FAQs

Spring Home is a HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) contractor in the GTA area and has been installed and serviced residential and light commercial HVAC products since 2001. Spring Home has earned awards from manufacturers and customers because of outstanding performance on quality of installation and service, and customer satisfaction.

Awards

• Trane TCS (Trane Comfort Specialist) Dealer–the highest recognition among all Trane dealers in North American!
• Daikin Comfort Pro–Only the best dealers are picked up in this industry by Daikin
• Mitsubishi Electric Appreciation Award for achieving outstanding performance since 2013, 5 years in a row!
• 5 times “Best HVAC Contractor” Award Winner of www.homestars.com in GTA
• Baeumler Approved HVAC contractor in GTA.
• Dave Lennox Premier Dealer since 2011
• 7 times Winner of “Lennox Centurion” Award for — Top 2% of Lennox Dealers in North American!
• American Standard/Air Heat Supplies Pinnacle Platinum Award
• American Standard/Air Heat Supplies Distinguish Award
• American Standard Customer Care Award for outstanding customer satisfaction.

Certifications & Affiliations

• North American Technician Excellence (NATE)
• The Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioner Institute of Canada (HRAI)
• Better Business Bureau of GTA (A+ rating)
• Metro License (Toronto Licensing and Standards)
• Technical Standards & Safety Authority (TSSA)
• Electrical Safety Authority (ESA)
• Markham Board of Trade

Please find out more about Spring Home at www.springhome.ca/about-us

26 Points Ductless Annual Precision Tune Up

At Spring Home, we offer customer 26 points ductless air conditioner annual Precision Tune Up. It takes about one hour on site to complete the service.

When System is not Operating

Indoor Unit

1. Clean the filter. Put it back until it is dry if it has to be washed.

2. Inspect the back of the evaporator coil by lifting unit away from the wall. If it is dirty, pump down refrigerant and disconnect the power supply, take the indoor unit out and clean it. After it is cleaned, install it back.

3. Inspect the condensate drain pan at the back of the indoor unit by lifting unit away from the wall. Clean it if it is necessary.

4. Moving the manual louvers, lubricate it as needed.

5. Inspect unit installation as per manufacturer’s installation instruction and local codes.

Outdoor Unit

6. Clean dirt, leaves and debris from inside cabinet.

7. Inspect base pan for restricted drain openings—remove obstruction as necessary

8. Inspect condenser coil and cabinet—clean as needed

9. Inspect fan motor and fan blades for wear and damage—on older models lubricate as needed

10. Inspect control box, associated controls/accessories, wiring and connections. Controls includes contactors, relays, circuit boards, capacitors and other accessories. Tighten up loose connection(s) and replace damage/wear connection(s).

11. Inspect compressor and associated tubing for damage.

12. Inspect unit installation as per manufacturer’s installation instruction and local codes.

When System is operating

Indoor Unit

13. Turn the indoor automatic louver up/down and/or left/right, lubricate it as needed.

14. Measure temperature drop at supply and return when it is in cooling function.

15. Measure temperature rise at supply and return when it is in heating function.

16. Listen for abnormal noise from indoor unit.

17. Inspect the condensate water flow to see if the flow is smooth, clean it as needed.

18. Inspect unit installation as per manufacturer’s installation instruction and local codes.

Outdoor Unit

19. Listen for abnormal noise from outdoor units.

20. Inspect unit for proper refrigerant level and adjust it if necessary.

21. Monitor system starting characteristics and capabilities.

22. Measure super-heat and sub-cooling.

23. Measure high and low side system pressures, adjust it if necessary.

24. Monitor system for correct line and load volts/amps.

25. Monitor system operation as per manufacturer’s specifications.

26. Provide system operation report and recommend repairs or replacement as necessary.

Air filter has to be replaced at least twice a year before summer and winter coming. If your house is located in high traffic or construction area, you may have to replace or cleaned it more often. For example, one of our customers lives in downtown Toronto close to QEW and Yonge St., he has to replace the air filter every month because of the dust from high traffic and construction.

