If you live in an area that experiences cold winters, you probably have a furnace or boiler installed in your home to help with keeping your family warm and cozy during the fall and winter months. What a lot of homeowners might not realize is the fact that routine annual maintenance for a heating system could help to extend its life and ensure that the appliance continues to run at peak efficiency.
Regardless of whether you have a gas or electric furnace, or a boiler installed, you need to be sure that you have it regularly inspected, cleaned, and checked for any potential problems. During a maintenance appointment is when many issues may be caught early on and taken care of so that the unit doesn’t experience a total breakdown.
During your maintenance check, the following will need to be looked at:
- Thermostat: this device needs to be accurate so that you can know for sure what the actual temperature is inside of your home. It also sends signals to your furnace/boiler and lets it know when to run or shut off, based on what you want the temperature inside of your home to be. All connections will need to be inspected for any wear and tear.
- Controls: the controls that tell the unit to run or shut off will need to be thoroughly examined to be sure they are working properly, and are free of dirt and dust.
- Moving parts inside of the system: these will need to be inspected and cleaned so that there isn’t any build-up of dirt or dust which could create friction and lead to premature wear and tear.
- Electrical connections: these will need to be checked and tightened in furnaces/boilers that use electricity.
- Pilot lights: the light with natural gas units will need to be visually inspected to be sure it looks normal, and if the light routinely goes out in your home, this could be an issue that the technician will be able to take a look at.
- Heat exchanger: this is one of the most important components of a natural gas furnace. It will be checked to ensure that it is not cracked or damaged.
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To learn more, or to enroll in one of our heating maintenance or repair plans, please feel free to give us a call.