MOULTRIE — Excessive temperatures have people running for their air conditioners, relying on the relief that they provide from the sweltering outdoors. Unfortunately, it seems that sometimes things will stop working at the worst possible time.

Andy Rhodes, owner of Rhodes Cooling and Heating, said his service department worked about 75 hours last week.

“We’re worked to death. We’re doing all we can do,” he said.

He compared their days lately with a restaurant during its lunch hour and how busy it was. Except, he said, they would be “lunch-crowd busy” all day long.

Bobby Ferguson, owner of Ferguson Heating and Air Conditioning, said he has also been busy day and night. He said they average about 15 or 20 calls a day and have been running extra hours.

“We’re a lot busier than we were this time last year. … A lot of it is people wondering why their unit is running all the time,” he said.

C.J. Merritt, also of Ferguson Heating and Air Conditioning, said instead of calling in May to have their air conditioner serviced, some folks have waited until now when the temperature has hit 100 degrees. He said they wait too late to call about it and now workers are running services calls until 8 or 9 at night.

“Now there’s not enough days in the week,” he said.

Rhodes suggested some things that people can do to keep their unit in good condition like not laying things on top of the unit and cleaning the filters regularly.

“Please don’t wait until your filter is dirty. Change it. Don’t wait until it’s clogged-up to change it,” he said emphatically.

He said,changing the filter regularly is especially important in mobile homes because the air conditioning units are small.

He also said, since the temperature is at 100, if the unit is running in the high 70s, it’s doing its job.

“Please be understanding to your air conditioning man because he is stressed to the limits,” concluded Rhodes.