5 Tips On How To Keep Your Air Conditioning Clean

Summer is just around the corner and warm days are already starting to creep up on us. Since the transition from winter to summer has been almost instantaneous in the past few years it would be wise to be prepared when the first heat wave hits. 

What this means is see to your air conditioning and make sure everything is in order, because you don’t want it to break in the middle of the season or worse, to blow out dirty air.

I decided to take care of my unit and looked for some piece of advice from the experts at Howell’s Heating and Air. Here are some maintenance tips on how to keep your air conditioning fresh, working and ready for the upcoming season.

Clean The Air Filter

This is the most common maintenance there can be for air conditioning and it is important to do it often during heavy use. You can do it at least once, or twice a year by cleaning your old or buying a new filter. When you locate the filter, and it is placed differently depending on the model you own, you need to take it out, clean it, or replace it completely.

Dirty air filter might not blow enough air out, causing the engine to work harder than needed and probably overheat and make a lot of noise. It is also not good for your health as it can easily trigger allergies or asthma.

Replacing a filter is a pretty common practice and you shouldn’t have any trouble doing that, bud if you do, you can always call a professional to help you.

Check The Inside

It would be worth checking the inside of your air conditioner, just to make sure everything is fine, especially if it’s an older model that’s been active for years. Before venturing further it is important to turn off both the unit and the power source which is probably located on the main panel above your entrance.

First, you can check the condensing unit by taking down the access panel. You are looking for signs of overheating like melted or burned wires. You can also check how electrical connections are doing and make sure they are well plugged. If you are not sure about the above or just don’t feel confident qualified enough you can always refer to a professional.

Check The Thermostat

It can easily show you that something is not right. If the temperature it shows is not correct then something is wrong. This can also be a reason to replace your old, mechanical thermostat with a new, digital one. The good thing about the digital one is that it allows you to manipulate temperature when you are not at home, allowing you to start the unit and nicely cool the house before you arrive.

Don’t Forget The Condenser Fan

The unit that sits outside also needs some love. You should check its fan to see if nothing is broken, you can replace the blades if you think they are at the end of their life span, or even the entire fan. Another thing to consider, especially with older models, is to oil the fan motor because it’s a machine just like any other and in order to work properly it needs to be oiled maybe once a year.

Exterior Unit

Now that you’ve checked the fan you should also look closely to see if there’s any gank inside the exterior unit. Debris and dirt can also prevent the fan from rotating fully and that reduces the amount of air the flows through. You can easily get rid of the debris with a water hose. However, if not kept in check the debris could damage the delicate fins, causing a problem only a good HVAC repair company can fix. To prevent this, take some time to keep the debris out.

Why You Need To Hire A Cleaning Service Right Now!

Time is the most expensive thing of adult life and being able to have more control over it is something we all wish for. There are ways to cut corners here and there and avoid doing some chores which take away a lot of your energy and free time. 

One of those tiring and seemingly never-ending jobs is cleaning your house. We’ve all been there and done that, some don’t enjoy it, others even less, and that’s why you need to let someone else carry that burden for you by hiring a professional cleaning service.

If you don’t trust me, trust guys over at MaidWhiz who have been in the business for years and know how demanding cleaning can be, especially without proper equipment and expertise. Here’s what you gain if you hire a cleaning service.

Save time

As mentioned above, time is something we all need more of, but your daily obligations hardly allow you to be with your family for more than 2-3 hours per day, not to mention having some room in your schedule for hobbies.

Your home requires a lot of attention, especially if you have kids who can turn it upside down in mere minutes. Just imagine having to clean every day after work, or even worse, waiting for dirt to pile up and then sacrifice a good part of your weekend rubbing stains and dusting old cupboards.

Just imagine being able to use that time to rest, read a book, watch a movie or just spend quality time with your family outdoors. Hiring a professional cleaning service will open a lot of room in your timetable for various activities you’ve never even considered doing before. You can make an arrangement with them however you like and a good company will always adjust to your needs and schedules. 

It’s not a luxury, it's a necessity.

You will be pleased by how fast and thorough their service is, and with proper tools, they are able to reach remote corners of your home you’ve always avoided, while you can sit back, relax, and enjoy a nice cup of coffee.

Professional service

Even if you do have time to spare, and you want to clean your home all by yourself, you probably don’t have all the professional tools, chemicals, manpower, and most importantly knowledge.

These guys have dealt with all kinds of stains, homes, furniture, pets, etc. They know exactly how to approach every single property and do their job as efficiently and thoroughly as possible. You are free to choose people you want from a range of available staff and also arrange a sort of package of services you’d like to have on a monthly basis.

Options are not limited and there’s no need for you to shuffle your schedule in order to fit in a cleaning service, it is their job to adjust to you. Another useful service you can get is deep cleaning, because your home not only has to look clean, but it is important to have a healthy and safe environment for your family.

Once you try

Once you realize how much time you can spare to do things you actually like, you’d never want to go back to doing things the old way. Once you see how clean and nice your home looks all the time, you’d just ask yourself why you haven’t done this before.

This is money well spent, and there’s no shame in needing some extra help, but it would be a shame to miss out on going to the cinema with your kids, or go out with your partner, or play video games.

