Will the Intense Summer Heat Damage My Air Conditioner?

Will the Intense Summer Heat Damage My Air Conditioner?

We’re in for another incredibly hot summer in the Inland Empire and the Desert Communities. The cool days will be in the 90s! Your home’s air conditioning system will be handling a great deal of work over the coming weeks to maintain a livable, comfortable indoor environment for you and your family. With all that work, people often worry that the heat may cause their air conditioners to fail. How bad is the intense heat for an air conditioning system, and should you worry about it?

High heat means extra work for an AC—although not necessarily damage

For the most part, air conditioners are designed to handle extreme heat so that their internal components won’t suffer from damage. They’re pretty sturdy machines! However, if you haven’t had regular maintenance for the air conditioner each spring, the components can suffer from problems when the heat mounts. For example, dirty coils that haven’t received a professional cleaning in a while will trap additional heat inside the AC without allowing proper exhaust. This can cause the compressor oil to overheat and that will eventually damage the compressor. Maintenance is essential, so make sure you stay current with it!

The principle way that the summer heat can cause harm to your AC is from the amount of stress the workload places on it. To reach the temperature you require for comfort, the system will need to work longer, and that will cause an accumulation of wear and tear. Again, maintenance is vital to ensuring that this work stress doesn’t force the system into an early breakdown.

There’s another way that a heat wave makes the air conditioner’s job tougher: it requires more energy for the air conditioner to move heat from inside the house to the outside of the house when there’s excess heat outdoors. The greater the temperature difference between the two regions, the more strain. This is a reason to see that you don’t set your thermostat too low; find a comfortable higher temperature (we recommend 78°F) and stick to it. That’s less running time for the AC, and less work to pump heat outside.

For fast air conditioning repair and exceptional customer service in Banning, CA, contact Russell’s Heating & Air Conditioning.