DIY Maintenance of Your Home Air Conditioning System

I've had several reputable service companies come out and do preventative maintenance to our HVAC systems and they do pretty much a general inspection of the system. They look at it and tell me if it is healthy or not, maybe change the air filter and check if it needs to have the air conditioning refrigerant recharged. One year I decided to take a look at the system myself.

Let me caution you first before attempting to service your HVAC system in any way, please make sure that you have switched off the power breakers or have removed the fuses from the fuse panel before attempting to touch the system, this also goes for any breakers that are outside the house near the condenser unit. High voltage is used in these systems and we want to make sure all power is off before going forward!
I wear gloves as a habit, which helps protect my hands from electricity or injury.

First, you always want to replace the air filter if it is dirty, (you can get a replacement at a hardware store or order a specific one over the Internet). In my particular case moving on to my preliminary examination I noticed that several things were in need of attention. One issue was in the electric fan motor in the main HVAC unit inside the house. Even though the electric motor supposedly has sealed bearings, it looked as though the bearings were dry. Since you can oil them I went ahead and put some 30-weight oil on both of the front and rear bearings, (funny how the squeaking stopped after that). I then checked the motor in the air conditioning system condenser, (that is the unit that sits outside). A phillips screwdriver removed the four screws on the outside cover to get to the motor, then four screws on the motor to get to the bearings. There was no cover on the front bearing and a small cover held down by two screws on the back bearing. Upon inspection I found that both of the bearings in this motor were also dry. I lubricated both of those bearings. I also noticed while I had the panel off that the cooling fans were not real clean either. This can be alleviated by buying a can of solvent at a hardware store specifically made to clean air conditioning cooling fins. You simply spray this foaming cleaner on the fins and let it sit for while. With a powerful spray from your garden hose you can rinse the fins clean.

This makes it much easier on the air conditioning system because it will not run as hard to cool your home, using less electricity and lowering your electric bill. Let me add that this maintenance is not in of itself a replacement for a qualified service technician to come out and perform more complicated maintenance or repairs. I find that I do not need to call them every year to do their maintenance. I now call them once every five years and in the interim years I perform this more simple maintenance myself.