Supply Chain Issues and HVAC Products: What You Need to Know

It’s been a trying two years in the wake of the pandemic, to say the very least. Thankfully, things have begun to look up in the past few months and it seems like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, one of the lingering issues of the pandemic has been and remains the supply chain issues caused by 18+ months of quarantines and lockdown procedures. A lot of products are still backed up and unavailable. HVAC products are, sadly, also included in those backups. And with the current oil price spike, prices are rising across the board for just about anything you can imagine. Where do these supply chain issues with HVAC products leave you? The homeowner?

What Prices to Expect and Why

Warm weather historically drives up demand for HVAC equipment. That means we’re about to hit a time of huge demand for these HVAC products. The warmer the climate, the more demand. This isn’t much of a surprise, this happens every year. The difference is, in the wake of COVID, there is still less product to go around for the same amount of homes. Steel, aluminum, and plastics which HVAC products are made of, have skyrocketed with this scarcity, driving prices up as much as 20-30%. Copper, a major competent or AC systems, has hit all-time highs since the start of the supply chain issues. The long and short of it is that these price increases on raw materials bleed through to the projects themselves. 

Order Early and Order in Bulk

One of the best ways to counteract the current state of the HVAC supplies market is to order early. Ships bogged down at the docks take months to be processed and unloaded. If you start placing orders for the HVAC materials you need for the summer cooling season now, odds are they’ll be here just in time for things to start heating up.

Ordering early is a great way to circumvent the supply chain issues, but so is ordering in bulk. Any car owner will tell you that parts break and go bad with age. Instead of waiting four or five months for your evaporator coil to be unloaded from a boat in Long Beach, order an extra now and get ahead of the game. Order it now, keep it on-hand when it eventually comes, and when your part eventually breaks, the replacement is already on-hand, waiting to be properly installed.

Keep up On Your HVAC Maintenance

You’ll never catch us not advocating for taking care of your HVAC system. The #1 way to avoid HVAC supply chain problems is to make sure you need as few replacement parts as humanly possible. Regular maintenance from a licensed professional can catch potential issues and repair them before they cause such damage that full-blown replacement is required.

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