Maintanince on furnace..etc.

[jazz]

How often do you get your furnace / AC maintained. I live in cold climate with 2-3 months of hot. I was recommended yearly for both. Are the extended service plans worth the extra cost.

Thanks

[Joe]

I pay yearly for my boiler to be serviced every year, I was told it makes it much more efficient and pays for itself by cutting down on fuel usage. I also wonder if it would be more economical to get a service contract.

[Frank]

Heard an HVAC guy say that oil furnaces should be serviced annually but it is OK to go a few years with gas.

[Bubba]

Nope. Wrong. It all gets serviced annually. Read your installation/service manual. Most are not even recommending and requiring that they be serviced annually to keep your warranty in effect. Its all in print. Read it for yourself. Bubba

[ransley]

AC and oil yearly, gas every few years unless the flame is not blue. What gets overlooked is the AC coil inside, often it is sealed up but mold and dirt will affect heating performance by reducing airflow. Poor fitting air filters or cheap and neglected filters allow dirt to pass through clogging things up

[Blattus Slafaly]

Depends on your mileage. If you have oil as a backup you don't need yearly service. If your house is well insulated you don't need yearly service. If a furnace that has 4000 hours on it need service then one that has 2000 thousand hours can go 2 years and one with 1000 hours can go 4 years. Don't let them bullshit you.

[Moe Jones]

I am retired from the business and you should have any A/C and Heating system check before you use them to make sure all is safe to operate. When it comes to a extended service plan all I can say if you trust your A/C & Heating company, the plan is good for you and for them but if you do not trust the company then it can bite you on the butt. I would use them on some simple jobs and then see if they were fair and honest to you.

[ransley]

Safe? If the furnace runs and you have a Co detector what is unsafe. Yearly maintenance on a Ng furnace is a waste of money if you can check filters and flame condition.

[Moe Jones]

Not only cracked heat exchanger but what about gas leaks, electrical problems, bearings, over all condition of the furnace. In my years of working on them you would be surprised in finding problems after only one year. I have seen people stack cardboard box right up to the furnace and by the time I got there the boxes had started in discoloring due to the heat plus allot of the times you can find a small problem that can easily be repaired before it turned into a large problem. If you can check the flame condition them most likely you would not need a service tech. but if you do not know about what your furnace and what to look like then do not take a chance in letting your furnace go for a number of years.

[Bubba]

You're still a friggin idiot Ransley. You still dont understand the operation of fueled combustion. I can put a furnace in your home with a hole in the heat exchanger big enough to put your fat head through and I can still make it burn with no CO. Then one cold night while you are asleep, the conditions are just right (temp, humidity, etc) and all of a sudden the unit produces enough CO to kill you in only a very short time You really are a dangerous idiot. Again I'll quote. Read your owners manual. Almost all will tell you to have yearly maintenance and it can affect your warranty. I really dont think all those manufacturers are putting that in print because they feel sorry for us hvac guys and want us to line our pockets with tune up money. Tune ups themselves are NOT money makers. Take your tin-foil hat off Ransley. Its affecting your brain waves beamed in from Mars. Bubba

[N8N]

In my area, you can't get a service call unless you have a service contract. found that out the hard way one night when my igniter failed. Hadn't been in the house long enough to have stashed away a spare, had to stay up most of the night moving around space heaters to keep everything from freezing until the stores opened in the AM.

In retrospect, I wonder if I'd cranked the thermostat up to 85 degrees or something and then ran down real fast and lit the burners with a fireplace match if that would have allowed me to heat the house up enough to get a couple hours sleep before it cooled down enough to force me to relight it, but I'd probably have blown myself up...

nate

[jazz]

Hi,

What is your opinion on AC ( use it only for 4 weeks out of a year) and Gas fireplace. How often should they be maintained.

THanks

[Bubba]

Strange area you live in. Certainly Id like all of my customers to be service agreement customers but hell, I wont turn down a new customer. Overtime always helps a little. To answer your question, yes, you can turn it up and light it with a match. Not always the safest thing to do but if you know what you are doing, its the same as the igniter lighting them. Again, I DONT recommend it but yes, it works. Bubba

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, How about making sure it runs at peak efficiency? I guess you don't/won't do anything about your car either as long as it runs?

[ransley]

So you say you can put in a furnace in a home with a big hole in the exchanger, what kind of crooked hack are you, and tell us all how a Co detector wont detect the leak, that would be interesting to know HOW you can hide defective units. Tune ups are bull shit as to needing to be done every year, as I said for Ng furnaces IF your air filter keeps out dirt. Or keep dreamin and lying to yourself and clients to justify your lack of business

[ransley]

uoted text -

For my Lennox with a 4" media filter and being able to see the flame I dont need yearly maintenance, my installer and neighbor installer told me this, and i have found it true. If you dont know anything about equipment, use a cheap filter system or have a old unit you can benefit as many folks dont know or do any maintenance, I have a staem boiler checked ever year but not my HW boiler or furnace, as I said If you have a good air filter that is maintained and can see the flames condition, and the unit is not real old yearly inspection I find usualy ends up a waste of money, the AC and coil I do believe yearly maintenance is required. Bubba wants everyone to believe that a furnace with AC needs 2 inspections yearly, You can do it all usualy with your AC check on a furnace.

[ransley]

Oh and Bubbaass mr greenteeth, My Lennox Installer- Dealer said Yearly Maintenance is NOT REQUIRED. Go back to the hole alt.hvachackingisawayoflifeweknowshit.com

[ransley]

Is that what you do Bubba, business is that bad you have to Bullshit and LIE to all your customers their warranty is at risk, unless they have you out every heat season turn on for a fee. Are you calling my authorised AO Smith, Weil McLain and Lennox installers - dealers incompetants, and that they putting me at risk.

[jazz]

BTW_ my mother was told she needs yearly maintenace on her gas fireplace. I started to investigate and found that many people never get one done. What is the deal with this-? I live in apt and don't know anything about this stuff. Is she getting ripped off ?

Thanks for all your comments.

[Moe Jones]

On your A/C I would recommend that you also have it checked once a year but a way to save some money is have the service tech. show you what to look for on your system. Now I know you will not have the gages and such but you can tell alot about your system by touching the suction and liquid line and just opening the control panel and looking inside.