AC Maintenance & Tune-Ups in Whittaker, Michigan

Nobody in Whittaker wants to be the household calling eleven companies on the hottest Saturday of the year, and a spring tune-up is the cheapest insurance against it. Temprasure maintains central air systems across Washtenaw County, from the 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads along Judd Road area to the subdivisions near Lincoln High School, and the visit is thorough enough that most of the capacitors, contactors and clogged drains that would have failed in July get caught and fixed in May instead. You get a written report with the readings, a flat-rate price on anything we recommend, and no pressure to replace a system that is doing fine.

Whittaker houses and what that means for ac maintenance

Around the crossroads itself the houses are 1880s–1930s farm-village homes with Michigan basements, balloon framing and a forced-air system that was retrofitted into a house built for a wood or coal stove. Those homes tend to have a single undersized return and a furnace that has been replaced two or three times without the ductwork ever being touched. Along Whittaker, Willis and Talladay Roads the common house is a 1970s–90s ranch or raised ranch on a crawlspace or block basement, with the original furnace in a utility room and a condenser that was added in the 1990s on whatever circuit was available. The 2000s subdivisions between Bemis and Willis Roads are colonials and ranches on poured basements with builder-grade equipment that is reaching replacement age, and a lot of them run propane rather than gas. Manufactured homes and modulars on the side roads often have small downflow furnaces and package units that need parts most shops do not stock.

Finished basements are the big maintenance story in Whittaker. A lot of the 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads around Judd Road area have carpet, drywall and a family room right under the furnace, and the condensate drain from the evaporator coil runs through that space to a floor drain or a condensate pump. When the drain clogs with the algae that grows in it every humid summer, the first sign is wet carpet. Our Whittaker tune-ups flush the line, treat it, verify the trap and test the float switch that is supposed to shut the system down before an overflow. If there is no float switch, which is common on systems installed before the mid-2000s, we tell you and can add one the same visit.

Cooling season in Washtenaw County is short but it is not gentle, and Whittaker homeowners have learned to call early. From the 1970s–90s rural ranches and 2000s acreage homes around an old crossroads near Augusta Township Hall to the subdivisions out by the Whittaker crossroads at Whittaker and Willis Roads and Willis Road west toward Mooreville, the air conditioners we see share one weakness: they sat idle from October to May and then got asked for twelve-hour run days. We arrive from Ypsilanti in about 16 minutes with capacitors, contactors, fan motors, hard-start kits and refrigerant on the truck, and most Whittaker cooling calls end with cold air on the first visit.

Local details we plan around in Whittaker

• Every home in Whittaker is on a private well, and the water is hard with enough iron to shorten water heater life and clog humidifier pads within a season.
• Permits for Whittaker addresses are issued by Washtenaw County, not by a village or city, because the community has no government of its own.
• DTE gas is available right along Whittaker Road and Willis Road near the crossroads, but a few hundred yards down a side road the gas main ends and propane takes over.
• Whittaker is on flat, open ground with Stony Creek running through the low land to the north and east, and the creek bottom holds moisture that keeps nearby crawlspaces damp through late spring. There is almost no windbreak between the crossroads and the fields to the west, so winter wind hits the exposed side of every house. Summer is humid and still, and homes without mature shade trees run their air conditioning longer than their size would suggest.