Your Furnace (Just Like Your Car) Needs Routine Service

Every time you hop in your car and turn the key, you expect it to fire right up and get you to where you need to go.  At a certain point, this isn’t something you think about either. When was the last time you sat down and crossed your fingers that your car would turn on and get you to your destination? Most likely never, or at least not in awhile.

The same goes for your HVAC system. You turn it on and you expect warm air to fill your house. This is especially true in the winter when you rely on your furnace day in and day out to keep your home warm.

But without proper maintenance your furnace won’t be as reliable as it should be and may even start to break down. Just like your car, it too needs routine service to keep it running in top shape.

Servicing Your Furnace

This about this – you typically drive your car at about 45 miles an hour through town. Most car manufacturers recommend an oil change be done every 3,000 miles, resulting in about 66 hours of drive time between each service.

Compare this to your  furnace which may end up working and operating for over 2,000 miles over the course of the winter, and even into spring and summer. Those hours add up and it shows why it is so important to have your furnace inspected and serviced frequently. It’s a workhorse, and preventative maintenance now will keep it running for many thousands of hours to come.

While we might end up taking care of our cars better than we do our HVAC system, it is important to not take our heating and cooling systems for granted. Read on to learn more about some of the things we do during a furnace tune-up or service.

Multi-Point Inspection

During a furnace tune-up, a HVAC professional goes through and inspects your furnace. If a belt is worn or cracked it’s a sign that the system needs to be serviced. If that belt were to break, your furnace would not be able to propel the warm air through the system.

Besides looking at the belts, the wiring of the furnace is inspected along with the general cleanliness of the system. Damaged wires can cause breakdowns of the system and dirt can start to clog filters or even cause electrical issues on its own. Corroded wires don’t carry electrical current as well as they did when new and can create inconsistencies in the performance of your furnace.

Changing the Air Filter

Dirty air can contaminate and cause issues with your furnace, so the air filter removes those contaminants before they have a chance to enter your system.

Over time the clogged air filter will make it harder for air to move freely through the furnace and duct work. In turn, the furnace has to work harder to push air through, further increasing the load and wear on its internal parts. It also means your furnace will become less efficient as it requires more energy to put in that extra effort.

To make sure your system is running as efficiently as possible, and you’re not overpaying on your energy bill, swap out the air filter every months, or even more during periods of high usage.

Adding Fresh Oil

If your car’s engine needs fresh oil every few thousand miles, so does your furnace. It’s dealing with hot, difficult conditions all day and all night. While your furnace doesn’t have an internal combustion engine, it does having moving parts that need to stay lubricated. As that lubricant breaks down and wears away, friction on the moving parts increases as does the heat these parts generate.

With more friction to contend with your system has to work harder to keep your home warm. This adds even more heat, ruining its ability to run quietly and efficiently. Hard working systems with a lot of friction are also prone to failure as more stress is put on the moving parts.

Getting Your Furnace Tuned Up or Cleaned

Make getting a furnace tune-up as much of a habit as getting your car serviced. A little preventative maintenance now will ensure your furnace will run quietly, efficiently, and consistently all winter long.

If your furnace doesn’t need a full overhaul, consider our furnace cleaning. During this separate service we’ll clean the inside of your furnace, the motor, blower wheel, shroud, and blower assembly.

When you’re ready to schedule an appointment for a furnace tune-up or cleaning, contact us. Be sure to ask us about our SEA Program, which makes you a preferred customer and includes yearly tune-ups. We’ll send you a personalized reminder when your furnace is due for a service so you have one less thing to worry about.