Tune-ups: Scam or Necessity
Unraveling the Myth
If there is one thing that the marketing geniuses have excelled at and mastered, it is the idea of an air conditioning system tune-up. What was once just thought of as an optional annual checkup to your AC system, has been rebranded, expanded, strategized, heavily advertised, and successfully sold to the public not only as a multi-season tradition, but more importantly as an absolute necessity.
Every spring, without question, we get more inquiries from customers asking us about tune-ups more than anything else. Some people just like the peace of mind that comes with having us check out their system each year, and we are happy to do so. On the other hand, there are even more people that contact us asking if this so called “tune-up” is even needed, to which we enthusiastically say no!
Naturally, the conversation never ends there. Inquiring minds eager to understand the truth behind the whole tune-up game proceed to dig into the subject through a series of responsible questions that are not only valid, but also all too common. So, in order to help bring a clear understanding to this entirely misleading and potentially complex topic, I have attempted to chronicle and thoroughly answer once and for all the most common questions we find customers ask when it comes to tune-ups; all in the name of answering the question everyone wants to know the answer to: Tune-ups…are they a scam or necessity?
But, before we unpack this, I first have to make a quick disclosure.
THE BORING LEGAL STUFF
Much of what follows probably goes way deeper than you care to know and some of it may not even go deep enough for you. In any case, the information presented below is meant to serve as a guide to help provide some insight into the most common situations that we see regarding tune-ups. It is by no means meant to be exhaustive or to serve as professional or legal advice. The information I present in this article is 100% opinion that is solely based on our decades of experience in the HVAC Industry. As such, I must advise you to please read our full LEGAL DISCLAIMER.
Read it or skip it. The choice is yours along with any and all financial responsibility that may directly or indirectly come from this article. Now that I have fulfilled my legal obligation, onto what you really came here for. Strap in…we have a lot of ground to cover.
What is a “tune-up”?
A tune-up is a multi point inspection of the system’s components to make sure that everything is running properly.
To put it simply, a basic tune-up is just a system test. It is nothing more.
THE TESTING DILEMMA
Now that you understand that a tune-up is just a test, here’s where it gets a little more tricky. A part on an AC can test fine one day and then bad the next day without any warning. Sometimes you can catch a part beginning to fail before it actually fails. Most of the time this is not the case. Unless, you happen to time the test perfectly. Thus, the inspection seldomly proves to be worthwhile when done honestly.
In our experience, when an inspection is performed in an unbiased manner, only about 12% of inspections are ever successful at discovering an impending part failure. About 80% of these impending part failures are capacitors that need to be replaced. This makes sense given capacitors have the shortest lifespan of all the AC’s components and are the most common repair required. They are nothing serious and replacing them is not only normal, it should be expected every 3 to 5 years. Enough of the sidetrack!
So what does this timing dilemma mean exactly? It just means that if you decide to get your unit checked out and we find nothing wrong, it could still have a problem a week or several months later. It may even go years without having an issue. In any case, the money spent on this so called “tune-up” is essentially a waste unless the stars align and an impending failure can be detected while performing the system test. There is just no possible way to guarantee this.
Why do companies push “tune-ups”?
Every company out there seems to advertise the idea of a low cost “tune-up” for your AC system. Truth is, they are just trying to get you to invite their sales commissioned tech to come out and inspect your unit so that he can hopefully find a list of things to “repair” or upsell you on.
THE BAIT AND SWITCH GAME
This means that what you thought would just be a $90ish tune-up often ends up being an $800 plus repair bill; even when there is nothing that actually needs to be repaired. Rather, the test results were influenced or even predetermined in order to create the appearance of needed repairs.
Of course, sometimes repairs are needed because the unit is not actually working properly. But the majority of the time, it’s a deceptive game companies play in order to turn an unprofitable inspection into a profitable service call.
