What Should Be in a Commercial HVAC Maintenance Agreement

Maintenance agreements vary enormously in what they actually deliver, and the price on the front page tells you almost nothing. Here is what we think belongs in one, whether you sign it with us or with somebody else.

A specified scope, in writing

The agreement should list what gets done on each visit, per unit type. Not “seasonal maintenance” as a line item. An actual task list.

If a contractor cannot produce that document, they have not defined their own service, and you have no way to tell whether you got what you paid for.

Measured values in a written report

This is the single biggest differentiator between a real program and a sticker on the side of a unit.

After every visit you should receive a report with numbers on it. Amp draws against nameplate. Temperature split across the coil. Refrigerant pressures and the superheat or subcooling calculation. Static pressure. Capacitor readings against rating.

Numbers matter because they trend. A capacitor reading ten percent under rating is fine today and tells you exactly when to change it. A compressor drawing progressively higher amps across three visits is a story. Without recorded values you cannot see any of that, and you are back to replacing things after they fail.

An equipment inventory with ages

The agreement should be built on a list of your actual equipment: make, model, serial, location, install date, and refrigerant type.

That list is the foundation for capital planning. It tells you what is approaching end of life so you can budget for replacement in a year you choose, in a season when it can be scheduled, rather than in an emergency.

The refrigerant type matters more every year. Older equipment on phased down refrigerants gets progressively more expensive to repair as supply tightens. Knowing which units those are changes the repair or replace math on each of them.

Defined response times

Not “prompt service.” Hours.

And be honest with yourself about what you need. A restaurant walk in and a warehouse office do not need the same response time and should not be priced the same. Tiering by criticality is reasonable and it usually saves money over a flat premium across everything.

Priority scheduling, explicitly

This is a real part of the value. In the first heat wave of the season, everyone calls at once. Contract customers going first is worth something, and it should be written down rather than implied.

Clear boundaries on what is included

Where agreements get contentious is the line between maintenance and repair.

Filters and belts are usually included. Refrigerant usually is not. Labor on repairs is often discounted rather than free. Emergency and after hours rates should be stated.

Get the exclusions in writing. A cheap agreement with everything excluded is not cheap.

Filters supplied and sized correctly

Sounds small. It is not. The single most common cause of premature commercial equipment failure is airflow, and the most common cause of airflow problems is the wrong filter or an old one.

The agreement should specify sizes, quantity, MERV rating, and change frequency based on the environment. A machine shop and a professional office do not have the same interval.

Economizer and controls verification

Called out specifically because it is skipped almost universally. If your units have economizers, the agreement should require exercising and verifying them each visit.

A broken economizer is invisible and it costs real money in both directions. On a mild day it should be giving you free cooling. Stuck the other way, it is pulling in outdoor air you then have to condition.

Frequency matched to the equipment

Quarterly is a common default for rooftop units. It is not the only right answer.

Equipment in a dirty environment wants more. A small split serving a back office wants less. A kitchen exhaust makeup air unit is its own conversation. Frequency should follow the equipment and the environment, and the agreement should say why.

What we will not put in one

We will not promise that maintenance prevents all failures. It does not. Things fail. What a real program does is convert most failures from unscheduled to scheduled, catch the cheap-part-now problems before they become expensive-part-later problems, and keep equipment running at the capacity you paid for.

That is a genuinely good return. It is just not the same as a guarantee, and anyone selling it as one is overselling.

Getting started

If you have not had a program, start with a condition assessment rather than signing anything. We walk every unit, produce the inventory with ages and condition, and give you a written picture of what you are working with.

From there the agreement can be scoped to your actual equipment and your actual risk, instead of a per unit price pulled off a rate sheet.