Spring tune-up specials are everywhere, and the price range is wide enough to be suspicious. The reason is simple: the phrase covers everything from a genuine hour of diagnostic work to a filter change and a sticker.
Here is what a real precision maintenance visit involves, so you can judge what you are buying.
Why twice a year, not once
Heat pumps and air conditioners should be professionally serviced in the spring and again in the fall. That is not a sales cadence — it maps to how the equipment is used. The spring visit prepares the cooling side before the first 95-degree stretch; the fall visit checks the heating side before the first hard freeze.
Preventive inspections performed on a regular basis uncover leaks, rust, rot, soot, frayed wires, and corroded electrical contacts. Every one of those is cheap to address on a scheduled visit and expensive to address as an emergency.
What gets checked on the cooling side
- Refrigerant charge measured, not guessed — superheat and subcooling readings taken against the manufacturer's target, not a gauge glance.
- Condenser coil cleaned — cottonwood, grass clippings, and dryer lint on the outdoor coil directly raise your electric bill.
- Evaporator coil and drain pan inspected — plus a cleared condensate line, which is the single most common cause of a summer water leak in a ceiling.
- Electrical connections tightened and contacts inspected — corroded contactors and loose lugs are a leading cause of compressor failure.
- Capacitor tested under load — a capacitor reading below spec is a failure waiting for the hottest day of the year.
- Blower wheel and motor amperage checked — a wheel loaded with dust moves dramatically less air than a clean one.
- Temperature split measured — the difference between return and supply air tells you whether the system is actually performing.
What gets checked on the heating side
- Heat exchanger inspection — visually and, where warranted, with combustion analysis. This is the safety item that matters most.
- Burner cleaning and flame pattern check
- Gas pressure verified at the manifold
- Flue and venting inspected for blockage, corrosion, and proper draft
- All safety switches tested — limit switch, rollout, pressure switch, condensate float
- Ignition system checked — igniter resistance, flame sensor cleaned
A tune-up that does not include a heat exchanger inspection and a combustion check on a gas furnace is not a heating tune-up. That is the safety-critical part of the visit.
What a tune-up is not
It is not a repair. If a technician finds a failed capacitor or a cracked heat exchanger, that is a separate conversation with a separate price — and any honest company will tell you what they found, show you, and let you decide.
It is also not a warranty. Maintenance reduces the odds of failure; it does not eliminate them. What it does reliably do is push failures out of the emergency window and extend the working life of the equipment.
How to tell whether you got a real one
Ask for the numbers. A technician who performed the work will be able to tell you the superheat and subcooling readings, the temperature split, the capacitor's measured microfarads against its rated value, and the static pressure. A visit that produces no numbers produced no measurements.
At Lanz, every maintenance visit ends with the readings and a plain-language summary of what we found. If something needs attention, you will hear about it with transparent pricing before any work starts. Get on the schedule.