Professional Furnace Tune Up Services
Having your furnace serviced regularly is just as important as having your car’s oil changed on schedule. Regular service calls help keep furnace parts from getting dirty, wearing out, and losing operating efficiency, any of which can cause a sudden breakdown. Even with no indications of a current or potential problem, it’s important to your family’s health and safety to have your furnace serviced regularly.
What does a furnace tune up cover?
Whether a family uses the furnace to keep their home at their ideal temperature, or relies on the heat from it during winter, sudden breakdowns of it are a real pain. A professional will run diagnostic check up and will check different parts and repair any defective part to help the furnace to last as long as possible. By regularly having your unit inspected, you can keep it from breaking down, experiencing problems, or needing to be replaced. An added bonus is more efficient energy use and the resulting decrease in your heating bills during the winter.
During a tune-up, a professional will:
- pilot system and/or electrical components
- clean the major components of the furnace
- lubricate the mechanical parts
- check for system leaks and tears or gaps in the ductwork
- recalibrate the thermostat
- test the heating elements
- test the safety and limit switches
Why is a tune-up necessary?
Cleaning the interior of a furnace is done for other than aesthetic purposes. When you have a cleaner furnace then it will run more smoothly compared with a dirty one. Your system’s efficiency will improve greatly after the air flow filter has been replaced and the coils cleaned, which will save you money on your energy bills.
One important step in the tune-up process of your furnace is testing of the pilot system. When fuel in it is incompletely burned this can be a health hazard for the family. A certified technician will let you know upon inspection if your furnace is at high risk of leaking such dangerous gas to your home.
Regular maintenance of furnace units will allow for not only savings in energy bills but long-term savings in money by helping one avoid the costly repairs. When the unit is lacking in its maintenance then this could lead to more repair needs. Your furnace will last longer because dirty or malfunctioning parts make a furnace work harder, which means it will wear out faster. Eventually, some parts may be too pricey to fix and replacing the whole unit is the best thing to do.
You probably give your furnace little thought until it breaks down on a frigid day, but it’s wise to schedule a service call before the temperature begins to drop in the fall. When you have it properly maintained, you can make use of your furnace in your home from 15-20 years. You might even get 30 or 40 years of use out of your furnace, depending on your usage.
If you find that there is still warranty in your furnace, you need to have it regularly tuned-up to be able to use it. Many manufacturers will not issue refunds unless the homeowner has had all required maintenance checks performed, though they may still repair or replace a defective unit. When the parts are dirty, they become ineffective, which means your furnace must work harder.
How should homeowners maintain their furnaces between tune-ups?
When there are no repairs that need to be done on it, there is actually little maintaining that needs to be done on one’s furnace. Of course, there are some things you can do to keep your furnace working as long as possible and continue working between tune-ups.
One way to ensure that your furnace runs efficiently is to regularly change the air filter. When there is a filter that is dirty this can lead to a strain on the mechanical parts of the furnace. An air filter should be changed every three months especially if pets are in the home. The air filters help in the removal of allergens and anything that’s toxic so that there’s plenty of fresh air to breathe in your home.
If there are too many air vents that have been closed this can put additional stress on the furnace and cause damage to some of its parts. Another unforeseen consequence of closing off vents is the promotion of mold growth. Closing vents, contrary to what some homeowners think, won’t save any money in the long run because the furnace may need to be replaced sooner.
Finally, if your furnace vents are outside of your home, you must take the time to make sure they’re not being blocked by critters, debris, or other things. The best time to check for these problems are when the season changes. If your furnace appears to have problems running, you can also check for this before calling for repair from the experts.