Tune up your AC to avoid overheating it

PORTLAND, Ore. - With the rising temperatures, your air conditioner will feel the heat while trying to keep you cool, so experts recommend yearly tune ups for your home and car systems.

The upcoming scorcher in our area over the next few days will keep Josh Noga from A-Temp Heating and Cooling on the run from home to home as people crank up the AC for the first time this year. He says that most failures can be traced to simple problems.

“It has some debris on it,” Noga says while inspecting an outside unit. “It’s just like a radiator coil. When that radiator gets blocked up, your car overheats. So the same thing can happen to an air conditioner.”

His best advice is to leave the outside air conditioner to the professionals; instead, he suggests focusing on the inside by making sure your furnace air filter is changed or cleaned at least twice a year.

He also recommends having your whole system professionally checked every year.

“Having somebody come out and just - eyes on - visual inspection. Making sure that there isn't any burnt wires or burnt capacitors, blown fuses, blown condenser motors, you know, that everything's working properly,” he says.

And for the AC in your vehicle, Broadway Toyota technician Tony Stachowiak says, “You want to make sure that you don't have leaves and debris (in the air intake)” near where the windshield meets the hood of the car.

He recommends changing the inside air filters, clearing the AC condenser drain in the engine compartment, and freshening the system with new, mold-killing treatments.

And if your car’s air conditioner isn’t blowing cold air at all, Stachowiak says there’s no Freon or “you could have a problem with the compressor. It could be seized up, not working (and) not pumping the Freon through.”

He says you should have your car AC checked when you have other service done or at least once a year.