How Often Does My Mini Split Need Maintenance?
A mini split is an amazing way to achieve ideal comfort in your home while cutting down on your utility bills–and your carbon footprint. By utilizing zone control, you’re able to keep occupied parts of your home at the perfect temperature without paying to keep your entire home at that temperature when it’s not necessary. It’s a great system, but any system works best only when it’s well-maintained. What kind of maintenance does a mini split need, and how often should maintenance be performed? We’ll tell you all about it.
Every AC System Requires Maintenance
Whether you have a traditional central air conditioner, a heat pump, or a ductless mini split, maintenance is necessary. Dust and grime work their way into any system, and cleaning it out will optimize airflow and cut down on friction, not to mention reducing the amount of dust in your air for you to breathe.
Lubricant wears off over time, and moving parts will move less smoothly and overheat unless it is reapplied. And all parts of any system need regular inspections to make sure they’re in the best condition they can be in. Checking everything from electrical connections to refrigerant coils will ensure that any tiny issue is caught early before a big problem develops.
Ductless Mini Split Maintenance
Much of a ductless mini split AC system is the same as any other air conditioner: there’s a compressor that pressurizes the refrigerant, the coils the refrigerant flows through, fans to distribute air, and motors to power the fans.
Without ducts, though, there are some significant differences. There are multiple air handlers for the maintenance technician to inspect and each one has its own thermostat that must be checked and recalibrated if necessary.
Perhaps most importantly, these multiple air handlers each have drainage systems. Rather than having all the condensate from the evaporator coils collected in a single place, as with a central AC unit, the condensate must be safely drained from each air handler. Cleaning and inspecting the condensate pans and drainage lines is a critical part of mini split maintenance.
Timing of Maintenance
In general, annual maintenance on air conditioners is most often performed in the springtime. This ensures that when the unit needs to work hard during the summer, it’s in the best possible condition to do so. But it is more important to have maintenance done every single year than to have it done at any particular time of year.
Heat Pump Considerations
If your ductless mini split is not just an air conditioner, but utilizes a heat pump to provide both cooling and heating, maintenance just once per year is not sufficient. The system is not just working during the summer, but all year long, putting more wear and tear on components such as fans, motors, and compressors. More dust has the opportunity to develop, and lubricant will be worn away during the winter as well as the summer. It’s recommended that these systems receive maintenance twice per year.
We hope we’ve answered your questions about how often to service a mini split in Denton, TX, but if there’s anything else you’d like to know, a member of our team would be happy to assist you.
Contact PRK Services, Inc. today for all your cooling and comfort needs.