THE UPSELL GAME
The tune-up request is also an opportunity for the salesman to try and sell you on an annual maintenance plan. With a plan like this in place, companies can then continue having you pay to have their salesman visit you a couple of times a year. This is done in order to achieve their ultimate upsell goal of convincing you that you need a new system.
It’s a crazy concept when you really think about it. No one would ever pay a salesman to come to their door and try and talk them into something they probably don’t need. In fact, we all go out of our way to avoid door to door salesman. In this case, we are just inviting them right in. It’s genius when you really think about it.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FREE
If companies offered the inspection for free, no one would take the bait and invite them over. When something is free, everyone instantly questions what the seller’s true motives are. “What’s the catch?” is the question that is echoed by all. As such, no one bites and the offer is ignored all because there is no perceived value.
However, by charging a modest fee for the inspection, changing the name to “tune-up”, adding 40, 50, or 60 whatever points of inspection, claiming that it will extend the life of the system, increase performance, etc…people instantly think they are getting something of extreme benefit.
Due to crafty marketing, everyone begins to believe that by paying for this same inspection that does absolutely nothing, their system will be improved. And now, they must have it.
The companies that had zero access to their target customers prior, now have an attentive audience that they can convince need new systems.
PUSHING PROFIT
Companies push tune-ups because it is how they can sell more new units. More new units equals more profit. And let’s face it, when you are literally paying the company to send a salesman over to market the new system to you, it’s even more profitable for them.
the selling Points
Hopefully you are starting to understand the game contractors are playing a bit more clearly. However, I would imagine you are now starting to question all those other selling points that contractors so convincingly claim as necessity for marrying into one of their life long maintenance programs; and rightfully so. I would be too.
In case you aren’t sure what these talking points are, here is what they claim if you don’t get routine maintenance:
You will void the warranty.
You will damage your system.
You will lessen the lifespan.
The system will be less efficient.
Yes, these all seem reasonable on the surface, but as I uncover the truth behind each of these, the clever marketing and scare tactics should become extremely obvious. Let’s start by first addressing one of the most popular questions about maintenance that we receive.
Does my system need periodic service?
Yes, it needs some regular maintenance, but not like contractors want you to believe it does.
AC units don’t need maintenance like cars do. I will expound more on this shortly when I discuss system damage and lifespan. But for now, just know that automobiles and AC’s are nothing alike.
Contractors on the other hand will try and scare you into thinking that AC’s are a lot like your car and need routine service. They will further back their claims by listing all the selling points mentioned above with what sounds like both legal and near scientific authority. Much like most claims that involve money these days (which is basically everything), this is no where close to being an accurate representation of reality.
REQUIRED MAINTENANCE
The only periodic maintenance an AC system does need is the changing of the air filter and the occasional cleaning off of the condensing coil (the coil that is exposed to the elements outside).
The coil just needs to be sprayed down with water from a garden hose so that it remains unencumbered. Except in extreme cases where the coil has been exposed to excessive foliage or pet hair. Then it will require a more thorough cleaning to remove the debris.
This cleaning along with the air filter replacement are both things that most customers can handle on their own without the need for a licensed contractor.
CONDENSATE DRAIN
If you have an older system, you will also want to keep an eye out for a plugged condensate drain. This only occurs as the indoor coil ages and begins to deteriorate. We usually don’t see this until units are over 20 years old in AZ. However, it will vary from system to system.
See the FAQ titled “How do I know if my condensate drain is clogged?” for more details on identifying this issue.
What about my warranty?
HVAC contractors love to claim that not having maintenance or a basic tune-up performed on your system regularly will void the parts warranty provided by the equipment manufacturer.
Now, to be fair, what they are stating is 100% true. This is easily verifiable by reading the terms and conditions of any manufacturer parts warranty. Most of these warranties even go as far as to say that the preventative maintenance must be “documented and performed by a licensed contractor”.
