Is an HVAC maintenance plan worth paying for? What it should include and catch

Worth it when it does three things

An HVAC maintenance plan is worth paying for when it does three things: puts a trained technician on your system twice a year, before cooling season and before heating season; gives you real priority when something breaks during a heat wave; and lowers the cost of the repairs you do need, with a warranty behind them. A plan that is mostly a discount coupon with a quick glance at the equipment is not worth much. For most homes with central air and heat, a good plan earns its cost by catching worn parts in spring and fall instead of in the hottest week of the year.

I am Brandon Quigley of Quigley Heating & Air in Farmers Branch. Our family has served homes and businesses here since 1945, and our Q Club maintenance program is the service our clients tell us they value most, more than any repair. I will use it as the example throughout, with its real prices and terms, but the questions apply to any company's plan.

What a tune-up should actually cover

ENERGY STAR recommends checking the cooling system in spring and the heating system in fall. Its checklist for a contractor visit includes tightening electrical connections and measuring motor voltage and current, lubricating moving parts, checking the condensate drain and system controls, cleaning the evaporator and condenser coils, checking the refrigerant level, cleaning and adjusting blower components and, on the heating side, checking gas connections, burner combustion and the heat exchanger. ENERGY STAR notes that airflow problems alone can reduce a system's efficiency by up to 15 percent.

Our Q Club cooling visit checks refrigerant levels, water-cleans the condenser coil, inspects visible ductwork, measures supply and return air temperatures, cleans the unit controls, checks the condensation components, thermostat, electrical controls and safety devices, and replaces one standard one-inch filter per system. The heating visit includes a carbon monoxide test, ignition and gas operation, the blower and inducer motor, heat pump operation including heat strips, and temperature measurements. Some items are full service on higher tiers and inspection-only on others, so read the checklist for the tier you choose.

Watch how the visit is done, too. A real tune-up involves gauges, a thermometer, a meter on the electrical components and a hose on the outdoor coil. If a technician is in and out in a few minutes, glances at the equipment and leaves a sales flyer, you received an inspection at best, whatever the paperwork calls it.

• Coils cleaned and refrigerant level checked
• Electrical connections, controls and safety devices tested
• Condensate drain cleared and checked
• Supply and return air temperatures measured
• Carbon monoxide test and combustion checks on gas equipment
• Heat pump operation, including backup heat strips
• Filter replaced and thermostat checked

Priority service is the benefit you feel in July

On the first brutal week of summer, every heating and air company in the area is booked. The plan benefit that matters most then is not the discount; it is where you are in the line. Ask any company exactly what its priority means, in hours, not adjectives.

Ours is spelled out by tier. Platinum members are scheduled first, within 12 hours. Silver members come second, within 24 hours. Chrome members are scheduled ahead of non-members. If you have an infant, an older parent or anyone with a health condition in the house, that difference is the reason to choose a tier, more than any price.

In Dallas, that first stretch of triple-digit afternoons tends to arrive all at once, and so do the service calls. Systems that limped through spring give up on the same few days. A plan member with a scheduled spring visit is less likely to be one of those calls at all, and better placed if they are.

The math: what the plan costs and what it returns

Our Q Club prices are published, which makes the math easy. Monthly auto-pay for the first system is 17 dollars for Chrome, 23 for Silver and 31 for Platinum, with lower rates for each additional system, and clients who pay by ACH get 5 percent off the membership. Every tier includes two visits a year.

Here is what comes back. The diagnostic fee drops to 85, 75 or 60 dollars by tier. Repairs and accessories are discounted 5, 10 or 15 percent. Repairs carry a parts and labor warranty of 1 year parts and 6 months labor on Chrome, 1 year on Silver and 2 years on Platinum, and Platinum adds a 3-year price lock. Each tier also earns loyalty credits per system toward new equipment. To judge any plan, add up two tune-ups you would otherwise buy, the reduced diagnostic fee and the discount on a typical repair, and compare that with the annual cost.

