With winter nearly here, it’s past time to make sure your home is ready to keep your family warm and safe till spring. With typical January lows below 20 degrees here on the shores of Lake Erie, and 43 inches of snow falling in an average year, don’t neglect an autumn furnace service call.
Informed Choice. Sure, an informed homeowner may notice a missing flue cap, but would you know if your vent connector was undersized, thus constricting exhaust flow, or your furnace was on the verge of leaking carbon monoxide into your home? Probably not. Calling in a pro seems obvious. Sadly, some homeowners’ experience with service calls is less than ideal. With phrases such as “annual maintenance check-up,” “basic tune-up”, “certification” and “safety check” all bandied about by competing companies, it can be difficult to know whom to trust and what to expect.
Procedure. There’s far more to the autumn furnace service call than simply vacuuming out dust and visually inspecting hardware for corrosion, wiring for damage and filters for clogging (although all are important). Other tasks should include:
- Seals along the entire vent system (including inside the furnace) and around the blower door must be checked.
- Blockages and leaks in fresh-air intakes and vent pathways must be removed.
- If the blower wheel has accumulated atmospheric debris, it has to be completely removed before service.
- The burner(s) must ignite properly, and the gas must burn correctly.
- Your condensate drain and trap must be cleaned (again, this involves equipment internal to the furnace).
- An amp-draw test must be carried out on the blower motor, and the technician must have access to the manufacturer’s recommended results to determine if all is well.
- Gas pressure testing, static air pressure checks and temperature rise checks should all be carried out.
Depending on the age and service conditions of your furnace, this could be only a partial list of recommended maintenance procedures. Ask potential contractors what their service process includes. Meanwhile, you can be sure that contacting Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning is your guarantee of complete service.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about furnace service calls and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning
1 (440) 246-5440
Serving the Lorain, OH Area