While your air conditioner is created to withstand the elements, including precipitation and wind damage, sometimes you need to call your AC maintenance technician to inspect likely damage. If your air conditioner sits in standing water, due to a torrential downpour or other unexpected issues, it can cause severe damage to the moving parts and electrical components. The water usually has to reach about a foot in depth to affect your air conditioning system, but if there has been any flooding at all, call Comfort Masters Service Experts for an air conditioner inspection as soon as possible.
If intense rainfall or flooding caused your air conditioner to sit in standing water, there are a handful of things we advise doing to avoid additional damage or a dangerous environment:
- Deactivate all the electrical switches for your air conditioning system. If you are not comfortable with this, you can call your air conditioning service company to help guide you through the process.
- Allow your AC system to dry out. Remove any standing water if possible and cautiously clear any debris from around the area.
- Do not turn on your air conditioning system until a professional air conditioning inspection has been completed. Call Comfort Masters Service Experts and ensure your equipment will operate safely and effectively with a full AC safety inspection.
REMEMBER: Do not cover your outdoor heating and cooling systems with a tarp. This may actually cause more issues, including not allowing the system to air out completely and remove moisture, a could cause rust or other damage.
In addition to April showers, spring escorts in hail storms, too. Annually thousands of commercial and residential air conditioning systems are harmed by hail. While you can usually see obvious damage from the outside, you may not realize that the damage inside the air conditioning unit may be causing restricted air flow, decreasing the performance of the system. Sometimes you can fix the air conditioner more easily, by combing the fins or replacing the coil, but an insurance company’s claim breakdown showed that around a tenth of AC systems damaged by hail had to be completely replaced.
Intense winds tend to accompany storms and while your AC system probably won’t get wind damage, other things picked up by the wind, like tree limbs, grills, or unattached enclosures, can be thrown, damaging your air conditioning unit.
For a full air conditioner inspection and safety check, call Comfort Masters Service Experts today and we’ll make sure your AC system is operating safely and efficiently. Help keep your home safe during storm season and make sure to follow these guidelines if your home is under a serious storm warning.