Are you excited about the end of summer? Do you feel thrilled at the thought of being able to shut off your air conditioner for the next several months without having to worry about your home being too hot to live in? Many people are more comfortable with the cold than with the heat. You might also enjoy being able to open your doors and windows to let the fresh air into your home. But as much as you enjoy these things, you also have to think about the reality of summer returning again next year. Without proper care and maintenance, your air conditioner may break down prematurely and leave you sweating in the heat until you can have it fixed or replaced. Some of the things that you need to do to prepare this appliance for winter are as follows:

Get a tune-up: While you might only think of tune-ups as things that cars need, but an air conditioner also needs one on at least an annual basis. The technician will check for things like loose wires or worn out motors, replacing them as necessary. If you have an older unit, the report you get after the tune-up can also be a good indication of whether you need to start thinking about hiring an air conditioning company to completely replace the unit or if you can go another year or two with the same unit.

Add a cover: If you have a ground-based unit, you may be able to install a cover yourself. If you have a unit on the roof, you may want to have an air conditioning company technician install the cover for you. Not only will a cover protect the unit from being filled with snow, but an insulated cover also prevents heat from escaping your home and cold entering your home through the air conditioning vents. It also helps to deter insects or small lizards from crawling into the relative warmth of your air conditioner and potentially causing damage when they hibernate or die there.

Replace the filter: Running an air conditioner with a dirty filter or with no filter at all can have similar effects. Dirty air gets drawn into the unit, potentially causing damage or otherwise clogging up the vents with layers of allergy-inducing dust. If you don't replace the filter in the autumn after shutting it down for the last time, you risk this kind of thing happening when you turn on your air conditioner in a hurry next spring as a result of an unseasonably warm day. In order to avoid needing an air conditioning company to repair or replace your A/C, always put in a clean filter after removing a dirty one and always remove the dirty filter when fall rolls around.