GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Summer weather is finally here and while you might be enjoying it, your wallet might not.
Heating and cooling technicians are keeping busy with repairs this week, but you can do something to avoid a costly fix.
Kim Elenbaas of Schaafsma Heating and Cooling says she gets four to five calls a day around this time of year. While most are calling as part of their yearly air conditioning and furnace maintenance, others are trying to play catch-up.
"We do get quite a few calls from people that are the no cool and our techs try to get them set up at that time, especially if they've never done any maintenance. Which is important," says Elenbaas.
That maintenance can include everything from needing more coolant, to needing their air conditioning unit cleaned.
Something Elenbass suggests doing often on your own.
"You can see down here, you can see these fins but when you move around this way you can see that it's cottonwood in there and it's kind of all plugged up so you want to make sure that you're washing that off," Elenbass says.
That’s the first step, if you plan on keeping your house cool and want to avoid calling HVAC companies, but you also need to pay attention to how often you change your filters.
"This is a one-inch filter, those are the ones that we recommend you change every 30 days again depending on activity. This guy here again depending on activity, elderly people with no activity you can get six months out of that or if you have kids and pets then you might want to check it at three months," says Elenbass.
These simple steps can help your air conditioning stay cold during the warm summer months.
Schaafsma offers year-round services with maintenance in both the winter and summer. You can find details about the company here.
