Short answer
Before peak cooling season, clean coils, replace filters and belts, check electrical components and refrigerant circuits, clear drains, verify controls, and confirm a contingency plan for critical sites.
Why prepare before the season instead of during it?
Peak cooling season is when equipment works hardest, failures cluster, and every HVAC contractor in the region is busiest. A component that is marginal in spring often fails in the first sustained heat.
Finding it during a pre-season visit means it can be repaired on a planned schedule, rather than during a heat event when the store is full and the roof is at its hottest.
Timing varies across the region. Low-desert sites in Arizona and the eastern parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties reach sustained heat earlier than coastal sites in Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, and San Diego counties. Schedule each site's preparation ahead of its own climate.
What should the equipment checklist cover?
The pre-season equipment checklist should cover coils, filters, belts, electrical parts, the refrigerant circuit, condenser fans, compressor staging, and condensate drains on every unit before sustained heat arrives.
- Condenser coils cleaned. Fouled coils raise operating pressure and power draw on every hot day. See coil cleaning and condenser care between PM visits.
- Evaporator coils inspected and cleaned where needed.
- Filters replaced, with the right sizes and counts for each unit.
- Belts inspected and adjusted or replaced.
- Electrical checks on contactors, capacitors, wiring, and connections. Capacitors and contactors are common heat-season failures.
- Refrigerant circuit checks, including operating pressures and temperatures, with leaks investigated.
- Condenser fan motors and blades checked for operation and wear.
- Compressor operation verified across stages.
- Condensate drains, pans, and traps cleared. Cooling season produces the most condensate.
- Economizers verified through their range. A damper stuck open on a peak day brings hot outdoor air directly onto the coil.
What about controls and schedules?
Controls need a pre-season check too: schedules that match summer trading hours, correct setpoints, alarms that reach the right people, accurate sensors, and dedicated cooling for network rooms.
- Confirm schedules match current trading hours, including summer hours.
- Confirm setpoints are at agreed values and locks are in place.
- Test alarms from building management systems reach the right people.
- Check thermostats and sensors for accuracy and location.
- Verify dedicated cooling for server and network rooms.
For portfolios on a building management system, review runtime and trend data from the previous summer to identify units that struggled. See building management systems for multi-site portfolios.
What should be checked on evaporative equipment?
Sites with evaporative coolers need a seasonal start-up: media inspected and replaced as needed, water distribution cleaned, pumps and floats checked, bleed-off set, and belts and motors serviced. Plan for reduced effectiveness during Arizona's monsoon humidity.
See evaporative vs refrigerated cooling in desert climates.
What contingency planning is needed?
Even prepared equipment can fail. A short contingency plan for each critical site makes the response orderly:
- Site documentation and roof access current. REE Mechanical Inc.'s priority accounts are on site within 4 hours once site documentation and roof access are in place (actual arrival varies with location and conditions).
- Critical spaces identified so the response can prioritize them.
- Temporary cooling options understood. Knowing in advance where a temporary unit could be placed and powered saves time if equipment must be sourced in peak season.
- Approval thresholds agreed so emergency repairs are not held up waiting for sign-off.
- Store guidance on what to do and whom to call. See what to do when an RTU fails during business hours.
How should units flagged in the pre-season visit be handled?
Classify findings into three groups: repair before the season, monitor through the season, and plan for replacement.
Units in the third group that are unlikely to last the summer should be addressed before it begins where equipment lead times allow, with temporary cooling as the backstop.
How should a portfolio schedule pre-season visits?
Sequence visits by climate and risk. Begin with low-desert sites and those with older equipment or critical spaces, then move toward inland valleys, and finish with coastal sites, which reach sustained heat later.
Within each region, prioritize stores with recent repair history or open deficiencies. Building the schedule this way means each site is checked before its own peak, and repairs found early can be completed while contractors and parts are more available.
How do you confirm the work was done?
Ask for a pre-season report per site listing each unit, the tasks completed, readings taken, and deficiencies found, with photos. Compare the list of units against the asset register to confirm none were missed.
Where a building management system is in place, check that supply air temperatures and runtimes look normal in the first warm weeks after the visits.
What can store teams do to help?
Store teams can keep areas around indoor equipment and thermostats clear, keep entry doors closed where possible during hot hours, report comfort issues early, and confirm that roof access arrangements are in place.
Brief store managers on how to report a problem and what to do if a unit fails, so the first minutes of any failure are handled consistently.
How does this fit a maintenance program?
A program built on ANSI/ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 180 includes pre-season tasks as part of its normal cycle, so readiness is routine rather than a special project.
REE Mechanical Inc.'s maintenance programs schedule these tasks by each site's climate across Southern California and Arizona, which is part of being built to adapt.
To apply this across your sites, send REE Mechanical Inc. your site list and we will map it against our coverage.
Methodology: Written by REE Mechanical's team from field experience on multi-site commercial portfolios; standards cited link to the issuing body.