Commercial Preventive Maintenance & Tune-Up in Southern California and Arizona

What is a commercial preventive maintenance and tune-up visit?

A preventive maintenance and tune-up visit is a scheduled service call that works through a task list for each unit on the roof: filters, coils, belts, drains, electrical, economizers, and controls, matched to the equipment at that site.

Visits cover packaged rooftop units, split systems, heat pumps, and VAV boxes, along with the economizers, belts, coils, drains, and controls attached to them. We service all brands of commercial equipment. We do not work on chillers.

The point is not the visit itself. It is catching worn parts before they fail and building a written history for every unit that shows what to repair now and what to plan to replace.

Which warning signs mean a site needs a PM schedule?

A site belongs on a PM schedule if it already generates repeat calls. Roughly four in five service calls we take could have been avoided with proper maintenance, so a busy service history is the clearest signal.

• The same units call in with no cooling every summer.
• Water reaches the sales floor from an overflowing drain pan.
• Utility bills climb at a store where nothing about the business has changed.
• An inland or desert site is heading into summer with no spring visit booked.
• Heat sections in the High Desert or Antelope Valley have not been looked at before the first cold nights.

How often should a commercial site get a tune-up?

Frequency should follow the equipment and the climate, not a standard tier. Many retail sites run quarterly or semiannual visits, with a cooling service before summer and a heating service before winter.

A dusty inland site may need filters and coils seen more often than a mild coastal one, while the coastal site needs closer corrosion inspection. Our guide to quarterly vs semiannual PM visits for retail walks through the trade-off. Whatever the interval, every program we build follows ANSI/ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 180 for tasks and records.

Our preventive maintenance scope of work

What a standard preventive-maintenance visit covers. Inspection tasking is also performed during annual services, and the exact tasks vary by the equipment installed at each site.

Inspections

• Install MERV 10 pleated air filters
• Check program and thermostats
• Start up equipment for inspection
• Visual check for refrigerant leaks
• Wire-brush condenser & evaporator coils
• Check tension and condition of belts & pulleys
• Brush return registers (as needed)
• Check supply & return temperatures
• Inspect blower components
• Inspect electrical components
• Clean electrical compartment free of dirt/debris
• Inspect economizer & operation
• Check all compressors for vibration, noise, and over-amperage
• Check all motors for vibration, noise, and over-amperage
• Inspect all VFDs for proper operation (if applicable)
• Add algaecide treatment to the drain pan to prevent water leaks
• Inspect condensate pump operation (if applicable)

Cooling service

• Chemically clean condenser and evaporator coils
• Water-rinse and blow out coated condenser coils
• Clean condensate pan & drain lines
• Grease all motors & bearings (if applicable)
• Change all belts
• Clean condensate pumps (if applicable)
• Remove and clean outside air filter
• Blow out all VFDs with high-pressure air
• Vacuum supply & return cabinet

Heating service

• Start up equipment for inspection
• Check defrost cycle (heat pump)
• Check electrical wiring to heating elements (heat pump)
• Inspect heat exchanger for cracks or rust
• Check accessible gas piping for leaks/condition
• Clean & inspect burner assembly, inducer draft-fan assembly & heating compartment

VAV tasks

• Verify thermostat program & operation
• Verify dampers open & close properly
• Check supply temperature is within proper range
• Visual inspection of accessible ductwork
• Check electrical controls and connections
• Check temperatures at each supply register
• Brush supply and return registers

How do cooling and heating tune-ups differ from inspection visits?

An inspection visit checks condition and catches problems early. A seasonal tune-up does the heavier work: chemical coil cleaning and belt changes ahead of cooling season, burner and heat exchanger work ahead of heating season.

Timing is the part most programs get wrong. In the Inland Empire, the Coachella Valley, and Arizona, the cooling service has to be finished in spring, before sustained heat. A heat section that sat idle all summer should be cleaned and inspected in the fall, not discovered on the first cold morning.

Who trains the technicians and keeps the visits on schedule?

Two people own this work at REE. Mike Herbranson trains our technicians on PMs, and Cindy Buzzelli keeps every scheduled visit on the calendar and every program on track.

Mike, our Training and Safety Director, has more than 15 years at REE. Cindy, our PM Operations Lead, is the person to call when a site list changes or a visit needs to move. Visits are done by our own technicians, never subcontracted. You can meet Mike or meet Cindy.

How does a tune-up program support capital planning?

Every visit adds condition findings to the record for each unit. Over a few seasons, those records show which units are holding up and which are consuming the repair budget, so replacement can be planned instead of forced.

That record lives in HVAC asset inspection and testing and feeds planned replacement. Findings and repair recommendations are reported into your systems, including your IVR where you use one.

How do you put a site list on a tune-up program?

Send the addresses, trading hours, and any roof access notes you have. We build the scope one site at a time and schedule visits around your trading hours.

Tune-up programs run in all six of our Southern California counties and across Arizona; Riverside County and San Diego County show how the scope changes locally. Our checklist for preparing a store for a PM visit helps store teams get ready. Call (800) 742-0910 or send your site list.