Experts advise having your furnace serviced annually. This will extend its lifespan while decreasing energy costs.
Regular furnace maintenance saves you money and protects against harmful carbon monoxide leaks in your home, which could pose a significant health hazard. Here are a few points to remember when deciding how often to have your furnace inspected and serviced.
Regular furnace maintenance is a wise investment, ensuring cost savings and safety against potential carbon monoxide hazards; for trusted AC and furnace services, chill out with Johnstown’s AC repair experts.
East Bay Professional Management say regular furnace maintenance saves you money and protects against harmful carbon monoxide leaks in your home, which could pose a significant health hazard. Here are a few points to remember when deciding how often to have your furnace inspected and serviced.
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1. Schedule a tune-up
Any landlord or homeowner who has experienced the headache of having their furnace freeze over in winter knows the urgency of calling in a service call is imperative. Luckily, however, many of the repair costs associated with furnace breakdown can be avoided by following some simple preventive maintenance measures.
An annual furnace tune-up should be essential to your annual maintenance plan. It should include an inspection of the heat exchanger, burners and flue to detect potential leaks; gas users will also benefit from having their carbon monoxide detectors checked as part of this service.
Professional air filter cleaners will also clean and replace air filters over time, which become clogged with dust and other debris, forcing the blower to work harder in moving air around, potentially leading to its breakdown. Keeping your filter clean can extend its lifespan while helping ensure the proper functioning of the blower system.
At each maintenance visit, your technician will make sure the thermostat is operating as intended, and all components are working efficiently.
This may involve inspecting the blower belt for wear and tension as well as cleaning out the combustion chamber, checking the ignition system for cracks or dislocation, lubricating fans and moving parts, resetting pilot lights (which should burn blue), checking carbon monoxide alarms, and making sure flue pipe remains clear of obstructions or animals.
2. Change the filter
A dirty furnace filter forces the system to work harder to warm the home, increasing heating costs and necessitating additional repairs.
Furthermore, an obstructed filter fails to trap contaminants such as air pollutants that could make you and your family sick – this makes changing filters regularly crucial in providing improved indoor air quality, particularly important in households with pets or members suffering from allergies or asthma.
Check your filter monthly or at least twice annually – changing filters is one of the easiest and least expensive ways of keeping your furnace in good working order.
To prevent burning or injuring yourself when changing filters, switch off power first by turning off both furnace and breaker box power switches before replacing filters in service panels; open these and locate the filter in a small compartment or beneath the air return vent.
Replace the old filter with a new one, then tighten the cover back on. Be sure to mark your calendar next time to change filters again!
Other straightforward maintenance tasks include lubricating the bearings of the blower and inducer fan motor bearings to ensure smooth rotation and cleaning out your combustion flue regularly to avoid dangerous carbon monoxide from escaping from the furnace and entering your home, potentially endangering the lives of you and your loved ones.
3. Clean the coils
Your furnace’s evaporator coil serves as its centerpiece, pulling and distributing warm air throughout your home through an air filter system. Over time, however, its coils may become coated with dust, grime, mildew or bacteria, which forces it to work harder and less efficiently while decreasing indoor air quality due to dirty coils.
Cleaning coils should be an essential component of your routine maintenance plan, as this simple task can stop costly repairs in the future and improve air quality in your home.
Clean evaporator coils are important because any build-up of microorganisms could quickly block airflow through vents and block vents altogether. Poor airflow could result in overheating of your unit and premature breakdown.
Professional coil cleaners will remove the outer casing and top of their unit to expose its coils for cleaning, inspecting for large debris such as dirt clods or leaves, then use a coil brush – a specialized cleaning tool with stiffer bristles than hand brooms but less stiff than wire brushes.
This is to loosen any dust build-up before using another fin brush to straighten bent coil fins – usually taking one to two hours total for this step of cleaning the coils.
4. Check the thermostat
During a maintenance visit, an HVAC professional will inspect and clean various components of your furnace. This includes verifying thermostat accuracy, and calibration guarantees accurate temperature control.
You can also check thermostat settings on your own and replace batteries if necessary. Proper calibration ensures accurate temperature control.
Wrapping up
Homeowners tend to envision winter as being filled with warmth and coziness, fire crackling in the background as they sit by the sofa with hot cocoa. Unfortunately, this lovely scenario could quickly change into an icy nightmare if their furnace hasn’t been maintained in over 12 months.
One of the best ways for homeowners to take care of their furnaces is by getting an annual tune-up. Most manufacturer warranties require regular servicing of furnaces to remain valid;
Otherwise, any warranty claims could void it, forcing owners to cover out-of-pocket repairs. That is why signing up for a maintenance plan may be more cost-effective than paying one-time for tune-up services.
