Our FAQ’s

There are many variables that affect the life expectancy of your equipment, including the specifications of your individual devices as well as the size and environmental circumstances of your home. In general, machinery that has to work harder to keep your home at a comfortable temperature will need to be replaced sooner than equipment that does not endure quite as much usage. To really make the most of your equipment, you will need to clean or replace the filters monthly and schedule yearly preventative maintenance visits.

Carrier’s® standard factory warranty covers any parts that fail during the warranty period due to a defect on the manufacturer’s part. That warranty does not include labor. Your homeowner information packet included a warranty certificate, which contains the model numbers, serial numbers and installation dates of your Carrier® products. As a Carrier® Factory Authorized Dealer, Roscoe Brown can also provide you with this information if you are unable to locate your warranty certificate. Freon, shipping, and other items are not covered.

The best choice of equipment for your system depends on many factors, including the size of your home, the window surface and configuration, geographic location, duct sizing and arrangement, insulation and more. Your home’s construction plays a huge role; one ton of air conditioning may cool as few as 300 or as many as 800 square feet, depending on circumstances. To ensure that you have a powerful enough system to keep your home comfortable without paying for more than you need, you need an individual heating and cooling needs evaluation from a licensed HVAC professional. Roscoe Brown can perform a full in-home load analysis to determine which devices will be the best fit for your house and budget. By-the-way, an oversized system can cause humidity issue during the summer months.

The easiest answer is to replace air filters monthly but much depends on lifestyle and amount of time the equipment is operating. We definitely recommend inspecting air filters monthly and they are one of the first items we check when performing maintenance. If you have washable or electrostatic filters it is a good practice to wash them monthly due to particles being trapped inside the plastic media.

Standard filters, often referred to as fiberglass, keep large particles from passing through your duct system but do very little to improve the quality of air in your home. To really make an impact on indoor air quality you will need to upgrade to pleated media filters these are designed to fit in place of any standard filter, we even offer a 2” & 5” version that can extend filter life up to 6 months. It is very important to choose a filter that matches your equipment’s air flow requirements, some filters are so efficient in filtering the air they actually limit the volume of air required for proper operation. With pleated media filters it is best to limit the Merv rating at no more than 8, this is a good safe zone for most existing return ducts.

Electronic thermostats are more efficient than those that contain mercury. They also give you more accurate temperature readings. Furthermore, pre-programming your thermostat allows you to control the temperature in your home throughout the day, even while you are not inside the house. Programmable thermostats operate automatically, so you will never need to worry about forgetting to manually change the setting. A properly used programmable thermostat can thus help you save money on your heating and cooling bills. It can even extend the effective lifespan of your heating and cooling equipment by reducing the workload on your systems at different times during the day.

Roscoe Brown’s technicians are your local troubleshooting experts, and we will be more than happy to take a look at your equipment as soon as possible. As a Carrier® Factory Authorized Dealer, we have demonstrated our equipment expertise through years of excellent service, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Furthermore, we have access to many troubleshooting technicians through the Carrier® network, which we will not hesitate to utilize when necessary to diagnose and resolve your issue. If we encounter a situation that requires additional factory help, we will immediately contact our factory-supported Service Manager for assistance.

All central heating and cooling systems have at least 2 components in common, thermostats and air filters, that both need inspection and testing

Heat pumps and air conditioning equipment share some of the same components and these need to function at 100% to maintain efficiency. These components include compressor, reversing valve (heat pump), condenser fan motor and blade, blower motor and wheel, control relays, circuit boards, electric heat banks, condenser and evaporator coils.

Gas furnaces have gas valves, heat exchangers, blower motors and wheels, control relays, circuit boards, and vent pipes (furnaces must be vented properly to keep exhaust fumes, heavy in carbon monoxide, out of the house).

Hot water heating systems, most often referred to as boilers, can be electric or gas fired. Both require regular cleaning of sediment from their water tanks. Electric systems, though simpler in design, have elements, electrical controls, wiring and safety controls that need regular inspection and testing. Gas fired are similar to a furnace but have additional controls and safety switches to maintain efficient and safe operation.

For all systems every component needs to be inspected and tested. It is crucial to keep evaporator and condenser coils clean to maintain proper air movement across them, as well as blower wheels.

19 MAR HOW FREQUENTLY DOES MY SYSTEM NEED TO BE MAINTAINED?

To maximize the lifespan of your heating and cooling equipment, maintenance should be done twice annually to assure the equipment operates properly when you need it most. Some devices need to be maintained every year, while others can operate for up to two years between inspections. Of course, if you notice an issue with any of your systems, it is always a good idea to schedule maintenance immediately. Roscoe Brown offers residential and commercial service agreements tailored to your individual system to keep your climate control running as efficiently as possible. Refer to your manufacturer’s warranty terms for maintenance requirements.

Keeping your home at a comfortable temperature puts a tremendous amount of strain on your heating and cooling systems. Climate control equipment needs to stop, start and continually operate throughout the day, and this ongoing cycle can wear down any machine without preventative care. Regular maintenance helps your system last as long as possible and guards against the most common causes of equipment failures. Professional maintenance can discover leaks, rust, dirt, debris, burned wires, low refrigerant charge, gas ignition or combustion problems that a simple visual inspection may overlook, and catching these problems early is an important part of keeping your equipment in good working order. Investing in this routine maintenance can pay big dividends by saving you money on expensive repairs down the road.