WEST CHESTER, Ohio — Temperatures are well into the 90s all week. To get the best tips on how to keep your home cool, I went out to meet with two professional HVAC crews helping local families beat the heat.
My first stop throughout the day was in West Chester, where an Apollo Home crew was replacing an entire unit.
The homeowner told me he and his wife noticed something was wrong last week.
"Our bedroom is upstairs, and it was unbearably hot. I think I took out our kitchen thermometer, like a temperature probe, and checked the temperature of the room, and it was like 88 degrees," Nathan Donaldson said.
Donaldson said that thankfully, he had a scheduled maintenance with Apollo at the end of last week. The expert informed the couple that they needed to replace their AC unit, which was almost 40 years old.
"It's just something you don't think about on a day-to-day or year-to-year basis until it stops working," Donaldson said.
Ryan Inskeep, one of the HVAC technicians working at the Donaldson home, told me to keep an eye out for signs that something is wrong before the problem gets worse.
"I would check on the thermostat. If it's more than several degrees off from what you have it set for, it's time to call somebody," Inskeep said.
Watch to hear what experts want you to look out for if your AC isn't working:
Later on, I met up with Jeff Luce, the Cincinnati service supervisor with Logan Services, who was inspecting an AC unit at a Fairfield home.
Luce explained that homeowners should routinely take a look at their unit and make sure they keep it from getting too dirty.
"The most important thing for heating and cooling is air flow. Clean indoor filter, clean coil, clean coil down there — that's going to be the first things we look at," Luce said.
Luce told me that the most common issue is with an AC's capacitor, which acts like a starter for an outdoor air conditioning unit.
I asked Luce if residents could clean their units.
"It really depends. It is something that a homeowner can do, especially if it's something where this time of year it's like, 'Hey, we can't get to you for a day or two,'" Luce said.
Luce pointed me to Logan Services' YouTube page, where the company has training and instructional videos to help you learn ways to keep your air conditioning up and running.
Both companies have information on what you can do and signs that it's time for a repair on any home appliances.
