As the summer comes to an end, cold weather is just around the corner and so is the need for heat from your furnace. While it’s easy to change the setting on your thermostat to heat, doing so doesn’t prepare your system to run effectively for the entire winter. Consider these 10 reasons your furnace needs pre-season maintenance.

1. Reduced Heating Costs

With variable utility rates and increasingly cold and volatile winter weather, finding ways to reduce your heating costs is critical to keeping your budget under control. Your furnace is a big factor in this: How efficiently it runs can make or break that home heating bill.

Pre-season maintenance ensures the performance of your entire system. A technician will check that the burners are set for optimum efficiency, that the system is clean, and that there is no concerning wear and tear. This can all help keep your heating costs down throughout the season.

2. Lower Risk of Breakdowns

One of the constant stressors for area homeowners is the worry about whether they will experience a furnace breakdown during the colder months. Breakdowns often occur during periods of heavy use, which means the coldest part of the season, making it dangerous for home residents.

By reducing your furnace’s operating strain, you also reduce the wear on the system’s components. Less wear translates into fewer components failing over time.

3. Early Identification of Small Problems

Even with routine maintenance, the various components of your furnace will wear out eventually. How big a problem this becomes for you may depend on how well your furnace is maintained. When a single component isn’t working correctly or is failing, the remaining components will be under additional strain, increasing the risk of complete failure.

During your maintenance visit, your technician will perform a series of tests. These will include both a full cycle test and individual component tests. If they find something isn’t working optimally, you’ll have time to correct it before causing substantial wear on other parts of the system.

4. Improved Indoor Air Quality

Your home’s air quality affects everything from your health to how efficiently your furnace heats your home. The idea of air quality is simply a way of discussing how many particles are floating around in your air, like chemicals, dust, dirt, dander, pollen and so much more.

When your furnace isn’t properly maintained, contaminants can build up in the system, especially on the heat exchanger and the circulating fan. Buildup on the exchanger will prevent heat from transferring as it should to the circulating air, reducing heating capacity.

Buildup on the circulating fan reduces the amount of air moving through your system. Less air will move through the filter, meaning there will be more contaminants left in the air. Finally, as the air passes through the furnace system, it will pick up particles left inside, and they’ll be vented back out into the home, further eroding air quality.

Simply put, furnace maintenance keeps air moving through your system effectively to remove more contaminants while removing buildup inside the system.

5. More Consistent Comfort

Inconsistent heating is a chief complaint as furnaces age. Some parts of your home might feel cool while others are almost overheated. This can happen due to weak airflow throughout the system.

For your system to evenly heat your home, the right amount of air must flow into the system and out of your supply vents. The return vents create negative air pressure while the supply vents create positive air pressure. This causes the heat to circulate as the air pressure seeks to equalize throughout the building. If your furnace isn’t moving enough air, the heat will come out through the vent but may not circulate properly.

6. Extended Service Life

A furnace is a significant investment for your home, and you’ll want to keep it operating optimally throughout its life to get the most for your money. Gas furnaces last an average of 15 to 20 years when properly maintained. Neglecting maintenance can lead to unnecessary wear and tear.

7. Saves Time With Fewer Repairs

One of the headaches of furnace repairs is having to take time to be home for a technician to come perform the repair. This can cut into your time available for work or your time for your family’s other activities. Either way, it becomes a nuisance when you have to drop everything to ensure you have heat when you need it.

With routine maintenance, you’ll be able to take care of potential issues during the pre-season and before you need the heat. Your technician can spot problems that need prompt attention and warn you of potential future issues and how you can avoid them. You’ll be dealing with little problems as they occur, which helps prevent excessive wear and premature system failure. You’ll ultimately be able to reduce the total number of repairs you’ll need in any given season.

8. Protect Your Factory Warranty

If your furnace is still under the factory warranty, you want to know that your warranty will take care of any covered issues when they occur. However, many homeowners fail to realize that most manufacturers require new units to receive annual maintenance to keep that warranty valid. By keeping up with your maintenance, you’ll have peace of mind that you won’t end up paying for repairs due to faulty parts.

9. Safer Furnace Operation

It’s easy to forget that furnaces come with inherent risks. Gas is a combustible fuel, and not only could you face a fuel leak during a failure but also carbon monoxide exposure. During your preseason maintenance visit, your technician will look for signs of both fuel and carbon monoxide leaks. They’ll inspect the unit to see if the heat exchanger is at risk of overheating and cracking so that you can prevent an emergency repair.

10. Less Worry

When you schedule preseason furnace maintenance, you’re getting a professional to evaluate your system before you depend on it to heat your home. Once you get the A-okay from them, you gain peace of mind that there’s much less risk of a mid-season breakdown. You also get more peace of mind that your system is running at optimal efficiency, reducing the amount you’ll end up paying to heat your home this winter. Want to learn more about our maintenance plans and other FAQs? Read here.

Since 2008, people around Elizabethtown have turned to Absolute Services as their single home service provider of choice. Our team provides expert AC and furnace maintenance, repair, and installation as well as electrical, plumbing, and garage door installation and repair. Call to schedule your pre-season furnace maintenance with one of our trusted technicians today.