As the weather heats up again, many of us rely heavily  on our air conditioners. But are we keeping them in tip-top shape, so they can keep us cool? We talked to air conditioner technicians who wanted to remind us we have to keep our units clean, inside and out--to get the best performance.

If your unit is outside, covered with trees or beside bushes, you may want to check on it, To help, when  you mow your lawn ,mow away from your unit, if not you may push grass inside.

Techs say if its clogged, it can't do its job.The same goes for the inside.  You should change your filters every month. And try not to block the vents or returns with with furniture, that could clog your unit and over time, cause more damage.

Technician Brandon Deitering said, "One of the biggest causes of a unit not cooling well, we go out and see quite often is air filters are very dirty, stopped up and being sucked into the returns that dirty filter,  you're not getting air in your air conditioner so you're not able to cool the air in your house."

If you check out your unit and its kind of dirty, you don't have to call a service technician you can rinse it off with a water hose, ,but use a spray and not a steady stream of water, that could damage your unit. Also if you realize if you realize you're having a problem, they say its best to turn it off.

If you need to call a technician , that could cost a couple hundred dollars. But a new AC unit might set you back a few a thousand.