Air filter is normally located upstream of the furnace in return ductwork. It stops dust getting into furnace, air conditioner evaporator and living area.
There are two types of air filters–washable and disposable. Please dry the washable filter before it is put back.
Dirty filter causes problems and lowers down the appliances’ efficiency.

• In heating season, dirty filter causes over heated furnace as there is no enough return air to bring the heat up. Modern furnaces have more electronic components than old middle efficiency furnaces; high working temperature shortens the life time of those components and may trip the high limited safety switch.
• Dirty filter causes high energy bill. Furnace or air conditioner works longer time than normal because there is no enough warm air or cold air blew up into living area to satisfy the thermostat.

Keeping air filter clean is very important to maintain proper efficiency and lifetime of furnace and air conditioner.

When System is not Operating

Outdoor Unit

1. Clean dirt, leaves, and debris from the inside cabinet if the airflow through the condenser coil is affected.
2. Inspect base pan for restricted drain openings—remove obstructions as necessary
3. Inspect coil and cabinet—clean as needed
4. Inspect fan motor and fan blades for wear and damage—on older models lubricate as needed
5. Inspect control box, associated controls/accessories, wiring and connections. Controls may include contactors, relays, circuit boards, capacitors, sump heat and other accessories. All control box and electrical parts should be checked for wear or damage.
6. Inspect compressor and associated tubing for damage

Indoor Unit

1. Inspect and clean blower assembly (includes blower housing, blower wheel and motor)
2. On older models, lubricate motor and inspect and replace fan belt if needed
3. Inspect evaporator coil, drain pan and condensate drain lines. Clean as needed
4. Inspect control box, associated controls, wiring and connections
5. Clean or replace air filters

When System is Operating

1. Inspect unit for proper refrigerant level and adjust if necessary
2. Inspect conditioned airflow system (ductwork)—check for leaks
3. Monitor system starting characteristics and capabilities
4. Listen for abnormal noise
5. Search for source of unusual odors
6. Measure outdoor condenser sub-cooling
7. Measure indoor evaporator super-heat
8. Measure high and low side system pressures
9. Measure temperature drop and adjust airflow as needed
10. Monitor system for correct line and load volts/amps
11. Monitor system operation per manufacturer`s specifications
12. Provide system operation report and recommend repairs or replacement as necessary

Before the cold winter hits your window, people in Ontario need hire a reputable and licensed contractor to do a furnace annual PM checkup. What’s PM checkup? PM stands for Preventive & Maintenance. By doing PM checkup, technician can find and fix potential problem(s) that will stop your furnace and wake you up in a midnight of cold winter, and it keeps your house comfortable and maintains your furnace at peak performance. Without this PM checkup, your furnace can wear itself out quickly, pump up deadly CO into your room, waste your money on your energy bills (gas and hydro).

Spring Home PM checkup focuses on safety, comfort and efficiency.

Safety: we check the furnace heat exchanger by combustion analysis and visual check with camera, crack or hole on heat exchanger causes CO spillage and incomplete combustion. CO is a natural product of incomplete combustion. It is odorless and colorless. It causes flu-like symptoms, disorientation, confusion and even death. Combustion analysis result tells us if the combustion is complete or incomplete.

We test all safety devices including high limited switch, roll out switches, door switch, flame sensor, and pressure switch…etc. in order to make sure that safety switches can stop the furnace when something dangerous happen.

Comfort: Furnace is “heart” of the HVAC system; it heats up and pumps air to your rooms. It is designed to fire at certain BTUH to cover the heat loss through exterior walls, windows, doors and top floor ceiling, suck return air back from rooms and distribute warm air to rooms. At Spring Home, our technicians clock the gas meter to check the firing rate, make sure the volume dampers at right position for proper air flow, check the air velocity and temperature at floor register to give you proper suggestion to increase comfort level.

