Is Yearly Furnace Maintenance Necessary?

According to HVAC pros, getting your furnace tuned up yearly will not only prolong its life, it can make it run more efficiently, can save you thousands of dollars in repairs, and will prevent you and your family from having to spend a night (or several) in the cold!

Imagine, you wake up in the middle of the night, freezing. You can’t figure out what’s wrong with your furnace and why it’s not heating so you need to call in a professional. But it’s late Friday night, and a holiday weekend so no one is answering your calls. What are you going to do? It’s supposed to be -10C (14F) all weekend and a blizzard.

Obviously, you'd book a job through Jiffy to get one of our pros to fix your furnace, because we are always open - even on holiday weekends.

But all of this could have been prevented completely by regular furnace maintenance before the snow started to fall. According to heating pros, about 75% of no-heat complaints in the winter could have been prevented by regular maintenance.

In addition to preventing breakdowns and not being left in the cold, here’s a few other reasons why you should get your furnace checked regularly by an HVAC professional:

1. Safety: Furnaces can emit carbon monoxide, which is why it’s important to have a CO2 detector near the furnace or near the door to the room that houses the furnace. Regular furnace maintenance can help you prevent poisonous gas leaks in your home.

2. Save Energy: Cleaning out or replacing the filters on your furnace helps it to run more efficiently and for less money. The pro will also ensure everything is running the way it’s supposed to, helping it to run as efficiently as it should be.

3. Save Money: A new furnace costs over $1000 and it can cost over $1000 to get it installed. Spending $100-$130 per year on maintenance is not a lot by comparison.

According to our database (affectionately called Smarties), the cost of heating calls doubled between December and February. Many of these calls and additional costs could have been avoided by regular furnace maintenance by a heating professional.

When you hire a heating pro to check out your furnace, they are trained to see some of the most common issues that can cause those middle of the night breakdowns. Issues such as:

Loose blower belt
Improperly firing burners
Blocked condensate drain
Loose wiring harnesses
Slowly leaking coolant from the AC system
Duct work loosened due to normal thermal expansion and contraction
Blower motor bearings in need of lubrication
Replacing of air filter and cleaning of dust from blower fan blades and AC condensing coil

When an HVAC professional comes to check up on your furnace they will do things like, check the vents, analyze the combustion gases, make sure all of the seals are tight, check the unit in general and the wiring for rust and corrosion, check the drainage system for blockage or leaks, and look at the filters to see if they need to be changed.

Your furnace is the heart of your home. It keeps your family warm in the cold winter months. Don’t risk being left in the cold for even a night this winter.

Book an HVAC professional now.

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