After record-breaking triple digit temperatures in the South Plains, the heat has put pressure on heating and cooling units in area homes. Now servicemen are working around the clock to keep up with the demand.
“We get worked up doing it and it’s kind of like practicing for a race,” Jeff Williams said. “We’re ready to go compete.”
Williams is the service manager for Bruce Thornton Air Conditioning. He said the incoming calls requesting maintenance have doubled in the past few weeks. They get around 70 to 80 calls a day.
“Everything ramps up,” Williams said. “All the repairs ramp up, all of the maintenance and stuff that didn’t get done like they should’ve been prior to the summer, people putting things off, it kind of comes back to catch them when it gets really hot.”
Other companies said they have hired freelance servicemen to keep up with the rising demand.
BTAC services the entire region, with 24/7 service. Lately, their servicemen have worked 12-hour days to try to answer calls the same day.
Williams said the most common call they receive is referred to a “No Cooling Call” when the air conditioning unit is blowing out hot air instead of cold air.
He said regular maintenance is key to preventing most damage on an A/C unit.
“You need to keep things clean, wash out the condensers, and a must is change out the filters,” Williams said. “A lot of problems we get into is we show up and people say, ‘Hey, my unit is not running,’ because it’s frozen, the coil up there stops the airflow, because of lack of airflow the filter is plugged up.”
BTAC has a preventative maintenance program called the Comfort Club. Clients can buy a membership to get preferred service or discounts on select services.