We also test all functional parts, the test results may find out potential problems that may stop your furnace soon. We will replace the “trouble maker” if it is under warranty (most of furnaces have 10 years parts warranty from manufacturer), and we will suggest you to replace it if it is not under manufacturer’s warranty. Nobody wants to be surprised by a stone cold house in winter in Ontario.

Efficiency: Regular maintenance keeps your furnace work at its’ top efficiency. In Ontario, more than half of our energy bill is towards to our HVAC system. Don’t be surprised, the saving is big if you do a simple math—yearly saving times lifetime of your furnace. Plus, more energy you save, more environment friendly you are.

What we do is to replace or clean the air filter, check the blower and clean it if needed, check the combustion efficiency and adjust gas and air mixture if needed, calibrate thermostat if needed, check the air distribution system…etc.

Find out more about Spring Home Furnace PM Checkup.

For the past decade I have been asked by many homeowners in the GTA about their heating equipment. I found that the majority feel that a PM (Preventative Maintenance) checkup is to just replace their filter, which in fact is not the case. I have also spent a lot of time interviewing licensed technicians and have found that most of them don’t know what should be done when completing a PM checkup.

In the HVAC industry, some contractors will use low annual maintenance price’s (even lower than cost) to get their foot in your door just to upsell something; some contractors just walk into the mechanical room and finish the maintenance in 5 minutes. An actual PM checkup should take approximately an hour. Being in your home for 5 minutes is not the professional way to complete a checkup and is definitely not the Spring Home way.

At Spring Home, we offer our customers a full checkup from top to bottom in order to prolong the lifespan of their heating equipment, Fix potential problem, save the operation, and make your home comfortable and safe. We also make sure our trained professionals follow our 28 point PM check list to ensure you are getting the proper service you deserve and to give you peace of mind that your home is safe and comfortable. I have listed this list below….

1. Combustion analysis—percentage of different combustion products (O2, CO2…) tells the combustion efficiency as well as if the combustion is complete or in complete. Incomplete combustion generates CO.
2. Clean the burner if the CO reading is over a certain PPM or visually find the burner is dirty.
3. Use a camera to visually check the heat exchanger.
4. Inspect safety device—high temperature limit switch.
5. Inspect safety device—flame roll out switch.
6. Inspect safety device—pressure switch(s).
7. Inspect safety device—door switch.
8. Fire rate checkup by clocking the gas meter—no tolerance on over fire; under fire is allowed to be within -10%.
9. Clean the pressure switch tubes.
10. Check Pressure differential of the pressure switch. If a low pressure differential happens, the exhaust motor is weak and will stop soon.
11. Check the exhaust motors current draw, high current draw means the motor will die out soon.
12. Check exhaust motor operation and sound, replace it if too noisy.
13. Check electrical connection and tighten if needed.
14. Visually check if there are symptoms of condensing leakage.
15. Clean blower, control board and other components if necessary.
16. Check blower current draw, replace it if the current is too high as it will stop soon.
17. Lubricate all fans and motor bearings if needed.
18. Inspect and replace air filter, we only provide 16” x 25” x 1” disposable filter for free.
19. Inspect all belts and replace it if needed.
20. Calibrate temperature control and replace batteries.
21. Inspect condensing pump.
22. Clean drain pipe.
23. Check the temperature rise between return and supply ductwork, increase the air flow if the temperature is over the range, and lower the air flow if the temperature is under range.
24. Inspect and adjust volume dampers for proper air flow.
25. Check the air velocity and temperature at floor registers.
26. Inspect the chimney.
27. Inspect the exhaust pipe.
28. Test overall operation of heating equipment.

A winter PM Checkup is for your comfort, your health and your safety, it’s also to help you save money with costly service repairs in the future. Before our technician leaves your home, we will make sure your heating equipment is working at its peak performance—safe, comfort and efficient is the Spring Home Way!