HVAC Preventative Maintenance
Identify Problems Before They Become Costly Emergencies
By Ray Hespen
The extreme swings of cold, heat, and humidity can cause stress to heat and cooling equipment. Preventative maintenance on your HVAC systems is often held off for the summer months when residents turn off their A/C unit for the winter. However, there is a better way to protect your investment in equipment.
What is HVAC preventative maintenance?
HVAC, which means “heating, ventilation, and air conditioning,” is the system that keeps your home and rental units at optimal temperatures. It keeps your home warm in the brutal winters and cool in the sweltering summer months. HVAC preventative maintenance is cleaning and assessing the system’s components to ensure it is operating correctly to avoid future problems. For example, not changing HVAC filters or coils regularly can lead to leaks that will wreak havoc on your HVAC system.
Why is HVAC preventative maintenance essential?
Improves the overall health of the home
Consider your HVAC equipment as the main artery that keeps the heart of a home beating. When the cooling and heating system operates efficiently, the entire home benefits. Alternatively, poor equipment can result in increased negative impacts.
For example, if your heater is not running correctly in cold temperatures, you risk other major, costly home issues. So why can’t you turn it off once in a while to prolong its life? There is a high chance that when you turn off your heater, the temperature can dramatically
drop and ultimately freeze your pipes.
How is that possible? According to Mid Atlantic HVAC, the frozen water in the pipes can expand, burst, and even flood the home. Water damage will cost you more than paying the heating bill.
Preventative maintenance routines can reduce the risk of costly maintenance issues by 95%. Imagine being able to tell your property owner that you are extending the life of their assets while saving them money.
Improves owner satisfaction and retention
Speaking of property owners, keeping their property in optimal shape is essential to owner satisfaction and retention.
Your owner’s property is an investment, and they trust you to ensure that their investment is maintained. Save thousands of dollars lost in HVAC repairs and avoid owner churn by spending a little time and money to do routine inspections.
Improves resident satisfaction and happiness
It is no secret that a smooth-running HVAC system keeps your residents happy. At Property Meld, data shows that satisfaction ratings and maintenance issues are inversely related; when problems arise, ratings drop, and when issues drop, ratings rise.
The length of time you have to repair an HVAC issue before a resident becomes disgruntled — and leaves a negative review — is shorter than with any other common maintenance issue.
Our data shows that property management companies have just 72 hours to fix an HVAC issue. If it takes any longer to repair, the chances of a resident writing a negative review skyrocket. Regular preventative maintenance ensures that everything will run smoothly, reducing the chance of resident churn and negative reviews.
Decreases cost of repair in high demand seasons
If you want to keep your maintenance costs down, your best bet is to avoid emergency repairs in high-demand seasons. When there is high demand for a vendor or technician, the price of their work will likely increase as well.
In addition, if a priority maintenance issue occurs, you have little choice but to hire a technician regardless of the timing or price. Implementing regular check-ups for your equipment will save you hundreds and thousands of dollars from emergency repairs during peak seasons.
Less stress on internal staff
Many businesses are experiencing inadequate staffing levels. The last thing your property management company needs is a flood of residents calling simultaneously about their AC unit breaking down. By simply taking preventative measures with regular inspections, your staff can put their efforts and time towards tasks that profit your company.
HVAC Issues by Season and Region
HVAC issues by season
When you think of the worst time for HVAC repairs, you probably imagine a sweltering early June day when thousands of air conditioners kick on for the first time of the year.
However, according to our data, the most expensive month for maintenance repairs is September. The average HVAC repair invoice is $435 — 21% higher than the average repair cost.
The second most expensive month is February, where the average invoice is $416 — 15% higher than the average cost.
That sweltering June day? It comes in at third, with an average invoice equaling $407.
HVAC issues by region
In addition to seasonal issues, each region is unique and can experience different fluctuations in repair costs depending on HVAC vendor demand.
Southern United States: 50% of all HVAC service issues in the south happen during the summer. In addition, the monthly repair request invoice is 123% higher than off-season invoices!
Northern United States: The monthly average repair request invoice is 61% higher than an off-season invoice during the winter months.
HVAC Preventative Maintenance Tips and Checklist
Preventative programs emphasizing routine inspections are a great place to start. When you create a system of regular check-ups for your property and assets, you are able to identify problems before they become costly emergencies.
» Perform spring cleaning. We recommend cleaning the HVAC system’s air condensers and filters. This work will come at a cost to your company. Still, it will avoid expensive emergency repairs during
the peak season.
» Consider charging an administration fee for preventive maintenance. It is reasonable and fair to charge an annual administration fee for HVAC preventative maintenance. The additional revenue will come in handy to invest in replacing new units down the road.
» Perform an inspection during a resident turnover. Another tip is to integrate HVAC inspections into your resident turnover program.
