Reminder: Heat Pumps Need Maintenance Twice a Year

Reminder: Heat Pumps Need Maintenance Twice a Year

This is the time of year when we remind homeowners in Southern California to prep for the coming heat (you know how intense the heat gets here in the desert!) by arranging for a regular maintenance visit from an HVAC professional. We offer superb air conditioning maintenance in Cathedral City, CA and the surrounding areas, so all you have to do is contact our office and we’ll be out to inspect and tune-up your home cooling system.

But I have a heat pump, and it was maintained in the fall

This is a common misunderstanding we run into, which is that heat pumps—systems that work as both air conditioners and heaters—only need maintenance service done once a year. Superficially, this makes some sense. A standalone air conditioner only requires maintenance once, during the spring, and a furnace only requires maintenance in the fall. Because a heat pump is a single system, it seems it would only need one maintenance inspection and tune-up a year.

But appearances are deceptive in this case. Instead of thinking of the heat pump as a single unit, consider how much work it actually does during the year compared to either an AC or a furnace. A heat pump uses the same components when in cooling or heating mode, and because it operates through most of the year to deal with the full range of temperatures here in the desert, those components undergo a great amount of strain—twice as much strain as a solo air conditioner or furnace. That amount of wear and tear on the heat pump over the year makes it necessary for it to have bi-annual maintenance. Your heat pump just put in a full season of work over the winter, and you don’t want it to head into the hot middle months of the year without an inspection, cleaning, and tune-up!

Call us today if you have a heat pump that hasn’t been maintained since the fall. We’ll see you have dependable comfort.

Russell’s Heating & Air Conditioning provides air conditioning services to the Inland Empire and Desert Communities. For exceptional customer service, please give our office a call.