I'm not arguing that you shouldn't do maintenance.
But do you climb up on your roof and pull up a
shingle to see how the roof is doing?

As long as the A/c is cooling, there will be
refrigerant flow. So, cooling-- no need to check
refrigerant, not cooling-- check the refrigerant.

Stormin Mormon wrote:
One thing to note. The compressor is cooled two ways. One is the refrigerant
flow through the compressor. Second is the air flow. the refrigerant flow is
the major one.

When the freon is low, there isn't enough cooling power, and the compressor
burns out prematurely.

Actually, I can think of one or two other reasons why the compressor would
run hot. I'm sure Stretch (and a few other HVAC techs on this board) can
also.

Maint helps machines last longer. AC, cars, trucks, whatever. Maint prolongs
life of the unit.