor unit is running. The age of the equipment and a photo of its label help a technician arrive prepared.
Lone Star Cooling and Heating
Call Lone Star Cooling and Heating, have us call you, or describe the issue.
Prefer to talk?
Call (325) 219-0005