AC Maintenance in Huntington, 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 Cabell County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Four months of hard running in the Huntington heat
Your air conditioner has one real job here, and it does it from June through September. Summer afternoons averaging 86°F mean the compressor is working long hours to keep up, day after day, for those four months straight.
Cabell County has also seen its share of hail and wind over the past ten years, 20 hail events and 71 damaging wind storms since 2015. That kind of weather can bend fins on the outdoor coil or knock the unit out of level, neither of which you'd notice from inside the house. A tune-up before the season gets going checks the coil, the refrigerant charge, and the electrical connections, so the system isn't working harder than it should through a summer that's already asking a lot of it.
- 4 months
- June through September, your air conditioner is on duty
- 86°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- 20 hail events
- in ten years, and hail bends the fins on outdoor coils
- 71 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 comes from the state Commissioner of Labor, and it covers the contractor, not each job. The state has that contractor on record under a license, not just a name on a list.
For a maintenance call on your air conditioner, that license is what stands behind the business doing the work. If the technician opens the refrigerant side of the system to check the charge, they also need EPA Section 608 certification, which every technician in the country must hold for that kind of work. That certification is federal, separate from the state license.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- What does AC maintenance include?
- A technician checks refrigerant pressure, cleans the condenser coil, and tests the capacitor and contactor in the outdoor unit. Inside, they check the evaporator coil and the condensate drain, since a clogged drain is one of the more common causes of a shutdown mid-summer. They also check the thermostat and confirm the system is cycling on and holding the temperature you set. Anyone opening the refrigerant lines to check the charge has to hold an EPA Section 608 certification, which is a federal rule everywhere, not just here.
- How often does an air conditioner need maintenance?
- Once a year is standard, done before the season starts. Around here that means getting it looked at before June, since the system runs through September with summer afternoons averaging 86 degrees. A yearly check catches a weak capacitor or a dirty coil before it causes a breakdown during the hottest part of the summer.
- Is AC maintenance worth it?
- Yes, because most breakdowns trace back to something a yearly check would have caught, like a failing capacitor or a coil coated in dirt that makes the system work harder than it should. Homes here run their AC four months a year, June through September, so the system isn't idle equipment most of the time, it's working. A licensed contractor can look at the specific unit and say what condition it's in and what it needs.