Every homeowner should learn the importance to routinely service, clean, test and adjust their heating and cooling appliances on an annual basis by a licensed HVAC contractor or company to ensure that their heating and cooling appliance runs at peak performance and efficiency as advised by heating and cooling manufacturers!A forced air furnace has working components that can wear out to cause expensive parts failures on more expensive parts on the appliance. If a home owner elects to pay a heating and cooling contractor to routinely perform tune ups and cleanings on their furnace these smaller less expensive mechanical problems can be detected early, resolved accordingly to effectively save the home owner money in allowing more expensive parts to last longer, nominal efficiency bumps can be created, safety hazards can be reduced in a likely scenario to become less probable and peace of mind can be created to drastically reduce the likelihood of an unforeseen break down during the winter when a homeowner would least desire the occurrence to occur!A contractor offers periodic $79.00-$99.00 tune up specials (industry retail value: $135.00) in an attempt to expand the company's customer base while delivering a high value to people who explore the advantages and benefits of what a licensed and insured heating and air conditioning contractor can deliver in performing such a service.
A company would deliver the service in a professional manner to deliver the following checks and adjustments when a tune up is performed properly:
#1: Gas leak detection from gas shut off to the furnace is made and if any leaks are discovered the HVAC technician will show the home owner and make the proper recommendations for a safe repair to the home owner.
#2: The run capacitor for the blower motor is tested and replaced at a small additional charge if found to be weak in order to extend the life span of a vastly more expensive blower motor.
#3: Amp Draws are taken on the blower motor to ensure that the motor is running in manufacturer advised ranges to safe guard the motors life span and thus to save the home owner money.
#4: The induced draft motor amp draws are taken.
#5: Flue pipes are inspected to ensure that there are no dangerous defects present to create a dangerous scenario for the home occupants.
#6: Flame sensors are inspected and cleaned if needed.
#7: Ignitors are tested and replaced at a small additional charge if they are proven to be at the end of their service life.
#8: Gas valves are tuned using a manometer to ensure that they are set to proper water column to ensure maximum performance and efficiency.
#9: Older manual thermostats will have their heat anticipators adjusted or a recommendation at an additional cost will be made to replace the thermostat with a programmable digital thermostat.
#10: Combustion Gas Analysis is performed to ensure that the furnace is safely and efficiently operating.
#11: Limit switches are tested to ensure that they are operating safely by manufacturers design and specifications.
#12: The furnace burners and blower compartments are cleaned out of bulk dirt contamination if present.
#13: The furnace filter is inspected and proper filtration recommendations are made by the professional Heating and Air Conditioning HVAC technician to the home owner.
#14: The heat exchanger is visually inspected and if a dangerous scenario is discovered the HVAC technician will use more extensive testing measures to ensure that the heat exchanger is safe and functioning correctly.
#15: Temperature rise readings are taken to ensure that the furnace is operating at proper temperatures as rated by the respective manufacturer of the heating appliance, which in turns allows the HVAC technician to adjust or not adjust fan speeds accordingly to make sure that the furnace is running at peak performance and efficiency.
#16: The HVAC technician will make proper recommendations to the home owner and answer any comfort questions that the home owner may have about their heating and cooling equipment.
#17: The HVAC technician or heating and cooling professional will also address proper air mixing in the home, brief duct sizing, brief furnace sizing and make appropriate recommendations to cue in the home owner as to if everything is sized correctly, close or is well off!
#18: The furnace pressure switch is tested to ensure that it functions correctly.
#19: All tubes and or belts are inspected to make sure none are worn on the furnace.
#20: All wiring connections are inspected to ensure none are loose, disconnected or are making improper contact to connected spade terminals of the furnaces electronic connection points.
#21: Step down transformers on the furnace is inspected to ensure that it's operating and functioning correctly.
#22: The Heating and Air Conditioning HVAC technician will inspect high voltage connections to ensure that a reversed polarity occurrence is not present.
#23: The HVAC technician inspecting the furnace will also ensure that the AC coils are clean and free of debree and at an additional charge will offer to professionally clean them if they are discovered dirty to lose tremendous efficiency value, reduce unnecessary costly limit switch life spans on the furnace, create unnecessary odors and to eliminate bacteria that can commonly grow on an AC evaporator coil to potentially assist in making a home owner sick too!
#24: The HVAC technician will also test limit series roll out switches to ensure that no defects are present.
#25: The Heating and Air Conditioning HVAC technician will also inspect and make sure that flammable substances are not stored near the furnace and advise the homeowner to relocate such substances if they are discovered to be near the furnace during a tune up and cleaning of the furnace.
#26: The HVAC technician will inspect furnace drains, if present, to ensure that they are functioning correctly.
#27: A Heating and Air Conditioning HVAC technician will also test for spillage to ensure that dangerous flue gases are not back drafting into the home.
#28: The Heating and Air Conditioning HVAC technician will also inspect control boards and or ignition control modules to ensure that the parts are allowing correct purge cycle sequences of your forced air furnace too.
#29: The HVAC technician will inspect the blower motor lock shaft to ensure that the blower wheel is not loose on the blower shaft. When this is detected at no cost to the home owner the lock shaft is tightened up which in turn saves the expensive blower motor from premature failure!
#30: The Heating and Air Conditioning HVAC technician will also check over the HVAC system and make sealing recommendations to the home owner if excessive air leaks are discovered to cause the HVAC to be concerned with efficiency of the HVAC system.
Many heating and air conditioning licensed and insured HVAC companies and contractors offers similar tune ups amongst each other and cleaning services by various Heating and Air Conditioning companies maybe performed differently, but should produce the same results.
Many tenured technicians have an impressive innate ability to whiz through what doesn't immediately arise or pop to their attention while swiftly and effectively zeroing in on what stands out to them. Bare in mind if you performed thousands and thousands of furnace tune ups as many tenured Heating and Air Conditioning HVAC professional has, well, you'd have that same ability to do so yourself as with many other tenured HVAC technicians can do it likewise with other Heating and Air Conditioning service providers too!
After it is all said and done, whether a home owner calls one reputable Licensed and Insured Heating and Cooling Professional on an annual basis to the next, well, in the long run the home owner is going to save a tremendous amount of money by catching the small problems that are less expensive to resolve BEFORE they balloon into a small fortune in a more costly break down, by improving efficiencies on key found furnace adjustments and by cleaning the dirt which accounts for approximately 50% of efficiency loss and in reducing sensitive electronic components from failing prematurely as a result! Home owners who routinely have their furnaces tuned, cleaned, adjusted with preventative maintenance on worn furnace components ALWAYS saves vastly more money in the long run than the home owners who neglect to maintain and service their expensive heating and cooling equipment, guaranteed!So after reading this article, make sure you call and schedule your heating and air conditioning professionals of choice today, but make sure they are licensed, insured, possesses a great record with the BBB and or Angie's List and that the companies sustains themselves as a reputable, trusted and relevant HVAC business and you won't regret it at all in the long run. You will stay warm, comfortable, pay the best utility bill as possible and off set costly and untimely winter break downs too!
By: Mike M. Written December 6th, 2001
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