Heating & Cooling Maintenance Plans

Making Sen$e

We all struggle at one time or another making the right choice. Sometimes it can be really hard and even after we have made that choice, we wonder if it was a wise choice. “Should I have my furnace tuned up this year or just skip it and save some money?” Kipplinger Magazine.com (kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2005/01/heat.html)  confirms the wisdom in having annual heating unit tune-ups:

“Clean your furnace. Dirt and neglect are the top causes of furnace failure. Clogged filters reduce air circulation, forcing your system to work harder. One of the easiest ways to conserve energy is to change or clean the filter every other month. If it's been a few years since your last heating-system checkup, treat yourself, and your budget, to a house call.”

The choice is yours but if your health, safety, and comfort (as well as that of your family) is important to you, then you will definitely want to make the wise choice by having a qualified HVAC contractor perform a precision tune-up and safety inspection of your home heating equipment. Many contractors offer heating inspections for a nominal fee but remember the axiom, “You get what you pay for?” Through the years, we have found that to serve our customers properly, we cannot sacrifice safety or thoroughness in favor of time. A precision heating unit tune-up and safety inspection for today’s modern f

urnaces takes a minimum of one to one-and-a-half hours to complete.

“Jack Coonce, of Downeast Heating & Building Supply, in Brunswick, Maine, says an annual inspection and cleaning (which generally costs $120 to $150) saves customers 5% on their heating bills. ‘It's kind of like having a tune-up for your car,’ he says.”

TV news has brought the need for annual heating inspections to the forefront our consciousness and they have also exposed contractors who take advantage of customers. Don’t leave the safety and well-being of your family to the services of someone who has learned how to perform a heating inspection over the Internet. Call a professional and make sure your inspection not only includes a complete tune-up but a carbon monoxide safety test, as well. Without a CO safety test, there is no way of knowing whether a system is safe and efficient. Also, don’t discount the need to have a ‘working’ CO detector in your home. Without taking advantage of these safety precautions, you and your family may be at risk. 

If you are a Comfort Protection Plan customer, you can be sure you have made the wisest choice because you benefit from regularly scheduled precision tune-ups and safety inspections on an annual basis along with a “no breakdown guarantee” since replacement parts are either at no charge or discounted, depending on the plan you have chosen.  In addition, the labor to replace those parts is included with the plan!

At Gundlach Sheet Metal, with over 120 years of quality service and technicians who are both NATE© and ProTecs© certified, you can be sure that you are getting what you are paying for … and more. 

How much easier does it get to make a wise choice?

If you would like more information on our convenient Comfort Protection Plans, give us a call today or talk with your technician when he comes to complete your ProCheck. 

So just what is a Condenser and why is it so important to keep it clean?

You call that piece of equipment usually located in your back or side yard an air conditioner or sometimes, a central air conditioner. Using our techie jargon, we call it a condensing unit. The condensing unit mainly consists of a compressor, some copper tubing with aluminum fins and some controls.  Refrigerant flows through these components, a fan blows the hot air away and the end result is a cool, comfy home during hot weather.

Technically, the condenser is the coil and fin tubing.The refrigeration cycle is the continuous loop process in which refrigerant is subjected to pressure changes.  These pressure changes allow the refrigerant to absorb and carry away heat.  We used this cycle to pull heat from the air inside your house and then eject it outdoors.  Most homeowners, including you I’m sure, probably don’t care how the refrigeration cycle works.  You just care that it does! 

This whole process is a delicate balance of temperatures and pressures.  The length of condenser tubing, the number of aluminum fins, the thickness of the walls of the copper tubes and the amount of air passing across the coil are all pre-engineered.  This engineering comes from long hours and lots of money invested in research and development by manufacturers like Carrier. If this temperature/pressure changing process doesn’t happen the way it was designed, your system has to work harder and you could end up with costly repairs and higher utility bills. 

For example, if your coil is dirty the proper amount of air cannot pass across it and cool it down properly.  A broken or seized condenser fan, flattened fins, or a partially blocked coil can also cause too little air flow across the coil.  When that happens, the compressor has to work harder to move the refrigerant.  When the compressor works harder, it uses more electricity.  You can guess what this does to your electric bill and it will lead to costly compressor burn out if not addressed quickly. 

The good news is you save money, prevent serious damage to your condenser components and compressor, and extend the life of your condensing unit with regularly scheduled maintenance inspections.  Give us a call today and schedule a Central Air Conditioner Precision Tune-Up. (We’ve even included a time sensitive money-saving coupon for this inspection on the front page.) Better yet, when you call let us explain our totally automatic Comfort Protection Plans. These plans offer even more savings and a convenient way for you to make sure that when you want to relax in a nice cool environment on a hot day, your A/C will be working!