AC Maintenance in Pell City, AL
Air conditioners here run from May through September, so April is the time for a tune-up. Tell us about your system, and a licensed contractor who covers St. Clair County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Five months of heat, every year, on the same unit
Your air conditioner runs from May through September in Pell City. Summer afternoons average 89°F, and the compressor works most of the day to keep up with that for five straight months.
A tune-up before summer checks the parts that carry that load. The refrigerant charge. The condenser coil. The electrical connections that wear from the unit cycling on and off day after day. A weak capacitor or a dirty coil found in spring is one that will not leave you without cooling later in the summer.
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 89°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 17 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 60 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Book your AC tune-up in April, before homes here start needing cooling in May.
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
A tune-up checks the refrigerant charge, cleans the coils, tests the capacitor and tightens the electrical connections.
Alabama requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Contractors tests and licenses the contractor, not the visit. So the license on file covers whoever is running the business, and it stays with them from one job to the next, in St. Clair County or anywhere else in the state.
For a maintenance visit on your air conditioner, that license is what stands behind the company sending someone out. If the work involves opening the refrigerant side of the system, the technician doing it also needs to hold EPA Section 608 certification, which is a federal requirement in every state and separate from Alabama's license. Between the two, that's who is accountable for what happens to your unit.
Source: Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors
- What does AC maintenance include?
- A technician checks refrigerant pressure, cleans the condenser coil outside, and tests the capacitor and contactor that keep the compressor starting properly. They also check the blower motor, clear the condensate drain so it isn't clogged, and change or check the filter. On a system that runs from May through September here, that coil especially needs to be clean going into summer so it can shed heat properly.
- How often does an air conditioner need maintenance?
- Once a year, ideally before the cooling season starts. Homes here run their AC from May through September, so getting it checked before that stretch begins means it's ready before the 89°F afternoons show up. A yearly check also catches a weak capacitor or a low refrigerant charge before it causes a breakdown in the middle of summer.
- Is AC maintenance worth it?
- Yes. A yearly check catches small problems, a failing capacitor, a dirty coil, a clogged drain, before they turn into a breakdown on a hot afternoon. It also helps the system run at the efficiency it was built for, since a dirty coil makes the compressor work harder to do the same job. With hail and high wind recorded in this area over the years, a yearly check is also a chance to look over the outdoor unit for any damage before it's asked to run all summer.