Having your furnace die on you in the middle of the winter can range from a minor nuisance to a life-threatening emergency. To avoid this risk, it’s important to perform some routine maintenance tasks every winter.
Here are some of the maintenance tasks you should make sure to perform every winter.
Clear the Space Around the Furnace
Whether your furnace is in the finished space or unfinished space in your home, it can collect debris around it. Many people store items around their furnace during the summer when it’s not in use. Make sure there’s adequate space around it to ensure the furnace isn’t going to start a fire. If you’re not sure how much space is needed around your furnace, check your manual or ask the technician when they come. If your furnace is outside your house, such as in the crawl space or an unfinished basement, make sure it is clear – sometimes animals will build up dirt or bedding against the unit.
Also make sure there’s a clear path for the technician to follow to reach your furnace.
Schedule Professional Maintenance
Next, schedule a professional to come and look at your furnace. There are many specialized components in your furnace, and they require the skill, training, and tools of a professional.
Unless you are a trained HVAC technician, attempting to perform most maintenance tasks inside the furnace can break the furnace. There are many delicate components that need to be cleaned and inspected, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can damage them. At a minimum, this can stop your furnace from working. If you break the wrong part of the furnace, you might create a leak of natural gas or combustion products which can include deadly carbon monoxide.
Leave this part of furnace maintenance to the professionals.
Verify the Program on Your Thermostat
However, one thing you can do on your own is to verify that the program on your thermostat is accurate. First, replace the battery or batteries on your thermostat – they can get worn out and replacing them every year is typically enough to make sure your thermostat keeps working.
Next, make sure the clock is accurate. Depending on your thermostat, this might include more than just the hour: it might also include checking the date and/or the day of the week. The day of the week can make a big difference if your thermostat has different programs for each day.
Change the Air Filter
Often, changing the air filter is part of professional maintenance, so you might not need to do it at first. However, changing the air filter is something that needs to be repeated regularly. Most of the time, it’s best to replace the furnace filter every month. In some cases, you might have installed a special variety that says it is good for longer periods of time. You should still inspect them every month to see if they need replacement.
Test Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
Many people follow the guidance to check their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors when they switch to and from daylight savings time. However, if you don’t do it then or forgot this year, now is a good time to do it. Make sure the units are working and replace their batteries.
Inspect Ducts
It’s not always easy to inspect your air ducts, but you should do what you can. First, make sure the heating vent in every room is free of obstructions and open to allow heat into each room.
Next, pull off a few grates to get a look at the dust inside your ducts. If you are unhappy about how dirty they are, consider getting them professionally cleaned.
Finally, follow the ducts that run to any areas that you have noticed were colder last year. Make sure there are no leaks from the ducts. If you find leaks, seal them. If there are no leaks, consider putting insulation around the ductwork.
Monitor Your Furnace’s Function
Your final furnace maintenance task is to monitor the function of your furnace over the course of the winter.
There are a number of nontechnical ways that you can make sure your furnace is working properly this year. First, compare the gas usage of your furnace against previous winters. If the furnace is using a lot more gas even if your settings and outside temperature are comparable, get someone out to look at the unit.
Don’t trust yourself to detect hot or cold spots in the house. Instead, have a few thermometers you can take around the house to measure temperature variations. Before you use any thermometer to test the temperature in your house, though, set it right on your thermostat and compare how they read.
Pay attention to how long the furnace is running when it comes on. If it seems to run for a long time, put your hand by the heat vent and see if the air coming out is hot or tepid. Since the cycle is long, do this at several points during the cycle to see if it starts hot and runs cold later on or vice versa.
Listen to your furnace to see if you hear any unusual sounds.
Occasionally give your furnace a quick visual inspection. Look for cracks, swelling, or heat damage, which might look like a patch of metal with a different color or pattern on its surface.
Major Heating & Air Conditioning Is Here When You Need Us
If you are looking for someone to help with furnace maintenance in Denver or anywhere along the northern Front Range, choose Major Heating & Air Conditioning. Since 1970, we’ve been helping people keep comfortable in their homes and offices during all kinds of weather. We have maintained an A+ rating with the BBB since the mid-1980s using a simple formula: providing our customers with the highest quality HVAC service and products at an exceptional value. Our technicians are skilled in the most up-to-date systems, but our extensive experience means that we are proficient in dealing with older systems – and newer systems in older houses.
For furnace maintenance in the Denver area, please contact Major Heating & Air Conditioning today.