THE HIDDEN TRUTH
What contractors fail to disclose is that there is not a single equipment manufacturer that will ever ask for proof of periodic maintenance when replacing a failed part that is under warranty. The only possible exception to this is in severe cases that involve repeat failures of a substantial part, like a coil or the compressor.
REALITY BEATS POLICY
How can this be you might ask? Well, the problem is that manufacturers know that what they are asking for is not in line with reality for two reasons:
There is not a preventative maintenance procedure, plan, schedule, or method in existence that is able to prevent a defective part from failing. In other words, a bad part is a bad part, and it will eventually fail no matter how much maintenance is performed.
Other than changing the air filter and cleaning the condensing coil from time to time, there is technically no other preventive maintenance that can be performed on a working system that will prolong the life of any of the parts.
As a result, manufacturers know what they are asking for makes zero difference when it comes to salvaging or prolonging a part’s useful life. Even if the requirement for maintenance is met, doing so will not impact the probability of a potential part failure.
Part failures are generally a result of circumstances that are beyond the customer’s control. Thus, enforcing the requirement for maintenance becomes unfeasible for the manufacturer; and as such, it is not enforced.
SO WHY THE REQUIREMENT?
The maintenance requirements contained in manufacturer warranty terms are most likely there for use in severe cases of equipment abuse where the end user is actually the cause of the failure.
The requirement also exists to help the network of dealers that are selling their equipment. Those dealers are the installation contractors that are also the ones trying to sell you a maintenance plan. So naturally, equipment manufacturers and contractors have a common interest to push this requirement. As a dealer myself, I can attest to this situation first hand.
What about system damage and lifespan?
As mentioned previously, AC systems do not require maintenance the same way something like an automobile does. If you consider the normal maintenance that is performed on your car, aside from the cabin air filter, never once does that routine maintenance include anything for the AC system. The only time the AC of your vehicle is worked on is when the AC is no longer working correctly.
This is because AC systems are closed systems with nothing near the levels or even types of wear and tear that a car engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, and tires experience.
SEALED FOR LIFE
As a closed system, AC’s do not require oil or refrigerant changes. For the most part, residential systems do not have parts that need to be lubricated or maintained in any way to prolong their life. The oil and refrigerant that are in the system will last the life of the system provided it does not leak out as the system gets older. Furthermore, the bearings on the fan motors are sealed and do not require lubrication once they leave the factory.
As mentioned earlier, there is no preventative maintenance that can be performed on any parts that will extend the life of them. Once a part is on its way out, we may be able to limp it along with a little help, but it is going to fail nonetheless…it is just a matter of time. And just to clarify, a part failure doesn’t necessarily mean the whole system is bad. Just the part that has failed needs to be replaced.
We always prioritize repairs over replacement to maximize the lifespan of your system. The goal for most systems is 20+ years as shown here.
SYSTEM DAMAGE
There is a good chance that when a component on your AC stops working, it will stop working without any prior warning. There are some occasional exceptions to this where a few parts may signal an issue and start acting up, but by and large, most items quit working unexpectedly. This is not something that any preventative maintenance measure can prevent from happening.
The good news is, AC systems contain many sensors to protect them from being damaged. This means that when a part does fail, eventually one or more of the sensors will be triggered and any of the major components at risk of being damaged will be shut off. This essentially protects the system from further damaging itself.
At this point, the system will not be cooling or heating correctly and you will begin to notice your comfort levels are not being met. This is the clear signal that your system is in need of a repair of the part that has failed.
What about efficiency and performance?
When I listen to the radio these days, sometimes I feel like its nothing but commercials for HVAC contractors claiming how much their 87 point system tune-up will increase your system performance, save you money, fix your marriage, improve your relationship with your boss, and magically make it so you can enjoy chocolate without gaining a pound. Clearly I exaggerate, but you get the point. Through their pricey advertising campaigns and catchy jingles, they make it sound like the tune-up they offer is simply…well…life changing.
