This year I learned a lesson that I probably should have already known. I never really thought about it before, but when you’re getting ready to turn your A/C on for the first time at the beginning of the summer season, you really should check all around your outdoor unit. Usually the exterior A/C unit is placed somewhere around your house where you don’t really see it. For instance, ours is at the back of our garage where you can’t see it from the road. It would really be easy to forget that it’s even back there if you don’t make it a point to check on it once in a while. After what happened with my A/C unit this year, I know that I will never again forget to check the exterior unit. My exterior A/C component was back there behind the garage, minding its own business, and I turned the thermostat down and caused the air conditioning to start up. This wouldn’t have been a big deal at all if I had only checked for weeds and vines outside first. However, over the winter and spring, a lot of debris and vegetation from my yard started growing up and over the casing of the A/C unit. When I turned the thermostat on and the fans started turning, it somehow caused a huge vine to get wrapped around the fan. The fan got stuck, and it ended up burning out the entire A/C motor. I felt like such an idiot when I had to pay for the air conditioning repairs.