Your Hurricane Season Home Prep Checklist for AC, Plumbing, and Electrical
Everybody in South Florida has a hurricane routine by now. Water, batteries, gas in the car, shutters ready to go, and a group text that starts filling up the second a storm gets named.
What tends to get left off that list is the equipment that actually runs your house. Your AC, plumbing, and electrical panel all take a major beating during storm season, and they’re also the three things you’ll miss most in the days after one passes. Power flickers back on, the humidity is brutal, and now the AC won’t start.
Mainline has been the main choice for home services in South Florida since 2012, and our team spends every summer taking these calls across Broward and Palm Beach counties. Here’s the walkthrough we’d give a neighbor, broken into the three systems that matter most.
How Do You Get Your AC Ready for Hurricane Season?
Your air conditioner works harder in August than at any other point in the year, and a storm adds power surges, wind-driven debris, and standing water into the mix. A little attention now will go a long way toward keeping it running when the grid comes back.
- Schedule maintenance before the season peaks: A tune up will help catch the weak parts of your system before they’re tested by the weather. Our expert technicians will check the refrigerant levels, clean the coils, tighten electrical connections, and confirm the drain line is clear. It’s important to note that air conditioning maintenance is far easier to book in June than the week after a major storm.
- Clear the space around your outdoor unit: Give it a couple feet on all sides and trim back the hedges. Loose branches, patio furniture, and planters turn into projectiles in high wind, and your condenser is usually right in the path.
- Never cover the unit while it’s running: If you want to protect it during a storm, shut the system off at the thermostat and at the breaker first. Covering a running unit chokes airflow and can damage the compressor.
- Turn the system off before the power goes out: Cycling power hard on an AC unit is one of the most common ways they fail during a storm. Switch it off at the breaker if an outage looks likely, then wait a few minutes after power is restored before turning it back on.
- Check your drain line: South Florida humidity means your cooling system pulls a remarkable amount of water out of the air. A clogged condensate line will back up into the pan and then into your ceiling or closet floor. This is the single most common summer AC call we get.
- Think about the humidity, not just the temperature: A house that sits without power for two days in August will feel swampy for a whole week afterward. A whole-home dehumidifier or an indoor air quality assessment will help your home dry out and prevent the mold and mildew that follows a long outage.
One final note: if your ductwork is older and/or you’ve noticed certain rooms in your home never seem to cool evenly, air duct sealing is definitely worth asking about while you’re already thinking about your air conditioning system. Just bring it up with our experts on the phone when you call us to schedule your storm prep maintenance service.
What Plumbing Prep Should South Florida Homeowners Do Before a Storm?
Heavy rain and storm surge push water where it doesn’t belong, and a plumbing problem during an outage is genuinely miserable. Fortunately, most of this plumbing prep is quick and relatively easy.
- Test your sump pump: Pour a bucket of water into the pit and make sure the sump pump turns on, moves the water, and shuts off. If it hesitates or runs rough, you’ll want to schedule a sump pump repair before any heavy rain arrives – not during it.
- Get a plumbing inspection: A professional plumbing inspection will help find any slow leaks, corroded connections, or an aging water heater that could easily become an emergency at the worst possible moment. Mainline’s Protection Plan members get an annual plumbing inspection included, which is a tidy way to keep this from slipping.
- Know where your main shutoff is: If a line breaks or a fixture fails, being able to kill the water in 30 seconds will be the difference between a mop and an insurance claim. Locate your main shutoff now and make sure the valve actually turns and works correctly.
- Clear your drains and gutters: Slow drains get worse fast when the ground outside is already saturated. Scheduling a drain clearing or hydro jetting service before the season arrives will keep water moving away from your home instead of pooling inside of it.
- Protect your drinking water: Backflow happens when pressure drops and contaminated water gets pulled backward into your clean supply. Storm conditions and municipal pressure loss are exactly when that risk climbs, and backflow testing and prevention is exactly how you guard against it.
- Fill tubs and store water: If you’re on a well, an outage means no well pump and no water. Storing water ahead of a hurricane is standard advice for a reason. Getting a well pump repair on the books if necessary is worth scheduling now if yours has been noisy or inconsistent.
How Do You Protect Your Home’s Electrical System During Storm Season?
Electrical damage is the part of storm prep homeowners usually think about the least and regret the most. Surges don’t just come from lightning. They also happen when utility power is restored to a whole neighborhood all at once.
- Install whole-home surge protection: A power strip guards one device, but whole-home surge protection installs directly at your panel and shields everything wired into the house, including your AC, water heater, and the appliances nobody thinks about until they’re dead.
- Get an electrical safety inspection: Older South Florida homes often have panels and wiring that were fine 30 years ago but aren’t sized for how we live now. An electrical safety inspection helps locate any overloaded circuits, outdated panels, and connections that corrode in our salty air.
- Consider a standby generator: A whole-home generator starts automatically when the power goes out, so your AC, refrigerator, and medical equipment continue running. Mainline installs and services home generators, and we’re a certified Generac dealer. It’s important to note that this is a spring and early summer project, since lead times stretch once a storm is on the radar.
- Service the generator you already own: A generator that hasn’t run since the last hurricane is a coin toss. Home generator repair and a test run before the season begins means you’ll find out on a calm Tuesday afternoon instead of during an outage.
- Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors: Generator and portable fuel use spikes after storms, and so does carbon monoxide risk. Working smoke and CO detectors matter more during an outage than at any other time of year.
- Charge everything and know your panel: Label your breakers now so you’re not guessing in the dark. If a breaker trips repeatedly after power returns, that’s a signal to call and schedule a repair rather than to keep resetting it.
Get Your Checklist Handled Before the Next Named Storm
Storm prep is one of the few home projects where timing is the whole thing. Booking an AC tune up, a plumbing inspection, or a surge protection install in June is routine. Trying to book any of it with a cone on the map is a different experience entirely.
If you’d rather keep this on autopilot, the Mainline Protection Plan bundles regular inspections, repair discounts, no evaluation fees, and no emergency service charges into a monthly membership. Plan details and current pricing are available on our maintenance plan page.
Mainline Plumbing, AC & Electrical proudly serves Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Boca Raton, Coral Springs, Plantation, Davie, Hollywood, Margate, Coconut Creek, Oakland Park, Lauderhill, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Lake Worth, and communities throughout Broward and Palm Beach counties. Call (954) 280-5597 or schedule your maintenance service online today.