Which tier makes sense depends on the system. A newer system in good shape may be well served by the entry tier. An older system with some repair history, or a household that cannot go a day without cooling, usually gets more value from the faster scheduling, deeper discount and longer warranty of the higher tiers. If you have more than one system, the lower rate for each additional one changes the math as well.

• Chrome: 17 dollars a month, 5 percent off repairs, scheduled ahead of non-members
• Silver: 23 dollars a month, 10 percent off repairs, scheduled within 24 hours
• Platinum: 31 dollars a month, 15 percent off repairs, scheduled within 12 hours, 3-year price lock
• All tiers: two visits a year, reduced diagnostic fee, repair warranty and loyalty credits

Questions to ask about any plan

Plans vary widely, and the name on the brochure tells you little. Before you sign up anywhere, get answers to these questions in writing. A company confident in its plan will hand you the checklist and the terms without being asked twice. For broader advice on vetting a company, see my guide on questions to ask an HVAC company before hiring.

• What exactly is checked at each visit, and which items are inspection-only?
• How fast is priority service, in hours?
• What is the diagnostic fee for members?
• What discount applies to repairs, and to which parts?
• What warranty covers repairs made under the plan?
• Is there a cancellation term, and how is the plan billed?

What a maintenance plan cannot do

A plan is not magic, and I would rather say so up front. It cannot make a 20-year-old system new. It cannot fix ducts that were undersized when the house was built, or an upstairs that sits under a poorly insulated attic. It will not prevent every breakdown; parts still fail, just less often and less suddenly.

What it does is give you information early. A technician who sees your system twice a year notices the capacitor that is starting to weaken, the coil that is collecting dirt faster than it should and the repair history that says replacement is coming. ENERGY STAR suggests having a heat pump or air conditioner evaluated once it is more than 10 years old. With a plan, that evaluation happens naturally, and the replacement becomes a planned decision instead of an emergency. Loyalty credits toward new equipment soften that day as well.

Your part between visits

Two professional visits a year do not replace the simple habits that keep a system healthy in between. The filter is the big one. ENERGY STAR recommends inspecting, cleaning or changing it once a month, and a dirty filter raises energy costs and can lead to early equipment failure. Keeping the outdoor unit clear of leaves, grass and shrubs and watching the drain pan in summer matter too.

My guide on HVAC maintenance you can safely do yourself covers the homeowner's half in detail, including where to stop and leave the work to a technician. The combination of your monthly checks and two professional visits is what actually keeps a system out of trouble.

Plans for offices and light commercial buildings

Businesses need maintenance even more than homes, because downtime costs customers and staff comfort. Commercial plans should be built around the building, not a template. We customize visit frequency, which equipment is covered and each unit's requirements. Some systems need more frequent visits because of their age or condition, while others need quarterly visits.

Keeping maintenance records matters for businesses in particular. A documented history supports the manufacturer's warranty when a claim comes up, and it gives a property manager or owner a clear picture of which units are approaching replacement. We handle commercial cooling, heating, heat pumps, dehumidification and light commercial systems under the same roof as our residential work.

A year with a plan

Here is how a year goes. In spring, a technician cleans and tests the cooling side before the heat arrives. Through the summer, if something does fail, you are near the front of the line, the diagnostic costs less and your discount shows on the estimate before you approve the repair. In fall, the heating visit includes the carbon monoxide test, in line with the EPA's recommendation of an annual professional inspection of central heating systems; my guide to furnace and heat pump warning signs covers what to watch for between visits.

If you are dealing with a system that is not cooling right now, start with my guide on an AC that runs but does not cool, then ask us about the Q Club once it is fixed. We serve Dallas, Farmers Branch, Carrollton, Coppell, Frisco, Garland, Highland Park, Plano, Richardson and University Park, and the plan covers all brands of equipment.

Questions people ask me