5 Reasons to keep vegetation trimmed away from your A/C unit
Like any other home system, your air conditioning unit requires regular care. It needs professional maintenance every couple of years at first, and then every year after it’s about 5-10 years old, depending on your climate and how much you use it.
But it also needs a little care and maintenance from you, the home owner. One important thing you need to do to keep your air conditioning functioning well is to keep bushes, grass and weeds trimmed around the perimeter of the unit. Ideally, you should provide at least 2–3 feet of clearance (at least an arm’s length). Here are five reasons why:
1. To Provide Access
For starters, if your air conditioner has issues or needs maintenance this summer, you won’t want to fight through bushes and shrubs to get to it, and neither will your HVAC technician. If it’s a hot summer you won’t want your urgent repairs to be delayed whatsoever because you had to clear away the vegetation around your condenser unit. Keeping about an arm’s length of clearance around the unit clear will help any repairs and maintenance take place more quickly and efficiently.
2. Maximize A/C Condensing Coil Function
How the outdoor A/C unit (called the “Condensing Unit” or “Condensing Coil”) works is by collecting heat from inside the home and moving it to the outside. That’s why you’ll feel warm air around the outdoor A/C unit while it’s on in hot weather. The condensing coil located inside the outside unit puts the heat into the air, and a large fan helps blow that warm air away and draw in cool, fresh air. If the air inside the unit can’t flow out and away from the condensing coil because of obstructions (such as too much vegetation blocking it), even the large A/C fan will be unable to produce good enough airflow.
Without good airflow, the condenser won’t cool down as fast, it will need to work harder and longer. As you can imagine, this excessive work load causes it to wear out faster, and it may require more repairs and earlier replacement. Blockages can also contribute to frozen coils, causing the compressor—one of the most expensive components of the A/C system—to fail.
3. Keep Pests Away
Keeping plants trimmed down around your exterior A/C unit is the same reason why you mow your lawn and keep the exterior grounds of the home well maintained. An overgrown yard doesn’t only look unsightly, but it will also tend to attract more pests and vermin such as mice or rats; birds; and even hazardous snakes. Animals, especially rodents, feel safer in long grass, which helps them hide from sight. If these pests try to make their homes inside the unit it will be trouble. If they get whacked by the fan they can get killed inside the unit. Rodents may make nests inside the unit or chew through the wires, which could lead to expensive repairs.
Note: Be especially diligent about pests in fall & winter. Colder weather drives pests to seek out warm, sheltered spots, and while your A/C unit doesn’t run during the colder seasons, pests may make nests within the unit’s moving parts, causing the air conditioner to fail when it’s time to turn it back on in spring.
4. Maximize Efficiency
Decreased efficiency will cost you money and could even prevent your unit from keeping you as cool as you’d like to be. When airflow around your unit is restricted by plants and vegetation, the condenser unit has to work harder to put the excess heat into the outdoor air. The result is it uses more electricity to do the same job. With more space around it, and better airflow, the equipment needs less energy to do the same job.
Further, in autumn fallen leaves may build up on the ground around or against your A/C unit. Be aware this could block the airflow. Dead leaves, pinecones, twigs and debris can fall onto the unit from nearby trees, causing diminished airflow or even sometimes causing the fan to jam.
5. Looks More Attractive
Finally, keeping the trees and bushes trimmed around your air conditioner gives your property a tidy, well-kept look, and provides “curb appeal”.
