HVAC maintenance checklist

A maintenance visit that is not written down is a maintenance visit the customer does not believe happened. This builds the checklist for the visit you are actually doing: cooling season, heating season or a full annual service, scaled for the number of units and for whether it is a house, a light commercial site or a rooftop. It then tells you how long that many items should take and what the visit costs you in labor and filters, which is the figure a maintenance plan has to cover.

A cooling tune up and a heating tune up are not the same list

The cooling list is about the refrigerant circuit and the air side: coil condition, condensate path, superheat and subcooling, capacitor and contactor, airflow and temperature split. The heating list is about combustion and safety: heat exchanger inspection, flame sensor, ignition, gas pressure, flue draft, carbon monoxide readings, limit and rollout switches. A full annual service is both, which is why it carries the longest list and the longest time on site.

Commercial rooftop work scales differently from residential

The item count rises on light commercial and rises further on rooftops, and not only because the equipment is larger. Access, belts, economisers, multiple stages, curbs and drains, and the documentation the building owner expects all add items. Pricing a rooftop plan on residential timings is the most reliable way to end up doing commercial maintenance for free.

The cost figure is what a maintenance plan has to beat

Knowing what a visit costs you in labor and filters is the whole basis of a profitable service agreement. Two visits a year on two units at the figures on this page is a real cost before a single repair discount is honoured. Selling an annual plan below that is buying customers, which is a decision you can make deliberately, but it should be deliberate.