If you’re wondering why we’re asking the question in the title, it’s because at Collier’s we’re preparing for the change in seasons, and we want to make sure our customers are getting ready as well. A furnace that has lingering repair needs from the previous year can cause serious troubles when the first cold weather arrives and the heater has to fire up.
We strongly recommend you get ahead of any problems with your heating system by calling us for furnace repair in Plymouth, IN. The weather may still be warm outside but trust us: the best time to have a furnace fixed is when you don’t need it working.
Never Postpone Furnace Repairs
When was the last time your furnace was running? Probably right before the summer started. Since then, it’s lain dormant while the air conditioner took on the seasonal workload. If you noticed the furnace experiencing problems during those final weeks you had it running, you may have dismissed the warnings because the furnace was about to shut off for a few months. We understand the urge behind postponing repairs to a furnace in spring, but it’s never a good strategy to delay these fixes.
First, there’s the safety issue. Most furnaces in the area are natural gas furnaces, which are more powerful and less costly to run compared to electric furnaces. Natural gas furnaces are “unsafe” appliances (they would never be allowed into homes if they were), but keeping them working at their safest requires repairs as they’re needed. Leaking gas lines or cracked heat exchangers can lead to a hazardous furnace, but such problems can be prevented with prompt, professional repair work.
Second, any time a furnace runs with a malfunction, it wastes power. Malfunctions force a furnace to expend more energy to work, and this comes out of your bills. When you turn on your furnace at the start of this year’s heating season, it will already cost more to run than it should—a bad way to start the winter!
Third, leaving a furnace problem alone while the heater sits unused over summer won’t allow the problem to improve—and it will probably make the problem worse. A furnace doesn’t heal naturally like people and animals! Problems due to leaks, dust, and corrosion may further deteriorate during the furnace’s hibernation period.
Ensuring a Furnace Is Ready for Its Season Premiere
We’re approaching the time when we recommend customers schedule annual professional heating maintenance. This is an essential step to prepare a furnace for working well through the winter ahead. However, you may have a bit of extra work to do for your furnace if you left it with a malfunction back in spring. Get in touch with our HVAC professionals to arrange for maintenance, but also inform them you think the furnace may already have an issue. This helps the technician who comes to your house to make an accurate diagnosis of what needs to be done to ensure the furnace works the way it should. The technician can check to see if the trouble has worsened over the summer the furnace spent on the benches.