Spring visit, fall visit: what each one is for
Dallas averages about 3,125 cooling degree days and just under 2,000 heating degree days a year (NOAA normals; climate zone 3A). Both pieces of equipment do real work, and the two visits have different jobs:
| Item | April — cooling | October — heating |
|---|---|---|
| Refrigerant / combustion | Charge by superheat and subcooling, corrected for a 75°F April day | Combustion analysis on the furnace; heat exchanger inspection on anything over ten years |
| Ignition / start components | Capacitor measured against rating, contactor inspected | Flame sensor cleaned, ignitor resistance checked, gas pressure against the rating plate |
| Coils and burners | Condenser coil cleaned (spring oak and cottonwood), evaporator inspected | Burners cleaned, flame pattern inspected |
| Airflow | Static pressure, temperature split, filter | Static pressure, limit and rollout switch operation, blower amps |
| Drainage / venting | Condensate line flushed, secondary pan and line on attic units | Condensate trap on high-efficiency furnaces cleared and its routing checked for freeze exposure; flue and venting |
| Storm items | Condenser fins after spring hail; hail guard | Intake and exhaust PVC clear; CO reading at the supply |
The attic is the third piece of equipment
Most DFW homes built since 1990 — Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Arlington, Grand Prairie — run the air handler and all the ductwork through an attic that reaches 130°F in July and drops below freezing in an Arctic outbreak. A static-pressure reading at the tune-up is the cheapest test of whether that duct system is choking the equipment; a duct leakage test is the next step. Oncor's Home Energy Efficiency Program pays participating service providers toward duct sealing, with the incentive taken off the invoice, which makes the tune-up the right moment to ask. Oncor.
The Dallas maintenance calendar
April, before the first sustained 90°F, for cooling. October, before the first cold night after Halloween, for heating. Between them, nothing scheduled: from June to August contractors are on emergency calls, and a filter every 30 days is the whole job. The winter storm weeks — the pattern of February 2011, February 2021 and December 2022 — are when an October visit pays back: a furnace with a clean flame sensor, a cleared condensate trap and a checked ignitor restarts after an outage; one that was never looked at does not.
Where in DFW
Contractors in the network cover Dallas County — Dallas, Irving, Garland, Richardson, Carrollton, Grand Prairie — and run north through Plano, Frisco and McKinney and west through Arlington to Fort Worth. Lakewood, Oak Cliff, the Park Cities and the M Streets inside Dallas have older closet furnaces with metal flues, where the fall combustion analysis is the visit that matters; the 1995-onward subdivisions in Frisco, McKinney, Plano and Grand Prairie have attic systems where the spring static-pressure and drain checks matter most.
Between visits, in Dallas
- Filter every 30 days from April to September. Oak, then cottonwood, then the dust of a dry August; DFW loads a 1-inch filter faster than the label says.
- Hail. After a storm, look at the condenser fins from the side. Folded fins are a fin-comb job; crushed fins are a photograph-it-for-insurance job.
- Before a freeze. Know where the furnace intake and exhaust PVC exit the wall, and where the condensate line runs; if either is in an unheated garage, that is the thing that fails at 15°F.
- Thermostat. A heat pump's auxiliary heat indicator on for hours at 40°F means the outdoor unit has quietly failed. Call before the bill arrives.
What maintenance costs in Dallas
Dallas labor is at the low end of the five metros. The two-visit plan is the honest product here; make it list what is measured.
- Spring AC tune-up, standalonecharge by subcooling, capacitor, coil clean, static and split recorded$95–$220
- Fall furnace check, standalonecombustion analysis, exchanger inspection, condensate routing$110–$240
- Two-visit planApril and October, priority scheduling$170–$340 / yr
- Premium plantwo visits, priority in July and during freezes, 10–20% repair discount$300–$560 / yr
- Duct leakage testbefore Oncor incentive on the sealing that follows$150–$400
Heat pump owners: the auxiliary-heat check
All-electric homes in Arlington, Grand Prairie, Garland and the newer Frisco and McKinney subdivisions heat with a heat pump and electric strips. The fall visit on one of those is different from a furnace check, and a plan written for gas furnaces skips it. Ask for: the reversing valve exercised into heat mode and back; a forced defrost cycle timed; the outdoor coil and fan checked for the winter; the strips staged one at a time with amp draw recorded per stage; and the thermostat balance point set so the strips do not run above about 35°F. The number that matters on the invoice is the strip amp draw — a 10 kW strip bank drawing 20 amps has a burned element and will leave you short on the first 20°F night.
If the fall visit finds a cracked exchanger or an ignitor on its last cycle, the Dallas furnace repair page has the costs. The full tune-up checklist and plan comparison for any metro are on the maintenance page. Storm and freeze outlooks: National Weather Service Fort Worth/Dallas.