Blue skies are coming back. After two weeks of heavy smoke and an air quality advisory that finally lifted Friday, the valley can breathe again. We aren't totally over the hump, but it's getting better. Your air conditioner just went through a rough stretch, running hard in the heat while pulling fine particulates through itself day and night. Before you forget the whole thing happened, give it ten minutes. A quick checkup now protects your system for the rest of summer, and with 100 degrees coming Friday, August's worst heat is still ahead of us.
Here's the short list.
What's the First Thing I Should Do Now That the Smoke's Gone?
Change your filter. No question, start here.
Your filter spent two weeks catching smoke particulates, and it's loaded, even if it doesn't look terrible at a glance. A clogged filter chokes airflow, makes your system work harder, and can lead to exactly the frozen coils and weak cooling we've written about. And if you ran your fan on "ON" through the smoke like we suggested, it filtered even more air than usual, so that filter worked overtime. Swap it and you've done the single most important thing on this list.
Do I Need to Clean the Outside Unit?
Yes, and this one gets skipped. All that fine ash didn't just hang in the air, it settled, including on the coils of your outdoor unit. Those coils are how your system dumps heat outside, and when they're coated in ash and grime, they can't do it as well. The system ends up running longer and working harder to get the same cooling.
The fix is easy. Turn the unit off at the disconnect or breaker, and gently rinse the outside coils with a garden hose, top to bottom. No pressure washer, just a normal spray. Five minutes, and your system heads into Friday's heat able to breathe.
What Settings Should I Switch Back?
A few things you may have changed for the smoke can go back to normal now:
- Thermostat fan: switch it from "ON" back to "AUTO." Running it constantly was the right move for filtering smoky air, but now that the air's clean, "AUTO" saves you money by only running the fan when the system is actually cooling.
- Fresh-air ventilation: if your home has a fresh-air intake or an ERV or HRV that you closed or set to recirculate during the smoke, now's the time to turn it back on. It's there to keep your indoor air fresh the rest of the year.
- Swamp cooler: if you shut yours down to keep the smoke out, you're clear to run it normally again.
How Do I Know If the Smoke Actually Hurt My System?
Most systems come through a smoke event just fine with a filter change and a coil rinse. But a hard two weeks can surface a weakness that was already there, so keep an eye out over the next few days for:
- Weaker airflow from the vents than you remember
- The system running noticeably longer to hit the same temperature
- A musty or off smell when it runs
- Just not cooling the way it did back in June
If your system struggled to keep the house comfortable during the smoke and heat, that's worth paying attention to before the hottest part of the summer, not after it quits on a 100 degree afternoon. Heavy smoke can also leave a film on the indoor coil that a filter change doesn't reach, so if it's been a few years since anyone serviced your system, this is a sensible time for a maintenance visit. Plenty of systems don't need one, and we'll tell you straight if yours is fine. But if it's been limping, better to find out now.
The Short Version
Now that the air's cleared: change your filter, rinse the ash off your outdoor unit, switch your fan back to "AUTO," and turn your fresh-air ventilation back on. That's most of it, and it takes about ten minutes. Watch for weak airflow or long run times over the next few days, because August's heat isn't done with us yet.
If anything feels off, or you just want peace of mind heading into the hottest stretch, we're glad to take a look. We're a family-run shop covering Nampa, Caldwell, Meridian, Boise, and beyond, at 208-455-5158.