How Thorough Is Your Home Cleaning

For a lot of us, having a clean home is really important, not only for aesthetic reasons but also due to the health issues which may arise from a dirty and unsanitary home. Not only is your air much healthier to breathe if there is no dust in it, but also food remains and similar dirt can be a breeding grounds for bacteria and mold.

However, not all of us enjoy cleaning and therefore can sometimes do a superficial and casual job of it. We asked cleaning experts at Super Clean 360 who shared some places in your home which many people forget to clean and really shouldn’t.

Vacuuming Under the Bed

If you have carpets in your home (and even if you don’t), you probably know that the best way to clean the floor is vacuuming it. It takes a lot less time than sweeping, and it can be much more effective, especially if you have HEPA filters which remove much more dust than regular filters.

Still, people who vacuum their home around once a week should remember that there are some areas which they might be forgetting to clean. For instance, even though your bed is covering a large portion of your bedroom floor, that doesn’t mean that dust doesn’t collect there.

The fact you cannot see it and that it may be tricky to access just goes to show that it is really important to clean it.

Door Handles, Remote Controllers, Light Switches

Even though you may initially think that these three things have next to nothing in common with each other, on closer inspection you can see that they have one hugely important common thing – we touch them with our hands numerous times a day even without thinking.

That means that your hands might be dirty, or have some food residue on them when you touch any of these items. And we almost never think to clean them. Over time, they can become a breeding ground for bacteria, not to mention how they may end up looking grimy and dirty.

Door and Window Frames

When it comes to general house cleaning, most people will focus mainly on vacuuming and dusting all of the rooms, but professional house cleaners know that there is so much more work to be done there.

A commonly missed part of the house are the door frames. Simply put, we don’t give them any second thought unless they are really dirty from something recent.

On the other hand, the dirt and dust which builds up over time is typically ignored. It can be fairly easily cleaned too. All you need is some soapy water and a damp cloth; and you also need to remember to do it every once in a while.

Under Your Microwave or Toaster

We tend to have more and more appliances in our kitchens. It is very convenient to have a toaster and a blender and a microwave instead of having to rely on doing things manually or using a regular oven or a stove.

Still, the downside to this also exists. Not only do you have more appliances to clean now, but you also have to clean around and under them. Think back, when’s the last time you cleaned under your microwave?

And food remains and similar dirt do collect there, there’s no doubt about it. However, we are used to having those appliances there, and moving them, even for a cleaning, is not really practiced often.

Keeping your home tidy and clean can be a rewarding experience in itself, especially if you get to the places which are often neglected. Think about that for your next big cleaning.

What In Your House Should You Clean More Often than You Do?

As a general rule, people don’t enjoy cleaning their home. That is why most of us try to spend as little time cleaning the home as possible, while keeping it both safe and enjoyable to live in.

If you clean your home weekly, chances are that you focus on vacuuming and dusting most of your rooms, as well as giving your kitchen and bathroom a good scrub. That is really important, but there are other parts of your house, as well as some household items which don’t get cleaned as often, and should be.

We asked cleaning professionals from Big City Maids to share some items they believe should be a regular on your cleaning list.

Light Switches and Door Knobs

If you don’t see the connection between these two items, ask yourself what the first thing you do when you get home is.

More often than not, your reply will be, turn the doorknob and turn on the light. And you do that every time you enter and leave the room, no matter how clean your hands are.

Even if you are very careful about your hand hygiene, after a while, there will be a buildup on your doorknobs and your light switches alike. This buildup is a fantastic home and a breeding ground for bacteria and other germs.

Fortunately, cleaning them is a fairly simple matter. All you need to do is use some rubbing alcohol with a microfiber cloth and the gunk will disappear. Next time, perhaps include these two things onto your cleaning list.

Kitchen Appliances

Yeah, you wash your blender after use, but do you clean all of your appliances? When is the last time you cleaned the outside of your microwave? When did you last move it to clean the underside of it, as well as the counter underneath it?

There is a lot of food and similar perishable residue in your kitchen; that is just the nature of that room. However, just leaving the parts of it unclean is a bad idea, especially since you prepare and maybe even eat your food in that area.

Your Computer and Phone

Whether we like to admit it or not, we spend a lot of our time holding our phones in our hands, or pressed against our faces. We take them everywhere and we use them all the time. Just take some rubbing alcohol and wipe it down with a cloth every once in a while, especially if you notice that it is smudged.

Your computer, although not as heavily used as your phone (unless you work on your computer), still gets a fair share of touching. If you also eat while using your computer, as many of us do, that is just a recipe for a messy computer which you need to clean. Not to mention that it can serve as a repository of dust if you don’t clean it every so often.

Your Bathmat

Bathmats are incredibly useful and may have even saved your life on numerous occasions, when you get out of the shower and not have to step on the slippery and cold tiles. It also needs to absorb a lot of water when you step out of the shower on it.

If it doesn’t have enough time to dry between uses, especially if your bathroom is not ventilated properly, it can become a hotbed of mold and bacterial growth. It would be best to have two of them and use them on a rotation, washing them once a week, according to cleaning experts.

If you haven’t even thought of cleaning some of these items regularly, perhaps it is time to take a more rigorous approach to home cleaning.