A bad storm reminds me of the importance of protecting outdoor HVAC equipment

We had quite the severe storm rolling through our area recently, so I took it upon myself to go out and check the outdoor components of my heating and air conditioning system.

  • Luckily, no damage was done to the housing of the condenser unit or any other part of the HVAC unit outside.

However, there was a whole bunch of yard debris in the area of the HVAC equipment that needed to be cleared out. Also, upon further inspection, I realized that some debris had gotten inside the condenser unit! I decided to call out an HVAC technician to have the inside of the condenser unit cleared of all debris and cleaned thoroughly. When he came out, he also advised me that certain bushes and shrubs and even a nearby overhanging tree probably needed to be pruned to prevent the possibility of branches or leaves or sticks clogging up or causing damage to the outdoor components of the HVAC system. In fact, he admonished me that I was lucky that the severe storm that had blown through had not caused any harm to my HVAC system. He also showed me how to remove the grill from the outdoor condenser unit so that I can clean it out myself in the future. He told me that I needed to shut off the HVAC unit first before opening up the condenser unit, because I definitely wouldn’t want those fan blades going when I’m trying to clean! It may seem like an obvious tip, but I appreciated it, because I can be absent-minded!

Air quality systems