Gearing up for the holiday season involves a lot of preparation and planning. While getting ready for the upcoming festivities, don’t forget about your heating system. Without proper care, your furnace could leave you celebrating in a chilly and uncomfortable home. For the best reliability, safety, and efficiency, make sure to schedule your professional HVAC maintenance early in the fall.
Professional Heating Maintenance
With professional heating maintenance, you get an extra level of peace and comfort knowing your furnace is ready to meet your heating demands when the holiday season hits. We recommend scheduling this service every year in the fall so that all necessary repairs can be handled before you need the system. Check out all the tasks our technicians perform while completing your annual maintenance.
Clean the Unit
We start our maintenance visit by cleaning your furnace. We wipe away dust and dirt on the outside of the system, including the top and sides. As we move through the system for tuning and inspection, we take special care to clean the components. This cleaning continues throughout the maintenance checklist as we dive deeper into the system.
Visually Inspect the System
Our technicians inspect your entire system thoroughly, examining each part and component. We look for signs of damage and excessive wear and tear. We’ll spot malfunctions that can hinder or stop your system from operating properly. Our technicians will look at the fan and blower to ensure they move as they should, look at the heat exchanger and burner for cracks or other damage, and look at the gears for signs of breakdown. We also check the belt for cracks and ensure it isn’t loose enough to slip off, which could shut your system down. If problems are found during the visual inspection, we’ll schedule repairs as soon as possible to get the system back in functional condition. Depending on the severity of the problem, we may have to pause maintenance until repairs are made.
Lubricate Moving Parts
Gears and other moving parts inside your furnace require lubrication to guard against damage from friction as they move against each other. Our technicians carefully inspect these components for irregular wear and carefully lubricate them. Your furnace components require special lubricant to prevent damage and only certain parts should be lubricated to prevent malfunction.
Check the Condensate Drain
Your furnace creates moisture when it creates heat. This moisture forms into water and can damage your system if not properly drained. The condensate drain line offers water a safe passageway to travel away from your furnace. Our technicians check this drain line and ensure that it is securely attached to prevent water from dripping into the furnace. We also make sure there are no leaks or other areas of damage that could compromise the function of the drain line. Finally, we’ll clear the line and check that there are no blockages that could leave water backed up inside your furnace.
Inspect and Test Electric and Gas Components
The electric and gas components inside your heating system are crucial for proper power and fuel. They also carry numerous safety risks if not in perfect condition.
Our technicians inspect all wiring and check the voltage and currents inside the electrical system of your furnace. We’ll check that the pilot light is lit, and the gas valve is open to fuel the flame, which should be bright blue to indicate the presence of gas. We’ll make sure the gas lines are securely attached with no signs of damage. Furthermore, we’ll test gas pressure to ensure it is within normal range as well test for carbon monoxide, a potentially deadly gas that occurs when there is a leak.
Test Safety Controls
Some heating systems have safety controls and switches that limit functions when a malfunction is detected inside your furnace. Our technicians test these controls to make sure they stop the system when they should. If your safety mechanisms fail to work properly, they require repairs immediately before you can safely use your furnace.
Monitor Airflow
Once the inner tuning and inspection are complete, we’ll focus on what happens when the heating system operates. Our technicians check that there is hot air coming from all the vents in the home and that your home reaches the desired temperature in a normal amount of time.
Listen for Sounds and Sniff for Smells
The furnace should operate without loud noises such as banging, whistling, cracking, and popping. If our technicians hear any unusual sounds, they will investigate them.
Likewise, your furnace should work without odors. If our technicians detect strange smells from your heating unit or vents, they’ll take a closer look to find the cause.
Calibrate Thermostat
Your thermostat controls the temperature inside your home and should provide an accurate reading. We’ll check the thermostat for proper calibration and adjust as needed. Our technicians make sure the device is in an open area away from vents and heat-producing appliances that could skew the temperature reading.
Benefits of Annual Maintenance
Comprehensive heating maintenance provides many benefits targeted at saving you money and creating a comfortable home.
When we clean and tune your furnace, the system works more efficiently. There is less stress on the heating system after maintenance, and this efficiency leads to lower heating costs.
Your system is more reliable throughout the winter when you have maintenance performed. Our technicians fix problems before winter and tune the components for less risk of damage and breakdowns.
Safety is always a number-one priority for our technicians. We rigorously inspect and tune your system for any issues that could cause safety hazards. Through careful assessment, we’ll make sure your furnace and its components offer safe operation.
Your furnace may see up to two decades of good, reliable heating service for your home when properly maintained. Neglecting your heating system can lower the number of seasons you get from it, leading to more frequent replacements.
The air quality inside your home is improved when you have a clean heating system. Removing dust and other contaminants from the furnace leads to fewer particles floating around in the air you breathe. As a bonus, this means less dust settling on your surfaces for a cleaner home as well.
Call Your Home Comfort Specialists
At Ultimate Homes & Cooling, home comfort is our specialty. Through skilled professional services, we provide reliable and efficient HVAC systems to our customers in Cape Coral. Trust us for repair services when your system fails and to perform a furnace installation when it’s time for a new system. And don’t forget to schedule your annual maintenance with us to keep the system running optimally. We also offer indoor air quality services to help you breathe a little better. When you need a team of talented licensed electricians to help with electrical repairs and installations including generators, EV chargers, and panels, we can help.
Count on our trusted HVAC technicians for your Cape Coral heating system maintenance by calling Ultimate Homes & Cooling today.
