Air conditioners are essential machines that play a crucial role in maintaining comfort in your Brisbane home or business.

In addition to keeping you cool, they also have a hand in:

Heating (in the case of certain systems)
Dehumidifying your home
Ensuring good air quality

As you can see, your humble air conditioner wears a lot of different hats, so to speak.

Therefore, it’s important to keep your air conditioning system well-maintained if you want to continue enjoying these features!

Air conditioning repair is one part of the equation – there are also things you can do on your end to help maintain your system and keep it running for years to come.

Read on to learn exactly what they are!

Always call a professional for air conditioning repair in Brisbane

Let’s get something out of the way: while we may be talking about ways you can maintain your air conditioning system, we are not trying to encourage you to pick up the tools and try your hand at DIY air conditioning repair.

Only a professional should be entrusted with the task of fixing up your air conditioning system. There are a couple of reasons why:

Knowledge – we know what we’re doing, plain and simple
Equipment – many repairs can’t be fixed with simple hand tools
Warranty – DIY maintenance can void many air conditioning warranties

And if you need air conditioning repair in Brisbane, you can’t go past Tri-Tech.

Admittedly, the amount of maintenance work you can do on your own is somewhat limited.

That said, there are a couple of simple, easy-to-perform steps you can use to keep your system running…

How to maintain your air conditioner

1) Clean out your filters and grilles

In our experience, dirty, clogged filters and grilles are the most common culprit in cases of “broken” air conditioners.

That’s because for most people, air conditioning “cleaning” never crosses their minds – they jump straight to “repairs”.

Many systems go years without cleaning, which leads to parts becoming dirty and blocked, which reduces the efficiency of your system and therefore the amount and quality of cool air that’s being pumped out.

To avoid this, we suggest doing a bit of cleaning of your own!

While you won’t be able to clean deep in your system’s internals, outdoor condenser or ducting (only a professional can do that), you can clean grilles and filters on your own.

Split system air conditioners can be opened up easily, granting direct access to the output and filter. Gently using a vacuum or a wet cloth, you can remove dust and on your own.

This reduces strain the strain on your air conditioner, potentially extending its life.

Just be sure to cover the ground underneath with some sort of protective sheet, and if you’re prone to allergies, consider wearing goggles and a face mask while you’re at work!

2) Clean up outside

The vast majority of air conditioning systems are made up of two components: the indoor component and the outdoor one.

While most people focus on the indoor one (that’s where the air comes out, after all), the outdoor unit is equally important!

The outdoor condenser as it’s referred to is where the magic happens (click here to read more about the mechanics behind it).

If you ask our air conditioning experts, there’s a science to installing the outdoor condenser.

Ideally, it should be in a position where air can circulate, away from low-hanging branches, dirt and fallen leaves.

All of this helps your system expel warm air from inside your home, and take in air from outside for conditioning.

You can make your condenser more effective by ensuring that the area around it is as clean as possible. That means periodically sweeping up dust and dirt that may have built up on your condenser.

Another thing you can do is brush cobwebs and loose leaves away, or snip low-hanging branches to help improve airflow.

3) Run it periodically during winter

Here’s something you mightn’t have known: running your air conditioner during the colder months can actually help you maintain your air conditioning system!

With winter well underway, chances are your air conditioning systems is going to be completely idle for the next couple of months.

This allows dust and debris to build up, which can impact how your air conditioner performs when warm weather returns.

By running it once or twice during winter, you’re essentially “flushing out’ your air conditioner.

When you turn your air conditioner on during winter, it cycles warm air from your home.

This creates condensation – as warm, moist air collides with the cold surfaces in your air conditioner, it cools down quickly and releases its moisture.

This can have the added side-effect of rinsing some of the dirt, debris and foam out of your air conditioner.

While uncomfortable, it’ll only be for a brief period of time – plus, it can help you avoid potentially damaging cold starts when winter finally comes to an end!

Winter doesn’t mean you can ignore air conditioning repairs and maintenance

In fact, there’s no better time for it!

When it comes to maintaining your air conditioning system, you’ll want somebody who knows what they’re doing. Who would want to swelter through a Brisbane summer without cooling, after all?

And while there are certain maintenance tasks that you can perform on your own, there’s no substitute for the experience and know-how of a professional air conditioning technician.

Tri-Tech has performed air conditioning repairs in Brisbane for 30 years now, working on all sorts of systems.

In addition to diagnosing problems with your air conditioner, our experienced technicians can also perform deeper maintenance that’s too tough or challenging to do on your own: