When I started up my air conditioner for the first time in May, there were some minor concerns.
The air coming out of the vents had a musty smell and introduced some dust and other debris into our breathing air.
The operational sound was a bit noisy, and I noticed the air conditioner was running longer than usual and struggling to cool down the house. I hoped my husband wouldn’t notice the problems. While my husband is extremely handy when it comes to changing the oil and handling the maintenance and repairs for our vehicles, he’s not all that good around the house. After he attempted to fix my vacuum cleaner, I needed to buy a one one. He wasn’t happy with the performance of my washing machine, worked on it, and I then needed to schedule a repair. I was hoping to schedule air conditioner maintenance with a licensed and certified HVAC professional. The issues with the cooling system seemed to be easily solved with basic service. I doubted it would cost all that much. Unfortunately, my husband fiddled with the thermostat, heard the air conditioner make some odd sounds and got out his tool box. He took the unit apart. There were parts scattered across the lawn. He cleaned each one and spent hours reassembling the air conditioner. Once he was finished, the cooling system wouldn’t start up at all. I let my husband fiddle with the system all weekend. On Monday morning, I hired a real HVAC contractor to come to the house and provide repairs. It was definitely a lot more expensive because of my husband’s efforts.