Most people only think about their HVAC contractor when something stops working. The furnace quits on a January night, or the air conditioner blows warm air in July. Repair is a big part of the job, but a full-service heating and cooling contractor should handle a lot more than that. Knowing the full list helps you ask better questions and get more out of every visit.
Repair and maintenance
Diagnosis and repair is the core of the trade. A good technician finds the failed part and the reason it failed. On an air conditioner that might be a weak run capacitor, a pitted contactor, a failed condenser fan motor or a refrigerant leak. On a furnace it is often a dirty flame sensor, a cracked hot surface igniter, a stuck pressure switch or a clogged condensate trap on a high-efficiency unit. Replacing a part without finding the cause usually means a second call later.
Planned maintenance is the work that keeps those repair calls down. In Greater Cincinnati that usually means a cooling check in spring and a heating check in fall. A cooling visit covers the condenser coil, electrical components, refrigerant charge, the condensate drain and airflow across the indoor coil. A heating visit covers ignition, burners, the flame sensor, the heat exchanger, venting and safety controls. Heat pumps run in both seasons, so they get attention twice a year.
Replacement and installation
When equipment reaches the end of its life, your contractor should size the new system with a Manual J load calculation. That looks at square footage, insulation, windows, air leakage and which way the house faces. Matching the tonnage on the old unit's nameplate is a shortcut, and it carries forward any mistake made when that unit went in. An oversized air conditioner cools the house fast but shuts off before it pulls enough moisture out of the air, which matters in our humid summers.
Installation also covers the parts you don't see: the refrigerant line set, the electrical disconnect, the condensate drain, the venting on a gas furnace and the connection to your ductwork. Those details decide how well the new equipment runs.
Ductwork, air quality and the rest of the system
A lot of comfort complaints are duct problems, not equipment problems. A contractor should be able to measure static pressure and airflow, find undersized returns or leaky joints, and fix them. Rooms that are always too hot or too cold often trace back here.
The list usually continues from there:
- Indoor air quality. Media filter cabinets, whole-house humidifiers and dehumidifiers, and fresh-air ventilation.
- Thermostats and controls. Replacing worn-out thermostats and matching controls to multi-stage or variable-speed equipment.
- Heat pumps. Air-source and ground-source systems, including dual-fuel setups that pair a heat pump with a gas furnace.
- Water heaters. In many homes the water heater shares gas piping and venting with the furnace, so it makes sense to have the same people look at both.
- Light commercial. Rooftop units and split systems for small offices, shops and rental properties.
Questions worth asking any contractor
Before you approve work, ask a few direct questions. What failed, and why did it fail? Is this repair worth making on equipment this age? If you are replacing, did you run a load calculation? Did you check static pressure? A contractor who can answer those clearly understands your system and is not just swapping parts.
JM Mechanical handles heating, cooling, indoor air quality and water heaters for homes and light commercial buildings across Greater Cincinnati, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana. To schedule a repair, a maintenance visit or a replacement consultation, call (513) 667-8484 or request service online.