One thing you always have to worry about when living in the Tampa Bay area is the possibility of a hurricane hitting and damaging your home. The type of storm surge we’ve recently seen from the likes of Hurricane Helene always has the potential to cause severe damage. Even if your home doesn’t end up flooding due to a storm, you still have to worry about the possibility of your HVAC system getting damaged. The one thing you want to avoid in this regard is turning your HVAC on.
If it suffered any damage, doing so will almost always worsen the problems. That’s why you should always go through this checklist after a storm to determine if turning your HVAC system back on is safe.
Look for Signs of Flooding and Water Damage
If your home was hit by anything other than a minor storm surge, the AC unit or heat pump outside your house was likely soaked with flood water. Any time an outdoor HVAC unit gets even partially flooded, the water doesn’t recede almost immediately. You can be almost sure that it suffered at least some damage. Flooding usually damages and requires the replacement of some wiring and electrical components.
Rust and corrosion may also affect some components. The main concern, especially if any electrical components are damaged, is that you can cause further damage or completely ruin the unit if you try to run it. As such, you should always have a professional perform a full inspection and repair any issues with your HVAC unit if it gets flooded.
If your house floods due to a hurricane, you obviously also want to check the indoor part of your HVAC system to see if water reached it. This is less of a concern for a standard AC system or a heat pump since the indoor air handler part is typically elevated off the ground. In Florida, it’s typical for this part of the system to be located within the attic, in which case you only need to worry if your entire house ends up underwater. If you instead have a furnace on the main floor of your house, you want to have it inspected if you suspect water got inside it.
Make Sure Outdoor HVAC Unit Is Level and Hasn’t Shifted
If your outdoor HVAC unit sits directly on a pad on the ground, you also want to ensure that the storm didn’t result in the unit moving or shifting. The concern, if an outdoor HVAC unit moves by even a couple of inches, is that it can result in one or both of the copper refrigerant lines getting damaged or completely breaking. If these lines are broken or even just have a small pinhole, you can get nasty flood water into them. In this case, you’ll need a technician to drain all the refrigerant from your HVAC system and flush and clean the refrigerant lines. If you turn the unit on without this, contaminants will likely get inside the compressor and destroy it.
Another thing to check before turning your HVAC on is that the outdoor unit is still level. If the unit isn’t level, it can vibrate as it runs, putting more strain on certain components and significantly increasing wear and tear. The vibrations can also cause external parts to come loose and create issues you’ll eventually need to repair.
Check for Debris Around and Inside Your HVAC Unit
Even if a storm surge didn’t hit your house and your HVAC unit didn’t flood, there will often be lots of debris around and possibly inside the unit due to the strong winds. You always want to clean any debris piled up around the unit or stuck in grilles on the side panels. The issue if you tried to run the unit without doing this first is that all of the debris would prevent the unit from having sufficient airflow. Not only does a lack of airflow reduce how effectively an AC or heat pump works, but it can also potentially cause the unit’s compressor to overheat.
You want to avoid this latter issue since the compressor motor can get damaged if it overheats. It is a concern that it’s impossible to repair an AC or heat pump compressor, meaning you’re looking at spending at least a few hundred or possibly even a few thousand dollars for a technician to replace the compressor.
If you see any debris inside the unit, you should have a technician clean out the unit before turning your HVAC system on. It usually isn’t possible for you to clean yourself since the only way to access the inside of most ACs and heat pumps is to remove the fan blades and fan motor. If you try to do this yourself, the risk is that you can damage the wiring, in which case you’ll need a technician to repair the unit. As such, you can save yourself quite a bit of trouble by leaving the job to a professional.
One thing you’ll often want to have done after a hurricane is have a technician clean the condenser coil in the outdoor unit. That’s because a storm usually results in debris getting stuck in the fins outside the coil and clogging them up. When this happens, it blocks the airflow off to the coil and significantly decreases performance. The system’s performance suffers because very little heat can flow out of the refrigerant if enough air flows over the coil.
The result is that the refrigerant stays higher than it should be, limiting how much heat the refrigerant can capture from inside your house. If the refrigerant stays too hot, an even bigger issue is that it puts additional strain on the compressor and can again lead to overheating.
Test Your HVAC System and Monitor Its Performance
If your HVAC system didn’t get flooded and you don’t see any signs of damage or other issues, you can go ahead and try turning it on. If the system comes on and runs as it should, you still want to carefully monitor its performance over the coming hours and days just to make sure no issues arise. You want to watch if the outdoor unit makes any unusual noises since this is a sure sign you need to have the unit repaired. You should shut it off immediately to prevent it from suffering any additional damage.
As the most trusted HVAC company in Largo and the Tampa area, Air Zero is the one to call if you suspect your AC or heating experienced any storm damage. We can repair, replace, or perform AC maintenance on all makes and models of HVAC equipment and will work hard to ensure your HVAC system is ready to run again. To schedule an inspection or any other HVAC services, contact us today.
