AC Maintenance in Charleston, WV
Air conditioners here run from June through September, so May is the time for a tune-up. Tell us about your system, and a licensed contractor who covers Kanawha County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Four months of hard running in the Charleston heat
Your air conditioner works from June through September here, and on the afternoons that hit 84°F it runs long stretches to keep up. That kind of steady demand wears on the parts that keep the system cooling, the capacitor, the contactor, the fan motor. A tune-up checks the refrigerant charge and tests those electrical parts before one of them fails on a hot day.
Kanawha County has also logged 259 damaging wind events and 32 hail events over the past ten years, with hail as large as 4.25 inches. A service visit is also a chance to look over the outdoor unit for bent fins or a cracked cabinet from storms that have already come through, before those small problems keep the unit from running right.
- 4 months
- June through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 84°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 32 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 259 wind events
- in ten years, and wind drives debris into outdoor units
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Book your AC tune-up in May, before homes here start needing cooling in June.
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
A tune-up checks the refrigerant charge, cleans the coils, tests the capacitor and tightens the electrical connections.
West Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Commissioner of Labor issues that license after the contractor is tested, and the license stays tied to the contractor rather than to any single job. It tells you the person doing the work has passed the state's exam and is on record with the state, not just registered as a business name.
For a maintenance visit on an air conditioner, that license is what stands behind the person in your driveway. If the technician opens the refrigerant side of the system to check charge or pressure, federal law also requires them to hold EPA Section 608 certification, the same rule that applies in every state. In West Virginia, the state license covers the contractor, and the federal certification covers that specific part of the job.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- What does AC maintenance include?
- A technician checks refrigerant charge, cleans the condenser coil, and tests the capacitor and contactor in the outdoor unit. Inside, they check the evaporator coil, inspect the blower, and change or check the filter. They also check the thermostat settings and look at the condensate drain, since a clogged drain line is one of the more common causes of a system shutting itself off. Anyone opening the refrigerant lines has to hold EPA Section 608 certification, which is a federal rule, not a state one.
- How often does an air conditioner need maintenance?
- Once a year, before the weather turns hot. Homes here run the AC from June through September, so having it checked in spring means any weak part gets caught before those four months of real demand. A system that sits idle the rest of the year is where a weak capacitor or low refrigerant tends to show up once the summer heat sets in.
- Is AC maintenance worth it?
- Yes, because most of what causes a system to fail during the summer can be caught in an inspection months earlier. A dirty coil, a weak capacitor, or a low refrigerant charge all make the unit work harder without cooling as well, and any of them can lead to a breakdown once the afternoons turn hot. Charleston has also recorded 32 hail events and 259 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and an outdoor condenser sits exposed to that. A yearly check is also when a contractor would notice storm damage to the coil before it turns into a bigger repair.