Are you making enough time to maintain your furnace every year? If not, it shouldn’t be a huge surprise if your furnace doesn’t last as long as it should.
The average furnace will typically hang around for between 15 and 25 years. But if you don’t take good care of your furnace while doing home maintenance, it may conk out on you much sooner than that.
So, what can you do to maintain your furnace and keep it in excellent condition? We’ve gathered a list of furnace maintenance tips that should do the trick.
Here are five useful tips to help you maintain your furnace in Lakewood, CO, as part of your winter home maintenance plan.
1. Keep the Area Around Your Furnace Clear
Your home’s furnace is probably tucked away somewhere in your basement or in a utility closet. As a result, there is a decent chance that all kinds of clutter have built up around it.
This clutter can cause complications when it comes to trying to maintain your furnace. You won’t be able to get to it with ease if there is clutter all around it.
It’s also going to make it difficult for an HVAC technician to get to your furnace if they have to come out to your home to repair your furnace or replace it. It’s another reason why you should make it a point to remove any and all clutter that might surround your furnace.
2. Change Your Furnace Filter Regularly
Every furnace has a furnace filter in it that’s designed to remove everything from dirt and dust to allergens and pet dander from the air that passes through it. It’ll stop these things from putting an unnecessary strain on your heating system as a whole.
But over time, a furnace filter can fill up with all the things we just mentioned and stop doing its job. Because of this, replacing your furnace filter will be one of the many keys to trying to maintain your furnace in Lakewood, CO.
Fortunately, it’ll only take you a few minutes, if that, to replace a furnace filter. Furnace filters are also very inexpensive, so there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t keep them stockpiled in your home so that you can replace your furnace filters about once every three months.
3. Use a Vacuum to Remove Dust From Your Furnace
As long as you have a clean furnace filter in place, you shouldn’t have to worry about any dust working its way into your home’s heating system throughout the winter. But it’s not uncommon for dust to build up inside a heating system in the spring, summer, and even fall when it isn’t being used.
For this reason, you should pull out your vacuum before you start using your furnace each winter and remove as much dust from it as you can. It’ll prevent this dust from being able to sneak into your furnace and the ductwork that is connected to it.
It’s going to be pretty much impossible to stop all dust from getting into your furnace. But by taking care of the bulk of it with a vacuum, you should be able to keep your furnace dust-free for the most part.
4. Listen Out for Any Strange Sounds Coming From Your Furnace
Every single time you hear your furnace start-up, you should listen to it very carefully. If there is something wrong with it, it’s going to let you know about it by making any number of sounds.
When there’s something not quite right with your furnace, it might make banging, squeaking, or hissing sounds. You shouldn’t ignore these sounds since they could be an indication that you need to have your furnace serviced by an HVAC company as soon as you can.
If you don’t do anything about the sounds your furnace is making, it could inevitably lead to more serious problems down the line. It could even result in your entire furnace breaking down on you and having to be replaced.
5. Call On an HVAC Company to Help You Maintain Your Furnace
You should be able to do the first four things that we’ve mentioned here on your own when it’s time to maintain your furnace in Lakewood, CO. There will, however, be some furnace maintenance that you won’t be cut out for unless you have previous experience working on furnaces.
Toward the start of the winter season, you should contact an HVAC company and ask them to help you maintain your furnace. They can open your furnace up and lubricate all the moving parts in it. They can also make repairs to any parts that might be on their last legs and let you know how much life your furnace has left in it.
Ideally, you should try to have an HVAC company visit your home at least once each year for furnace maintenance. It’ll pay off in the long run since it’ll lead to your furnace hanging around for a much longer time than it would otherwise.
You should also take the same approach with your home’s air conditioning system. You can have the same HVAC company return at the start of each summer to help you maintain your AC system.
Touch Base With Us Today to Schedule Furnace Maintenance
Has it been a while since the last time you did furnace maintenance? We would love to help you change that by helping you to maintain your furnace.
We can send an experienced HVAC technician right out to your home to inspect your furnace and give it the TLC it needs. It’ll help your furnace run more efficiently this winter, and it’ll guarantee you don’t get left out in the cold at any point.
Give us a call to arrange to have furnace maintenance performed in Lakewood, CO, as well as many of the surrounding areas including Denver, Parker, Aurora, Littleton, Centennial, and others.
