Mechanical systems of all kinds need periodic service to continue running efficiently for their entire service life, including furnaces. However, what exactly is furnace service and how often do you need it? Use this guide to get these answers and to learn the signs that may suggest your furnace needs service.
What Is Furnace Service?
Furnace service is a common phrase that could span a wide range of meanings. At its broadest definition, furnace service is any service provided by a professional technician.
However, what’s commonly intended by this phrase is routine furnace service, also known as routine maintenance or a furnace tune-up. This is the service needed to help maintain a furnace’s efficiency and reduce wear on the system as it heats your home.
How Often Do You Need Routine Service?
According to most furnace manufacturers and service technicians, most gas furnaces need routine service every year. You may not notice the effects of neglected maintenance after one or two years. However, once you skip maintenance, it’s easy to forget or devalue what that maintenance does. After a few years, you’ll have a system that runs less efficiently, is wearing faster and isn’t keeping your home as comfortable.
What’s Included With Routine Service?
If you’re going to get routine service for your furnace, it’s a good idea to know what it should include. Remember, the purpose is to keep it operating at its peak efficiency, so everything a technician does should be with this in mind.
Routine furnace maintenance starts with a visual inspection and cleaning of the unit. The technician may start with a visual inspection of the furnace housing looking for signs of obvious corrosion. They’ll move to the internal components, performing a deep cleaning of the heat exchanger, burners, flame sensor, high limit switch and circulating fan. While they’re working on the fan, they’ll lubricate the bearings if it’s not a sealed unit, and they’ll balance the fan.
They’ll check and tighten every electrical connection and all mounting hardware to prevent excessive vibration and heat that will accelerate component wear. Finally, they’ll perform extensive tests to ensure that everything works properly. This includes testing individual components, running a heating cycle test, checking the supply vent temperature rise, checking the heat exchanger for damage and testing for carbon monoxide and fuel gas leaks.
Signs It’s Time to Get Your Furnace Serviced
Getting annual maintenance is the surefire way to keep your system operating at its intended efficiency. However, there may be other times that warrant calling for furnace service. Keep an eye open for the following and call a qualified technician to help you find the cause of these problems.
Less Airflow From Supply Vents
You may not constantly check the airflow from your vents, but you may notice it on occasion. If you have a floor vent that you walk by or stand near while moving about your home, make a mental note of how much air you feel coming from it. If it feels like there’s less air coming out, it could indicate some kind of airflow restriction or a problem with your circulating fan.
Skyrocketing Energy Bills
Your energy bills will give you a lot of insight into what’s happening with your furnace. The most useful way of tracking your energy bills is by comparing the current bill to the same month the year prior. If there’s a significant increase in the amount of energy you’re consuming, it’s possible your furnace isn’t operating as efficiently. This is part of what routine service addresses and protects against.
Unusual Noises
When operating normally, your furnace should make little noise. You may hear some quiet clicks as various switches activate. The burners may make a whooshing sound as they light and your circulating fan may emit some sound as it spins. However, if it makes a banging, clanking, screeching, rattling, humming or buzzing sound, there’s something off that necessitates furnace service. Some of these may indicate something significant that can pose a serious safety hazard, so don’t ignore unusual noises.
Cool Air From Your Vents
The air from your supply vents should be noticeably warmer than the ambient air temperature. The normal temperature rise is 30 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit for standard furnaces, which is warm enough to feel with bare skin. However, if the air is not noticeably warmer, your system won’t heat your home effectively. This lack of heat can stem from a maladjusted burner, issues with the heat exchanger or leaks in your ductwork. Routine maintenance will account for the first two issues, but the leaks in ductwork are usually separate from routine service.
Furnace Short Cycling
Short cycling is when the furnace activates but then terminates the heating cycle prematurely. There is a litany of causes for this particular issue. Routine maintenance will account for some of these causes, including:
- Dirty flame sensor
- Maladjusted burner
- Faulty high limit switch
- Overheating
- Exhaust blockage
While maintenance may uncover the problem, it won’t resolve those related to faulty parts. Your technician may be able to address them while on-site, avoiding an additional service call charge. However, you’ll still have to pay for the parts and labor for the repair.
Inconsistent Household Temperature
You’d expect your furnace to heat your home relatively evenly, assuming you have good air balancing and the vents are open. However, with decreased efficiency, you may notice that some areas of your home stay cooler than others. This usually happens when the system isn’t moving the appropriate amount of air, such as when there’s an issue with the circulating fan. This is why a maintenance technician will evaluate your fan and balance it, ensuring the system is moving enough air to evenly heat your home.
Bothersome Odors
Odors should not be part of the experience of running your furnace. However, neglected service may cause the system to emanate specific odors. Musty and moldy odors may come from bacterial contaminants that have settled in your system. A strong chemical odor may come from a cracked heat exchanger which is an emergency because of the risk of carbon monoxide exposure. More commonly, a furnace may produce a burning smell, especially during the first cycle of the season. However, if that burning smell continues for more than a couple minutes it may mean something more serious is happening and need attention.
Soot Around Your Vents
Make sure you keep an eye on your vents for evidence of soot. This commonly relates to dirty burners, improper air and fuel mixture and poor ventilation. All of these things are either addressed or evaluated by a technician during routine maintenance.
Property owners around Shreveport who want a single name they can trust for their home service needs have called Bobby L Greene Plumbing, Heating & Cooling Co. for more than 60 years. Our award-winning team provides heating and AC maintenance, repair and installation along with a wide range of residential plumbing services, including water heaters, leak detection, backflow testing and prevention, drain cleaning and water filtration, just to name a few. Call to schedule your next furnace repair service with one of our highly rated and respected technicians today.
