If you own a furnace, the occasional furnace repair is inevitable.
When that unfortunate malfunction or service issue occurs, you are dealt the challenge of not only finding a decent HVAC service provider, but finding one that responds to emergency system failures. If your furnace breaks down between the hours of 9-5, consider yourself lucky, but unfortunately, your HVAC system doesn’t always follow your schedule. No, furnace code of conduct states they must wait until the end of the day (or middle of the night) to spring surprise defects on you.
So it’s one in the morning, you’re getting colder by the minute, and you have no choice but to sit and wait. You’re battling a serious case of furnace frustration. The first trigger to this irritating illness?

Inconvenient Service Hours

Call it luck, call it Murphy’s Law, call it whatever you want but somehow it seems like your furnace always breaks after business hours. You leave repeated messages with your HVAC service provider in hopes of arranging an emergency visit, but no one gets back to you. Meanwhile, your home temperature continues to drop to uncomfortable levels. Your HVAC pros arrive the next morning, but you’ve already suffered through a sleepless night and you’re not in the best mood.

OR

Your HVAC pros agree to an emergency visit, but only after you agree to an additional charge. The extra fee is usually as much as the repair job itself.

Trustworthy Technician?

There should always be an element of trust established before letting anyone into your home. You’re on a first name basis with your usual service provider, but when a furnace emergency strikes, you’re likely to take any HVAC service available. All too often in those situations, the technician who arrives at your door overcharges you and is unable to answer half the questions you ask about your repair.

OR

This emergency HVAC tech repairs the furnace with a new part. Two days later, this new part fails and repair is needed again. You call the same technician, as he provided the part, and he solves the problem with another new part. The cycle continues…

These are some of the most common furnace frustrations, but they are easily preventable with the right proactive HVAC maintenance plan in place. The following proven approaches help you avoid the uncomfortable scenarios above.

Schedule Annual Tune Ups

If you want to avoid an emergency repair, you need to maintain your furnace. If you let your HVAC systems go, issues accumulate and a simple repair usually leads to entire furnace replacement. Limit your repairs and extend the life of your heating unit with an annual furnace tune up. The cost of one, in-depth tune up beats the costs of multiple repair jobs.

Know The Warning Signs

If your furnace is making unusual sounds, or there is a sudden spike in your utility bill, consider it a sign. If more than one season has passed, especially the summer and winter months, your system most definitely needs a tune-up. Ask yourself,

-Is the system responding to temperature settings?
-Is it taking longer to start?
-Do I keep turning up the thermostat?

If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, your furnace would certainly benefit from a proper tune-up, or possibly replacement.

You’re not alone when it comes to the trials and tribulations of furnace repair. Your furnace is a large, complicated piece of machinery. You don’t know anything about it except that it keeps you warm. When it breaks, you don’t know what to do except call the professionals, who are sometimes the exact opposite of “professional.” Schedule annual tune-ups or monthly maintenance appointments to avoid heatless nights, eliminate those emergency repair visits, and altogether defeat furnace frustrations.