Recently a customer asked me, “Are PMs really necessary?” As budgets tighten, preventative maintenance is often a go-to place to cut back. Will you die if you don’t do maintenance? No, of course not. Can you get away with it? Probably. But here are three things you should consider before you defer:
1. What is your risk tolerance?
Much of the benefit of preventative maintenance is the “prevention” part – meaning if you do it, bad things won’t happen. But how do you calculate the cost-benefit of something that may or may not happen? Tough call. Consequences vary wildly by customer, industry, time of year and type of problem. Will your employees get up and leave if it’s hot? Will you lose thousands of dollars of product if your refrigeration goes down?
To find out your risk tolerance, ask yourself, “What’s the worst case scenario?” For example, if your cooling fails during a 100-degree summer heat wave and you have critical heat-sensitive electronic equipment, you could have thousands of dollars of damage. Or if heating fails on the coldest darkest night in winter, will your pipes freeze? Obviously, no one can predict the future and tell you if/when the worst may occur. Preventative maintenance is an insurance policy to mitigate the risk. Only you can decide your risk tolerance. So, do you feel lucky?
WAIT. Before you answer that…
Keep in mind, the longer you defer, the greater the risk. The effects of deferred maintenance are cumulative. Dirt and grime builds up on your system over time creating increasingly worse operating conditions and more stress on your equipment. So, now I’m gonna lay some scary down on ya…Cooling compressor failure becomes more likely with each missed maintenance visit. Since the compressor is the heart of the cooling system, it is one of the most expensive repairs. For heating, the same type of buildup can occur with soot and scale in the furnace or boiler. This buildup can cause damage to heating system components or even worse, since heating unit operation involves combustion, carbon monoxide or other flue gases can cause dangerous conditions for occupants. So, in theory, I guess you COULD die from not doing maintenance. So, if you’re not going to maintain it, at least install some good CO detectors, would ya?
2. You may not be saving money by avoiding maintenance.
Even if you are the riskiest of gamblers, your main reason for skipping out on maintenance – saving money – may not actually be reasonable. I’m sure you’ve heard it before: maintenance reduces your energy costs, increases operating capacity and lengthens unit lifespan. But thanks to some recent studies, we can now begin to quantify the savings. And the results may surprise you. I’m not going to go into the whole math thing here, but you can find the calculations on our website, with graphs and everything: http://www.advanceair.net/preventive-maintenance/
3. Long-term Deferred Maintenance can Shorten Unit Life-Span
A well-made HVAC unit should last between 10-20 years on average, though we service some 40-plus year old ones that are still going strong. Manufacturers calculate the average unit lifespan based on the unit running within specified temperatures and pressures, and assuming regular maintenance is being done. When maintenance is not done, the unit runs outside of acceptable temperatures and pressures which causes additional wear and tear on the unit, shortening its overall lifespan and causing premature failure of its components. There are some great studies for this too and again, let’s keep the math out of the blog, eh? Check out our website: http://www.advanceair.net/preventive-maintenance/
Summary
I think the answer is pretty clear. Preventive maintenance is just smart. Whether you do it by contract, on-call, or have your own in-house staff take care of it, preventative maintenance can actually save you money. And your units, your energy bill, and your employees, tenants or tomatoes will thank you!
It’s not too late, schedule your PMs today: 508-763-3738 or karen@advanceair.net
April Cook says
I really like how you say that you might not be saving money by skipping maintenance. Finding problems and fixing them when they are small can save you from more expensive big fixes. How often should I have preventative maintenance done? Thanks for this helpful information!
Karen Lamy DeSousa, Advance Air & Heat says
We’re located in Massachusetts, so we generally recommend a minimum of two visits per year for maintenance, once prior to the cooling season and again before the heating season. Depending on the specific conditions of the facility (dust, pollen, operating hours), this recommendation may vary. Twice per year tends to be the most common scheduling frequency. Some facilities require quarterly, some even monthly.
Lillian Schaeffer says
This is some great information, and I appreciate your point that avoiding maintenance might not save you money anyway. My husband and I just moved into our first house, so this is the first time we’ve had to take care of an HVAC system. We’ll definitely keep in mind that avoiding maintenance could actually cost us more in the long run, so we’ll make sure to not skip out on that. Thanks for the great post!
Marie Watson says
Thanks for explaining why it is important not to skip your HVAC maintenance. You make a great point about how it will most likely not save you any money since small, undetected problems can turn into bigger, costlier ones. I have avoided getting my system checked, but I will definitely need to make sure I start taking better care of it.
