Avoid Costly Furnace Repairs with Simple Furnace Maintenance to Ensure Efficient Heating

It’s late December 2024 and, on Dec. 20th, winter began.

A well-functioning furnace is key to keeping you and your family comfortable during the cold season, both by making you more comfortable, and reducing your utility bill.

Moreover, if your furnace is running efficiently, you’re less likely to constantly have to make furnace repairs.

You just have to follow some simple and easy to perform furnace maintenance steps before you have to go Googling “ heater repair near me” or “furnace repair near me” and “ furnace replacement near me”.

1. Change Furnace Filter

Changing the filter is one of the simplest but also one of the most important ways to maintain your furnace. Do it at the beginning of the winter season and then in the spring.

Know which type, size and rating filter to buy, where to locate the filter on the furnace, and removing and replacing it.

You may be tempted to clean out the dirt from the old filter and reuse it. That’s a textbook case of “penny wise and pound foolish.”

An old dirty filter, even one that you managed to get some surface dirt off it, is still an old dirty filter. The relatively little money you spend on a new filter prevents a whole number of potential costly problems.

A dirty or clogged filter will not only contaminate your indoor air quality, but it forces your furnace to work more. A furnace that has to work harder is less efficient and it will cost you money, but longer it will reduce the lifespan of your furnace; it costs you more money on your parts, or even the whole furnace replaced.

And here’s why: A dirty, clogged filter chokes off air flow you furnace needs. That pushes your furnace to short cycle due to overheating.

A running furnace overheats and you High Limit trips shutting down your furnace for safety. All of which means your house isn’t being heated properly. It can also make other components fail early. These parts include your circuit board, the blower motor, the capacitor and the inducer motor.

If your heating system is in constant cycle (a.k.a. shuts on and off), and changing the filter doesn’t help this time, you might consider getting an HVAC specialist in to come and check that all components are functioning to manufacture specs and standards.

2. Replace Thermostat Batteries/Reprogram Thermostat

Replace your thermostat batteries at the start of every heating season. And with new batteries in your thermostat, you won’t wake up freezing some frigid winter morning because your thermostat is not working and hasn’t told your furnace to start heating.

Your furnace won’t have to work that much harder to heat things back up to a comfortable temperature.

It’s a smart idea to have a decent supply of spare batteries nearby, too.

Because if you wake up in the middle of the night freezing cold and your thermostat is dead and you don’t have batteries, well, you better have some extra blankets.

Along with replacing your thermostat batteries at the beginning of the season, just as important is to re-program it so it works with your schedule.

Establish a program when to fit your schedule if the weather gets colder, sharpens and daylight savings is switched to standard time. So, if you want a warmer home in the early morning when you typically wake up, tell your thermostat to just come on for 20 minutes before you wake up.

If you will be out of the house during the week, set the thermostat to run on a lower temperature during that time and then heat up as you would when you typically get back. That saves energy and wear and tear on the furnace and saves you money.

So, there are several different thermostat manufacturers and they are all programmed differently. Some old thermostats don’t have a programming function; if yours isn’t a programmable model, it’s worth an upgrade. Consult your thermostat manual for instructions on programming the device.

If you no longer have the manual, you can easily look up your thermostat model online to find guidance. You can also look on YouTube or call your HVAC specialist.

3. Remove Obstructions from Furnace Flue and Nearby Areas

Your furnace requires space to breathe. Literally.

Clear clutter and debris from around the furnace zone to 30 inches or more per manufacturer specifications and most city codes and standards. Fixed with this much air for combustion of the heating element and operated with safety and smooth.

This also gives your HVAC service technician plenty of time to thoroughly inspect and service your system.

Still, your furnace lives in a cellar, attic or crawl space where things accumulate. Therefore, make it a point to clear out the area surrounding your furnace at the beginning of each heating season. Exchange similar whether you have a single stage furnace governing or if you are in yet a two-stage furnace governing.

If you can access your flue, also known as the exhaust because it safely removes combustible by-products from your home, check that it’s clear of debris and critters that may have nested there over the summer. Typically found on the roof, but can also be located on the sidewall of the home and above the garage.

Be careful when checking your flue. Just make sure that furnace is not running! Your flue must be sealed and should not let any critters make a home from when you first installed as this is a city code and manufacturer recommendation. If you still don’t know in what room it is, wait for your HVAC specialist to come out when he locates and inspects the flue for you.

As a final step, run your furnace for 30 minutes with the windows open, ideally before colder weather hits. This helps to circulate and dislodge dirt, dust and impurities that have accumulated on your Heat Exchanger, the heating portion of your furnace. The alternative is waiting for the winter air to come where you keep your windows closed and get a slight burning odor in the air while your indoor air quality deteriorates as dirty air is circulated all over the house.

4. Routine Maintenance and Safety Check

Remember, your furnace is a mechanical system. Just like any mechanical system, with an array of interacting motors, electrical and gas components, it is part of your heater maintenance plan to inspect yearly and make sure everything is in good working order before having to service a furnace.

Many homeowners believe that if the system is a year or two old, maintenance can be planned for another year.

Well, it’s not!

Because you wouldn’t buy a new car and then be like, “I think I can skip the first couple of oil changes.”

In fact, the time you most want to begin your yearly maintenance is when you have a brand new furnace. As your HVAC system is your home appliance and its most expensive one, it becomes very essential to maintain it right from the beginning.

If it has been some time since your last routine maintenance, be sure you’re requesting a comprehensive safety inspection and full health report from your HVAC provider. It’s a good idea to enroll in a yearly maintenance contract, since it will save you money and guarantee that your furnace maintenance is performed regularly.

5. Get Your Ducts in a Row

Critters love to find a good place to build nests during the warmer months, and your ductwork and surrounding insulation makes for the perfect place.

Further, due to the conditions of your attic or crawl space year in and year out, the duct work may age prematurely over the years. This might affect the efficiency of the duct system that provides heating and cooling across your house.

Also, if you’ve had any service people in your crawl or attic space recently, they can sometimes damage your duct work as well. When you begin to notice hot or cold spots in your home due to uneven airflow that is the main sign of possible new damage to your duct system.

That’s why it’s best to have your ductwork inspected annually for any new tears or breaches, deterioration, insulation falling off or ductwork falling down. But only if your ductwork is easy to access. However, in case you don’t might be aware of the duct system location, it is advisable to make use of your HVAC specialist to evaluate and clean your ducts.

Schedule Furnace Maintenance with Day & Night Plumbing, Heating & Cooling

Day & Night Plumbing, Heating and Cooling has been providing customers furnace maintenance checks, and furnace replacement around the Albuquerque area since 2014.

All make and models of forced air and air conditioning repair (includes two stage furnaces) Our qualified technicians are trained. If the sump pump we need isn’t at your home yet, it’ll arrive at your home very soon — we let you get back to being you!

Contact your Day & Night Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling team to schedule a furnace inspection, furnace repair services or to schedule your annual tune up with a free duct inspection and insulation inspection.

Or fill out our convenient online contact form to set up an appointment or inquire about furnace maintenance.