If you want your day to feel like it’s ruined, start it with your furnace breaking down—that’ll do the trick. When you encounter furnace problems first thing in the morning, you might wonder what you could’ve done differently to prevent something like this from happening. Well, turns out there are at least four tips we can provide to actually help you prevent this so you don’t have to call for Furnace repair in Gaithersburg.
1. Regular Maintenance and Tune-Ups
Annual maintenance does more than you may think. It provides lubrication for moving metal parts, parts are cleaned so they operate unobstructed, and your entire system is tested. It serves as a point of inspection so that your technician can see every potential problem with your furnace, big or small.
While we know it’s tempting to skip out on that maintenance call and save the cost, you pay more for it down the line when you encounter a breakdown. Even then, you can scale it down to a day-to-day cost, too. Your furnace has to work harder to hit your heating requirements, so it spends more energy to do that, all because it’s not as efficient as it could be from a tune-up.
2. Switch That Filter Out More Often
Your furnace is a combustion-based system, but it’s also a forced-air system. That means the airflow it outputs is everything, but it actually starts with the intake. If it’s not bringing in enough air, it can’t push enough out to reach all the rooms in your home through the ductwork.
You need a filter to prevent dust and debris from coating your furnace’s internal components, but those filters fill up faster than you might think. Depending on how often you use your furnace, you need to switch your filter every 30–90 days. You’ll be able to tell how dusty your filter is when you hold it up and compare it to the new one you’re about to purchase. It matters for your furnace’s efficiency.
3. Your Thermostat Can Be Miscalibrated
We usually talk about this in the sense that it makes your furnace appear broken when it assumes the temperature is higher than it actually is, but your thermostat can also cause your furnace to work overtime. That costs you money, and burns through the proverbial wear-and-tear budget that your furnace has.
Your furnace keeps running until your thermostat tells it to stop. That means if your thermostat thinks it’s just a couple degrees colder than it actually is, it will demand it to stay on for longer than is necessary, causing more runtime and costing you more money.
4. Remove Clutter From Around Your Furnace
Your furnace needs to pull in air, so even if the filter is clean, it’s all for naught if it doesn’t have any fresh air to pull in. If there’s too much clutter around the air intake of your furnace, it will get in the way of your furnace’s operability. Simply put: don’t store boxes or Halloween decorations near your furnace because it can impact how it runs.
Let’s Fix Your Furnace Today
If these problems stand out to you, but your furnace is already on the fritz, it’s time to call the professionals. We’ll help you find out what your furnace’s problem is, fix it, and be done before you know it—it’s time to restore your home’s heat as soon as possible.
Contact us today to schedule your furnace repair as soon as possible.