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Electricity in Texas ran 14.94 cents per kilowatthour in 2024, well above what a lot of states pay. A dirty coil or a low charge makes the compressor work harder to cool the same house, and every extra minute it runs shows up on the meter. That cost compounds all summer long, not just on the hottest days. A system that's been checked over and cleaned runs closer to the way it was built to run, which means less of that rate working against you.
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Kaufman County saw 121 severe weather events between 2015 and 2024, including hail and damaging wind.
A condenser that sits outside through that gets checked for bent fins, hail dents and debris before the next storm finds a weak spot.
Skip a season of maintenance and the first thing to go is airflow. Dust and dander build up on the evaporator coil, and that coil needs to be clean to pull heat out of the air. Once it's coated, the system has to run longer to reach the same temperature on the thermostat. Run it long enough in that state and ice can start forming on the coil itself, which cuts airflow even further and can push liquid refrigerant back into the compressor. That's the part nobody wants to replace. A yearly check catches the coil while it's still just dirty, not iced over.
Get the coil cleaned and the charge checked before summer runs the compressor harder than it needs to. At 14.94 cents a kilowatt-hour, the extra runtime a neglected system adds is working against you every day it's hot, not just on the worst ones.
Find a contractorSix straight months at 93 degree afternoons wears on a system fast. Have it looked at before May so whatever's starting to wear shows up on a bench, not on the hottest afternoon in July or August.
Check the filter once a month and swap it when it's gray or matted. A clogged filter starves the system of airflow, and the coil behind it needs that airflow to pull heat out of the house. Running on a dirty filter is the one habit that undoes a good tune-up fastest, and it's the one thing in the whole system you can handle yourself.
Refrigerant charge, electrical connections and the condenser fan motor all need tools to check properly, not a glance. Opening the cabinet to poke around does more harm than good. What you can do between visits is keep the area around the outdoor unit clear of leaves and clippings, and watch for ice on the lines or water pooling where it shouldn't. Anything beyond that is a job for the next scheduled check.
A tune-up checks the refrigerant charge, cleans the coils, tests the capacitor and tightens the electrical connections.
A real tune-up starts with the refrigerant charge, measured against the manufacturer's numbers rather than eyeballed. Too little and the system loses its capacity to cool. Too much and the compressor takes on liquid it was never built to handle. The contactors get checked for pitting. Capacitors get tested under load, since they weaken long before they fail outright. Connections get snugged down so nothing arcs or overheats, and the condenser fan motor gets checked for noise and end play. Outside, the coil fins get cleaned and straightened enough for air to pass through them, and the drain line gets cleared so the condensate has somewhere to go. None of this fixes something that's visibly broken. It finds the part that's about to be.