If this were in any way true, I promise you, I would be right there with them preaching the same gospel and selling one to anyone that was interested, all in the name of sincerely helping people. But fortunately for you, this is not a road we dare to even go down.
We are all about putting people over profit, so in order for us to wholeheartedly abide by what we value, it means we must only pursue those things which are genuinely true. Unfortunately, the peak performance and increased efficiency claim is just used-car salesman speak.
While AC systems can be complex in how they do what they do, they are not complicated when it comes to their ability to do what they do. They are really quite simple. They either work at 100% capacity or they don’t. I will explain, but before I do, I need to connect a few dots and build a foundation of understanding first.
INCREASING VS RESTORING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
Since we already established that a tune-up is merely just a system test or inspection, there is nothing that a tune-up actually does to a system to improve its performance. The inspection is just the means by which the system’s current operational status can be determined. To put it simply, in terms of system performance and efficiency, the system test will just tell a tech whether the unit is operating at 100% of its ability or not. Full capacity also means maximum efficiency. The two are directly related.
So, let’s say you schedule a tune-up for your system and the tech finds that unbeknownst to you, it is not operating at 100% capacity. This lack of performance was unknown to you. The technician then tests further in order to diagnose and identify what the cause of the performance degradation is. His diagnosis will then most likely lead to the need for a repair. Once the repair is made, the system will then be back to 100% of its ability.
Now, you could easily say the problem was technically solved by the requesting of a tune-up or some form of routine maintenance. You could further conclude that that it was a good idea to sign up for this service because it did restore your system performance, returned the system back to its designed efficiency, and thus, reduced your electric utility costs back to the level they should be at. This would all be accurate.
Just to be clear, the repair did not technically increase your system’s performance or efficiency. It only restored it as close as possible to what the system was designed for when it was brand new. The performance is always limited by the design of the system and the operating environment to which it is installed.
Efficiency can never be magically increased by any method to go beyond the capability of the system. It can only perform as it was built to do. In this example, the contractor did increase the performance, but only through a repair that restored it back to the designed level of output.
This may be a bit of semantics at play, but there is also some deceptive marketing departments that are getting consumers to believe that they are increasing their systems’s efficiency beyond what it is actually capable of. This is simply not possible and I want to make sure that this is clearly understood.
So, having the maintenance plan in place may seem like it is helping you maintain the performance of your system, but as you are about to see, a maintenance plan is not necessary for achieving this.
THE FEAR OF A SYSTEM NOT BEING 100%
Here is where this very reasonable argument in favor of maintenance plans falls apart. It is very rare, about less than 3%, where we are called out to check a system, and we find that it is both performing less than 100% and the customer was not aware of this drop in performance. So what if you fall into this extremely uncommon category of not knowing? Yes, you could easily argue that having a routine maintenance plan in place to catch this unknown performance drop is money well spent. Again, this is very rare. Moreover, here is what most people don’t realize. A small drop in performance will not stay small for very long. So, even if a contractor does not come out and perform routine maintenance, the drop in performance will soon be discovered by the customer on their own. This is the case 99.99% of the time as I will attempt to explain.
Earlier I claimed, “AC’s either work at 100% capacity or they don’t”. Here is what I mean by this. When an AC is not working at full capacity, scarcely does it work at just below 100%…for instance something like a minuscule and unnoticeable 10 point drop down to 90% capacity. When AC’s are not operating correctly, they are usually at a much, much lower capacity. This is usually between nothing at all (0%) to less than 60%. Not that a slight drop doesn’t happen; it does. But again, it is just uncommon for it to be this way because for the most part, the system either works or it doesn’t.
As a result, when a system is suffering from a severely diminished performance, you will quickly notice it; without question. The system will operate longer than normal, will struggle to satisfy the set temperature at the thermostat, if it even satisfies it at all, and most noticeably, it will become uncomfortable in your home temperature wise.
Any of these symptoms will clearly notify you that you need to schedule service for your system to be checked and a repair made.
