Getting the most out of your A/C unit

Michiana is under a heat advisory which means air conditioning units are working harder. We spoke with an air conditioning company and they gave us helpful tips for getting the most out of your air conditioner.

"Definitely if you have shades close them. Keep that sunlight out. Keep that heat out and check your filters, clean your filters. That's very important because the biggest breakdown is due to dirt,” said Michael Ritter, President of Great Lakes Heating and Air Conditioning.

Ritter said you should think of your AC unit as a refrigerator and keep the unit clean.

"The back of your refrigerator gets warm because you're taking the heat out of the back of the refrigerator and dumping it outside. This is taking the heat and dumping it outside your house so this has to be clean so that's why you want to make sure you brush down with a garden hose,” said Ritter.

Mike Doan had a technician come out to his house to do maintenance on his air conditioning unit.

Doan has had the unit for over 16 years because he takes good care of it.

Ric Adams installed a new capacitor.

"See the difference between the two of them? One's all rusted out. I could squeeze this thing and probably bust it open so I'm going to replace it with this new one,” said Adams.

Adams also said cottonweed often gets caught in the coils and that can create problems as well.
Ritter also said you should spray water on the outside of the unit at a downward angle so the fins aren't pushed the wrong way. This gets rid of dirt and cottonweed stuck to the outside.