Heating and Cooling Preventative Maintenance Checklist

When it comes to your heating and cooling system, the tendency is to avoid thinking about it until something breaks. However, the best thing you can do for your home is follow a regular schedule of preventative maintenance. This will ensure that your heating and cooling system doesn’t let you down when you need it most.

Here are five things you should be doing regularly for preventative maintenance on your heating and cooling system:

1. Have a heating and cooling specialist come to your home at least once or twice each year. They will be able to check a number of things that you won’t be able to check. They will also be able to clean parts of the system that you are better off not messing with, like the ignition system, the blower motor and wheel, the condenser coils, and the condensate drain lines.

2. Do your own regular visual inspections of your heating and cooling units, looking for parts that are obviously worn out or loose. Take note of any extensive vibrating or other indications that something is wrong. These visual inspections should be done about halfway between the regular checks you have scheduled with a heating and cooling specialist. For example, if you have a technician coming in every six months, you would do your own visual checks every three months. This will enable you to call someone in early in the event that something is starting to break.

3. Change the batteries in your carbon monoxide detector every six months. A good rule of thumb is to change the batteries in your carbon monoxide detector at the same time you change the batteries in your smoke detector. If you don’t have a carbon monoxide detector, then you need to purchase one because a malfunctioning furnace can give off dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.

4. Change the air filter once a month. This is the easiest thing to do when it comes to taking care of your heating and cooling system, and yet many homeowners forget to do it. A clean air filter will keep your unit running at peak condition and also cut down on the amount of allergens inside your home.

5. Check the controls of your heating and cooling system regularly. A good rule of thumb is to check the controls of the system you aren’t currently using. For example, check the air conditioner controls during the winter or spring a couple of months before you will actually need to turn the air conditioner on. Then remember to check the furnace controls a month or two before you will need to turn it on. You don’t want to get into the time when you need these units to work and then discover that they are non-functional. In order to check the controls, turn the unit on and then simply see if the unit starts to run within a good amount of time. This will also give you a chance to check the responsiveness of your controls because you can see how long it takes for the unit to kick on.

It is far too easy to ignore these important parts of your home until they break, but you simply can’t afford to do that. Doing regular preventative maintenance on your heating and cooling system is the only way you can be sure that it won’t break down when you need it most. Replacing parts right before they break will keep your unit running smoothly.

Spring Home HVAC is one of the most trusted Scarborough heating and cooling companies operating. Let their technicians keep your system in good working order.