AC Maintenance in Fairmont, WV
Air conditioners here run from June through August, so May is the time for a tune-up. Tell us about your system, and a licensed contractor who covers Marion County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Three months of hard running, then a long rest
Your air conditioner in Fairmont only has to work June through August, but on afternoons averaging 82°F it runs hard for all three of those months. That kind of steady demand puts real hours on the compressor and the fan motor in a short stretch of time.
For the rest of the year it sits idle, and a unit that sits can develop problems no one notices until the first hot day. A contactor pits, a capacitor weakens, refrigerant creeps down. A tune-up before summer catches those things while they're still small, so the system isn't finding out it has a problem on the afternoon you need it most.
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner is on duty
- 82°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 10 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 57 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.
That license is issued to the contractor, not to each job, so the same license covers this maintenance visit and any other HVAC work that contractor takes on. It comes from the Commissioner of Labor, the state office that licenses HVAC contractors in West Virginia.
Maintenance on an air conditioner often means opening the refrigerant side to check charge or pressure, and anyone doing that needs EPA Section 608 certification. That is a federal requirement, the same one that applies in every state, and it stands apart from the state license West Virginia requires.
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 and confirm the blower and ductwork are moving air the way they should. They also check the thermostat is calling for cooling correctly and look over the electrical connections for wear. Anything involving the refrigerant lines has to be done by a technician with EPA Section 608 certification, which is a federal requirement, not just a local one.
- How often does an air conditioner need maintenance?
- Once a year, before the weather turns hot. Fairmont only needs cooling June through August, so scheduling a check in spring gives a contractor time to catch a weak capacitor or a low refrigerant charge before summer afternoons hit 82°F. A yearly check also gives someone a chance to look at the unit after months of sitting outside through wind and hail. Fairmont has seen 57 damaging wind events and 10 hail events over the last ten years, so a spring look-over is worth doing even if the unit ran fine last summer.
- Is AC maintenance worth it?
- Yes, because most of what causes a system to fail in summer shows up as a small problem months earlier. A weak capacitor, a coil coated in dirt, or a low refrigerant charge all make the unit work harder without cooling any better, and all of them can be caught in a spring check. In Fairmont, where cooling only runs three months a year, that check also confirms nothing shifted or got damaged while the unit sat idle. A contractor doing the work needs to hold a West Virginia HVAC license, and if the job touches the refrigerant lines, EPA Section 608 certification too.