The proper question to now ask is, how will one know that there is a minor performance issue if the unit is not being routinely checked? If a small, unnoticeable decline does occur, the drop will not be minimal for long. Very soon it will be a much larger drop that becomes very noticeable for the same reasons as stated above. At this time, a repair request would need to be initiated.
Thus, paying for a routine maintenance plan or one time tune-up simply out of fear that your system is not quite at 100% capacity, does not make a lot of sense given this is not realistic. Remember, either the system will work at 100% or it won’t. If it is just slightly lacking in performance, rest assured, it will continue to get worse. There are only so many possible causes of a slight reduction in performance. As long as the required filter change and condensing coil cleaning are taking place, each of the remaining causes all will lead the system to quickly drop even more in capacity.
Additionally, to perfectly time routine maintenance with a performance drop is nearly impossible. It is completely by chance when it does happen. This means after a routine checkup finds nothing wrong, you end up paying a contractor again to come back out and look at the system when it finally does have an issue. That just makes the routine inspection a bit worthless, unless of course you just need peace of mind.
Lastly, if there is an issue that you are unaware of, this will not damage the system. Sine the issue will only become worse, it is just a matter of time before the system’s sensors will be triggered and it protects itself. At this point, you will now know with certainty that you need to schedule service so the system can be repaired and performance restored.
MYTH UNRAVELED
Yes! You have finally reached the end. If you thought the end would never come, you aren’t the only one.
Seriously, that was a lot. 🤦♂️ But for good reason! The marketing gurus have spent years misleading the public and selling them the idea that they need system tune-ups. To systematically unravel these myths takes a bit of effort. There are so many more tangents and rabbit holes to go down on this topic, but you would be here forever trying to understand them all. Let’s be honest, no one cares that much, so I tried to just stick to the main concerns that we normally hear about and see.
Hopefully after reading this, you too realize that there is no need to be on a maintenance plan of any kind. Provided you are routinely changing your air filters and cleaning the condensing coil every once in a while, you should be good to go. Your system will operate as it was designed to without the need to pay someone to keep a close, watchful eye on it…just in case.
Once it seems like it isn’t working right, then it is time to call someone. Until then, save some money and run it till it stops working. You won’t hurt it, your warranty won’t be voided, and you definitely won’t reduce its lifespan. Even better is, you won’t have to deal with another company constantly trying to upsell you on something. That’s always a win both emotionally and financially.
Of course, if you prefer to just have peace of mind at all times and do not want to just wait for the need to justify the expense, then by all means, sign up for the maintenance plan that suits you best. We aren’t here to judge. In fact, if you prefer to have a maintenance plan in place or even just an occasional checkup, we hope you would put your trust in us to be the ones to perform any system checks you need.
We never upsell, our techs aren’t incentivized with sales commissions, and we always prioritize repair over replacement. This is because we actually fix AC systems…the right way.
If you are in the Phoenix Metro area and need help, request service today.
…or you can just learn more about who we are.
A footnote for the Cynics
Clearly this a highly controversial topic that many contractors have built their entire businesses on. It is impressive and to be respected what many of these contractors have achieved. As such, people will naturally want to vigorously debate the validity of many of my arguments. They are going to want to site all sorts of overly complicated studies that bend and twist reality all for the sake of defending the need for tune-ups.
But let us remember, every study that has ever existed is bought and paid for by someone. There is no research or study performed for free. As a result, every study out there, no matter the topic, is unfortunately heavily biased. Also, if anyone does site a study, ask for the study. You might be surprised, or not, to find that there is no such study that they are referring to. Rather they are just regurgitating myths that they have heard along way.
So, do what you want with this info. Ignore all of it, ignore some of it, or take it all as truth. It won’t offend me one way or the other. Just know that if some of you out there want to waste your time sending me any hate mail about this, you will be 100% ignored; guaranteed. So save yourself the time.