Bernard Clyde says
I agree with you that avoiding maintenance may not save you money in the long run. It’s good to know that there are ways to quantify the savings to give us an idea of the benefits of maintaining these units. Plus, if your unit ends up breaking due to a lack of proper maintenance, you’ll probably pay more repairing it in the end.
Mesa's Trusted AC Repair Men says
Great article, great advice your giving your customers as well. Mots people don’t realize how important it is to regularly maintenance your HVAC unit.
jresquival says
That’s good to know that maintenance reduces energy costs. I guess your machine uses less energy when running well. Maybe that’s why my bill has been going up.
Lamint says
So amazing! I love this tips. I utterly apply for my HVAC preventive maintenance strategy this year.
Ridley Fitzgerald says
We should definitely get some maintenance done on our HVAC. Like you said, the longer we wait, the worse any problems will get. We haven’t done anything on it for years, so it’s time to get it checked out!
Kourtney says
I appreciate the comment you made, that by avoiding maintenance on your system, you aren’t saving money. Our system hasn’t been services in over a year so I’m afraid to find out what the status of the unit is when we do have it done. Putting it off only causes bigger and more expensive problems to arise so I’ll be sure to have it check by professionals very soon.
Finley Moreira says
I liked your perspective that skipping maintenance doesn’t actually save you any money. I think the short-term savings on not having to pay for maintenance are small compared to the long-term savings you get by not needing extensive repairs in the future. I’ll be sure to have my AC inspected routinely so I can prevent expensive damage.
Kylie Dotts says
It’s interesting that heating system maintenance helps reduce energy costs and increases capacity and lifespan. I feel like these would be the best ways to save money because you wouldn’t have to worry about paying so much month to month and you wouldn’t have to worry about replacing your HVAC system. We just moved into a new area so maybe it would be a good idea to have our heating system looked at before winter rolls around.
Jane Ambrose says
My husband and I recently moved into a new house that has an older HVAC system, so I thought I would do some research to see if preventative maintenance would be a good idea for us to get or not. Before reading this, I had no idea that maintenance can reduce the cost of energy for your home which would save us money in the long-run. It also seems like the sooner you get a problem fixed, the less difficult it will be. I’ll be sure to share this with my husband!
Derek Dewitt says
I never realized how important regular maintenance was for industrial equipment until I read this. I like that you mention how the overall lifespan of the machine is hurt if it’s running at too high of a capacity. I wonder when the last time was when my work cleaned and checked their heating systems. Thanks for the read!
Ivy Baker says
As a new homeowner, I have been wondering how often I should get maintenance done. I liked that you pointed out that if you skip your maintenance you might actually have to pay more money in the long run. I wouldn’t want to deal with replacing an HVAC unit.
Karen Lamy DeSousa, Advance Air & Heat says
Hi Ivy- In the New England area, where we are located, we recommend professional maintenance of heating and cooling equipment before the start of the season they will be needed. So we generally schedule heating equipment maintenance in the Fall and cooling equipment maintenance in the Spring. If you are in a warmer climate where you use air conditioning year-round, I would recommend servicing the AC equipment twice per year, and depending on how much it’s used, the heating equipment as needed, maybe every other year. You may want to do air filter changes more frequently than twice per year, depending on environmental factors and your personal sensitivity to air quality. Some change filters as much as monthly. I personally shoot for quarterly, but will change them twice per year as a minimum. Hope that helps!
Silas Knight says
It sounds like we really need to get our furnace inspected before winter this year. We didn’t have it done last year, because I thought we’d save money. If maintenance can extend the furnace’s lifespan and make it more efficient, we need to get it done!
Lucy Gibson says
Karen, I love your point about assessing your risk tolerance. Your example about having your air conditioning unit going out in 100-degree weather could not only be uncomfortable but it might also ruin heat-sensitive equipment. My husband has a lot of computer equipment and smart home devices. Having your heater go out during the winter or an AC system going out in summer could be detrimental. After reading this, I think it might be time for us to have a licensed professional come out to service our HVAC system.
Silas Knight says
We definitely need to do HVAC maintenance this spring. Like you said, we can save a ton of money in the long run by getting it serviced. With summer just around the corner, getting AC maintenance is key!
Gary Puntman says
I agree that you might not be saving money by avoiding maintenance. It is risky, like you stated. Regular maintenance of not only your HVAC system, but all things in your home will help you avoid large repairs in the future. It may not make a big difference, but it is a gamble, like you said.