Seasonal walk-through
The spring air conditioning walk-through
Test the cooling before the first hot week, not during it. A checklist for central air, heat pumps and mini splits, with the install-year arithmetic for each.
InspectedOctober 16, 2026figures as pulled
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Before the season turns
- Pick the date. Choose a warm day a few weeks before the heat arrives for good. A problem found early is a problem fixed on your schedule.
- Clear the outdoor unit. Pull back leaves, grass clippings, shrubs and anything stored against the condenser. It has to breathe on every side.
- Change or check the filter. Same filter, same rule as the fall: a clogged filter starves the indoor coil.
- Find the condensate line. Locate the drain line from the indoor coil and make sure it runs freely to its drain or pump.
- Run the cooling. Set the thermostat a few degrees below the room. Confirm the outdoor fan spins, the compressor starts, and cool air reaches the registers.
- Check every indoor head. For a mini split, open each head, rinse or vacuum the filters, and run each one.
- Read the plate. Write down the install year of the outdoor unit and work the arithmetic in the guide. The date tells you when to plan.
- Book the service. Have a technician check the charge, the electrical parts and the coil before the season, not in the middle of it.
The systems on this list
- Central Air Conditioner: 12 to 17 years; biggest lever, airflow, refrigerant charge, and outdoor unit clearance.
- Heat Pump: 10 to 16 years; biggest lever, how many months a year it runs.
- Ductless Mini Split: 10 to 20 years; biggest lever, indoor coil cleaning and filter discipline.
Each guide carries the install-year table: the year the typical range opens, the year it closes, and where 2026 falls. That is the planning date. A unit inside its range has not failed and is not about to by any rule on this site; it is simply a unit worth budgeting for.
How hard does your summer work the air conditioner?
A degree day is NOAA's plain measure of how much heating or cooling a climate asks for. Take a day's average temperature and compare it with 65°F. Each degree the day sits below 65 is one heating degree day; each degree above is one cooling degree day. Add up a year of them and you have a number for how hard a furnace or an air conditioner is worked in that place, on a normal year.
| # | Metro | Station | CDD | HDD | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX | MCALLEN MILLER INTL AP, TX US | 4,989 | 453 | NOAA |
| 2 | Urban Honolulu, HI | HONOLULU INTL AP, HI US | 4,767 | not published | NOAA |
| 3 | Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | PHOENIX SKY HARBOR INTL AP, AZ US | 4,765 | 874 | NOAA |
| 4 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | MIAMI INTL AP, FL US | 4,656 | 104 | NOAA |
| 5 | Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL | FT MYERS PAGE FLD AP, FL US | 4,046 | 252 | NOAA |
| 6 | Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL | WINTER HAVEN GILBERT AP, FL US | 3,929 | 421 | NOAA |
| 7 | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | TAMPA INTL AP, FL US | 3,928 | 434 | NOAA |
| 8 | North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL | SARASOTA BRADENTON AP, FL US | 3,721 | 394 | NOAA |
| 9 | Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV | LAS VEGAS MCCARRAN AP, NV US | 3,720 | 1836 | NOAA |
| 10 | Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | ORLANDO INTL AP, FL US | 3,452 | 525 | NOAA |
| 11 | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL | MELBOURNE INTL AP, FL US | 3,446 | 485 | NOAA |
| 12 | Tucson, AZ | TUCSON INTL AP, AZ US | 3,424 | 1332 | NOAA |
99 metros in the file. Ties alphabetical by metro name.
Degree days describe a place on a normal year, not your house or your thermostat. A higher count means more hours of runtime for the same equipment, which is one reason the same unit can sit at different points in its range in different cities.
The heating side has its own list: the fall furnace walk-through.