I had the “furnace guy” in today for a maintenance check, change filters, cleaning, etc. This is a one-year old furnace and the instructions for the filter change for the furnace and humidifier were intimidating, so I called in the pros. I watched and will change my own filters next time - the process isn’t as intimidating as the instructions!
But, that led me and DH to remember that when we first moved into our home about 20 years ago, if I called for “yearly service or maintenance check” we had to wait weeks and weeks for an appointment. This time, I was scheduled next day and could have had someone out the same day of my call if it had fit into my plans.
So, we were wondering, do people still have professional service and maintenance checks on their furnaces and central air units? With the ability to change my own filters, good carbon monoxide detectors and furnaces/air conditioners whose expected lives aren’t what they used to be, maybe yearly professional maintenance is no longer required?
We had not had a service visit for ours in 16 years. When the motor went out, we called a guy to replace it. Mr. could have handled it himself, but we had to wait for the part shipped to us… So we might have overpaid $200-300. No regrets. The motor is a mechanical thing that annual check visit would have done zip about.
We have ours serviced every year or so (emphasis on or so). We also maintain a warranty on ours. About 18 months ago, Sears caught me at home, and I went ahead and renewed the warranty. Within weeks the compressor (or something else expensive) went, and they charged us 0.00 for a repair that was well over 2K. One time a warranty actually paid off.
Living in the great frozen north, I want my furnace checked every 2 years or so. I never want to loose heat when below zero at night. They do some maintenance on the burners. The house I just bought had not had a check in quite a few years. Last week the guy adjusted the blowers, and now it is not cycling on and off as emphatically. For the gas boiler in the current house, I call every 2 to 3 years. Yes, know how to change the filter in a furnace, which is simple when you know how.
But…I’d rather have my steam heat, and am very sad to loose my old radiators for a system that potentially blows allergens around.
Our HVAC co offers free “service checks” on all systems every year. The thing that is that you need to know a lot about HVAC to avoid them “upselling” services.
For example, last year’s plumbing “inspection” turned up the fact that the sink shut-off valves in upstairs bathrooms were too old at 22 years and were an urgent need to be replaced. I thanked the technician for his input and informed him that they were three years old. I know, because I helped my dad replace them. Sheesh.
It is needed to have an expert look every so often - cracked heat exchangers can leak CO into your home.
I get mine serviced once a year. I have a service contract which covers parts and labor and once a year servicing is included in the price I pay. I heat with oil and cleaning once a year is really necessary.
We have oil which I believe is suppose to be cleaned every year. I think gas furnaces burn cleaner and do not need to be serviced as frequently. I have a service contract because I do not want to be stuck in the middle of a cold spell if it stops working, and we have needed service probably 3 times over 30 years during a cold snap. Our central air is not included in the service contract because it rarely breaks and I can survive a day or two without AC.
When we had a 60+ year old oil furnace we had a service contract with the oil company. We switched to gas last year and I don’t actually know what sort of servicing it requires. I should check!
We have gas heat. I guess we get it looked at every year or two.
We’ve been in our house for 3 years and never had our elevator serviced. DH didn’t want to spend the money, since it works just fine. But this is a safety issue, and it occurred to me one day that if we ever had an incident, and couldn’t prove we’d done our yearly maintenance checks, our homeowner’s insurance might balk at paying.
^I’ll have to let you know! I use a local, family owned company that still trusts its customers enough to send a bill - not collect when on-site. I know this one will be high - I let them supply the filters (2, 1 for humidifier and 1 for furnace). I just hadn’t thought to order the filters myself through Amazon or HomeDepot - I didn’t expect them to get to my house so soon. I can’t remember the price in past years, not cheap, but not outrageous. I’m probably not a good person to ask about standard cost, I haven’t priced this out. This company was recommended when we first moved in and I’ve been very pleased with the employees, work, etc. I think I probably pay a premium, but that’s OK - I trust them and they have been immediately responsive when we’ve had the old furnace break down during sub-freezing temps.
We have a maintenance contract for our oil furnace. It includes an annual maintenance check and cleaning, as well as repairs and parts replacement for certain parts that may fail. We had to have 2 parts replaced this year, so the cost was definitely worth it. Having the contract also means quicker service when there’s a problem.
I would highly recommend having the unit checked each year, it doesn’t have to be a full inspection, on my plan they call it the season start up or something like that. It is true that modern units generally don’t need much work on them, especially gas units, and it may seem like an unneeded expense, but if there is ever a fire in the house and they can in some way, shape or form trace it back to the heating unit, the insurance company can use that as an excuse to deny payment (and being insurance companies, to quote the Geico ads “It’s what they do”). Plus if you have a forced air furnace, it is wise that they check out the heat exchanger.
Gas/forced air here. Respectfully disagree, musicparent. I am not a charity to pay $200-300 a year to keep furnace men employed so they can come out and create an impression that they are actually doing something useful. 15 visits… That’s $3,000-4,000 or the cost of a new unit over that time. I wash the removable panel with electrodes of our electronic air cleaner twice a year, and that’s as much maintenance as it gets. YMMV.
We have a gas furnace. It was 23 years old before we replaced with a new one. The service on the old one cost about $200. The new one will be serviced by the installer for a couple of years for free. The old furnace was temperamental. It used to stop working randomly in the middle of cold winter. The service contract came in handy. If they are flooded with jobs, you get a priority.
I happily pay the yearly maintenance fee to have a company show up twice a year to clean and check out our furnace. I’ve had furnace problems in the past! Also, when we had a crisis (the hot water heater attacked the furnace, bizarre as that sounds–it sprung a leak in just the right way to spray water on the computer on the furnace, which I guess should be on the weird appliance accidents thread), they showed up immediately. It was fixed within a few hours.