When you’re a homeowner, you must keep your home comfortable. During the wintertime, that means keeping your furnace in working order. Many homeowners don’t know a lot about furnace repair. You also may not know how to perform the necessary proactive maintenance to keep your furnace from breaking down. Read on to learn about furnace maintenance.

Many homeowners who want help keeping their furnaces working have turned to a furnace maintenance service. According to Forbes, these services might visit your home every quarter to check the filter, especially its fuel lines and oil connections. These professionals will know how to check for common furnace problems, such as a broken thermostat or frequent cycling, which occurs when the furnace continues turning back on after it has completed a full cycle.

These service contracts are intended to be proactive. If the maintenance tech finds a broken furnace, they may be unable to fix or replace it immediately due to time constraints. When signing a contract with the maintenance service, you may want to consider an extended contract that would include the option of paying extra for a repair or replacement. Another option that could be helpful would be the ability to call the service for emergency furnace repair.

Would you like to avoid emergency furnace repair this winter? To prevent unexpected problems, before you fire up your heater this fall, hire a furnace cleaning and service provider to conduct a maintenance visit. This service professional handles cleaning the ductwork, examining the furnace and related systems, and adding fluids when needed.

An annual furnace cleaning and tune up costs little, and many furnace repair companies offer bulk packages that include a few years of annual service visits. Buying these five-year or ten-year packages from a reputable business that has operated for ten years or more can save you money. You pay for the package in a single payment at the current price, but you avail yourself of five to ten years of service at the current price. Inflation never affects the price of your maintenance visits.

During the inspection of the furnace, the service provider informs you of developing issues that could turn into common furnace problems if not addressed immediately. Fixing a small issue often costs less than repairing a major issue, so have the service provider repair the problem that day, if possible. Some furnace repair services offer financing or payment plans which can make repairs more affordable for everyone.

Your furnace is what makes your home go round. It is responsible for heating your home on a cold winter’s night, and it is the one thing that keeps you cold on sweltering summer days. You might not realize that your heating and cooling system is functioning properly until it is broken, and then you are stuck looking for furnace repair when you need it the most! Furnaces typically last on average of 15 to 18 years, and account for about 48% of the energy used in your home! Here are some clues that symbolizes HVAC systems are almost at the end of their life, so you can know when to call a local HVAC technician.

It is making noise when inanimate objects should not be making noise.

Your furnace should be quietly humming along in your basement, not making odd popping, squealing or banging noises. These noises are common in older furnaces, so if you are hearing them more frequently you may need to get your furnace looked at.

A smell

Smelling gas in a home can lead to a homeowner’s nightmare. If you smell gas at all, this could potentially mean you have a leak in your heat exchanger which could lead to a serious issue if not resolved.

High bills but an inefficient machine

Are your electric bills sky high? This may be a sign your furnace needs repair as it has lost its efficiency as it aged. So now your machine is working harder to provide lackluster service, and is running longer to provide the same amount of heating and cooling. Or, if hot and cold spots happen frequently in your home because the furnace isn’t keeping up, look into furnace repair.

Your duct work could also be a culprit, as traditional ductwork can have cooling losses up to 40%.

Dust on dust

Taking more time than usual out of your cleaning routine to dust? Old furnaces often have trouble filtering the air that enters your home, so checking your air filter and HVAC system is a must if you are noticing this trend.

Find any of these symptoms in your home? Make sure to call your local HVAC services technicians for furnace repair before it is too late!