While your air conditioner is built to withstand the weather, including precipitation and hail damage, there are times when you need to call your AC maintenance technician to inspect likely damage. If your air conditioner sits in standing water, due to a torrential downpour or other unexpected issues, it can cause severe damage to the moving parts and electrical components. The water usually has to reach about a foot in depth to affect your air conditioner, but if there has been any flooding period, call Orangutan Home Services for an AC inspection as soon as possible.
If heavy showers or flooding caused your air conditioner to sit in standing water, there are a couple of things we advise doing to avoid additional damage or dangerous situations:
- Deactivate all the electrical switches to your air conditioning system. If you are not comfortable with this, you can call your AC maintenance expert to help guide you through the process.
- Allow your air conditioner to dry out. Remove any standing water if possible and cautiously clear any debris from the immediate area.
- Leave your AC system off until a professional air conditioning inspection has been completed. Call Orangutan Home Services and ensure your equipment will operate safely and effectively with a full air conditioner safety inspection.
REMEMBER: Do not cover your outdoor HVAC systems with a tarp. This may actually cause more issues, including not allowing the system to air out completely and remove moisture, potentially causing rust or other damage.
In addition to downpours, spring escorts in hail storms, also. Every year thousands of commercial and residential air conditioners are harmed by hail. While you can typically see obvious damage from the outside, you may not realize that the damage inside the air conditioner may be causing restricted air flow, hindering the performance of the system. Sometimes you can fix the air conditioning system more easily, by combing the fins or replacing the coil, but an insurance company’s claim breakdown showed that around 10% of air conditioners damaged by hail had to be fully replaced.
High winds tend to accompany storms and while your air conditioning unit probably won’t get wind damage, other objects picked up by the wind, like bushes, trash cans, or sandboxes, can be thrown, damaging your air conditioning unit.
For a full air conditioner inspection and safety check, call Orangutan Home Services today and we’ll make sure your air conditioner is working safely and efficiently. Help keep your family safe during storm season and make sure to follow these guidelines if your neighborhood is under a serious storm warning.