Earlier this week, we were called out to a retail shop in Edinburgh to repair an air conditioning fault.
We discovered it had been caused by mice biting through parts in the outdoor units.
The mice had chewed the insulation and ended up damaging some vital components.
There are plenty of mice in the capital but it’s still not very often that we see this kind of damage.
Why Do Mice Get Into Air Conditioning Units?
The insulation in air conditioning units attracts animals because it’s warm and suitable for nesting.
Often, we see rodent droppings around outdoor air conditioning units and we’ve come across dead mice which look like they’ve had an electric shock.
Air conditioning units also attract other animals. We’ve encountered pigeons nesting and a few which have got caught in the fans.
How Do You Keep Mice Out of Your Air Conditioning Units?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot you can do to protect yourself against rodent damage, aside from taking the usual precautions. You can try and block access panels, pipe entries and cable entries using metal plact or mesh, but these methods are far from foolproof.
You may not even notice that mice are around until they chew through a wire or damage a component. The retail shop we visited weren’t aware they had a problem until their air conditioning stopped working altogether.
The one thing you can do – and we recommend you do it – is take out a planned preventative maintenance contract.
Here’s why.
The retailer’s system had been in place for around 8 months but the company hadn’t taken out a maintenance contract with their installer. Had we installed the system, we’d have advised them to have maintenance carried out every 6 months, which could have prevented the damage.
An experienced engineer could have spotted the presence of mice straight away and notified the customer. When checking inside the condensers, which you can’t do yourself, an engineer would have seen any damage that had already occurred and helped the retailer to take appropriate actions.
Regular Maintenance Gives You Peace of Mind and Saves You Money
While this kind of issue is rare, it highlights the importance of having a planned preventative maintenance contract.
It’s impossible for you to take every eventuality into account and you can’t be expected to know everything that’s going on inside your system.
Regular visits from an air conditioning installer should eliminate all hidden faults. Issues like this aren’t covered by the manufacturer’s warranty either, so you could save yourselves a lot of money.
Now the repairs are complete, the retailer is understandably keen to take out a maintenance contract.
It gives you peace of mind and saves you money. You never know when you might be extremely grateful for a call.