A filter that blocks in six weeks is telling you something about the valley
Driftwood works on heating, cooling and ventilation across Santa Maria and the valleys around it. This is an agricultural basin with a marine layer over it, and both of those change what a system has to do — which is why we ask what is growing near you before we ask what is installed.
Dust and the fields
Five things people notice crossed with four kinds of building. What filtration can honestly do about field dust and smoke, what it cannot, and the questions that belong to the County Agricultural Commissioner rather than to us.
Two climates at once
The marine layer keeps the peak temperatures down and the humidity up, so cooling loads here are modest by California standards and oversizing is the usual error. Meanwhile the valley puts fine soil into the air whenever it is worked, and that lands on coils, in filters and on the inside of ductwork.
Modest loads and heavy fouling is an unusual combination. It means the maintenance matters more than the machine does.
What we will not tell you
We make no health claims and we do not assess exposure. If something in the air is affecting somebody, that is a matter for a doctor, and questions about applications near your home go to the County Agricultural Commissioner. What we can do is the mechanical part, measured and written down.
Six things
Repair
No cooling and no heat, checked in order of cost, with the reading that proves the answer shown to you rather than described.
Coil cleaning
Properly, from the inside face out, not a rinse from the garden hose. In this valley a fouled condenser coil is the commonest cause of a system that has quietly stopped performing.
Filtration
Sized against what the system can carry, with the cabinet sealed so the air actually goes through it. Here the filter path matters more than the filter grade.
Duct testing
Leakage and static pressure measured. A leaking return in a dusty valley is drawing field air straight into the house every minute the system runs.
Gas heat
Combustion tested and the figures recorded, heat exchangers inspected, flues checked as installed. The nights here get colder than people expect.
Premises
Shops, restaurants, offices and light industrial along Broadway and out toward the airport. Planned maintenance twice a year, more often where the dust load justifies it.
Houses
Post-war and later tract housing across the city, older cottages nearer downtown, and a fair number of houses on the valley edge with a field on the other side of the fence. The last group is a different job from the first.
Premises
Retail, restaurants, offices, clinics and light industrial. A written record per unit, maintenance intervals set by what the site actually collects, and a straight answer about what we do not handle.
Six things this website does not print
| Health claims | None, anywhere. We are not clinicians and we do not assess exposure. Nothing here says a product will protect anybody from anything. |
| Prices | A coil clean, a filter cabinet and a duct repair are three different jobs. A figure here would be a guess. |
| A response time | We do not publish one. We will tell you where you are in the queue when you ring. |
| Capture percentages | No “removes 99% of” anything. Those figures come from a laboratory test on one product in one condition and they do not describe your house. |
| Reviews and ratings | There are none on this site. When there are real ones they will be somewhere you can check them. |
Asked most often
Our filter blocks in about six weeks. Is that normal here?
In this valley it can be entirely normal, and it is also the most useful measurement in the house because you are taking it for free. The important thing is to change it on your schedule rather than the one on the packet — a blocked filter starves the system exactly as effectively as one that is too fine, and you get no warning. Also look at how it loaded: a clean strip at one edge means air is bypassing it and the cabinet is not sealing.
Should we fit a better filter?
Be careful about what better means. A denser filter in the same one-inch slot raises resistance sharply and costs you airflow, which reduces capacity and puts strain on the blower. If you want finer filtration you want more area rather than more resistance — a four- or five-inch media cabinet where there is room for one. And before any of that, seal the filter path, because in a great many houses most of the air is simply going round the filter.
Can you tell us whether the air is affecting our family?
No, and we would be careful of any contractor who says they can. We are heating and cooling contractors and we make no health claims and do not assess exposure. That is a question for a doctor. Questions about what is being applied on fields near your home go to the County Agricultural Commissioner, who has the authority and the records. What we can do is the mechanical part, measured and written down, which is useful to have in either conversation.
Does cleaning the coil really make a difference?
In this valley it is frequently the whole answer. A condenser coil works by moving a lot of air through very fine fins, and fine soil is exactly the wrong thing to put into that. A rinse from the outside cleans the side you can see and packs the rest deeper in. Cleaning it properly, from the inside face with the fan section opened, is an unglamorous hour that is worth more here than most of what gets sold instead.
How big a system do we need?
Usually smaller than people expect. The marine layer keeps the peak temperatures down and the humidity up, so a system that satisfies the thermostat in eight minutes never runs long enough to take moisture out and the house ends up cool and heavy. Oversizing is the local error. We size from the building rather than from the old rating plate.
Which areas do you cover?
Santa Maria, Orcutt, Nipomo, Guadalupe, Arroyo Grande, Lompoc, Los Alamos and Buellton.
South Broadway, Santa Maria
2230 S Broadway, Santa Maria, CA 93454. We cover Santa Maria, Orcutt, Nipomo, Guadalupe, Arroyo Grande, Lompoc, Los Alamos and Buellton.
Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 4.30pm. (805) 669-4730