Your furnace might as well be the most critical installation in your house during winter. Therefore, keeping it in good condition is a top priority. Besides posing the danger of having to spend cold days without proper heating in your house, a poorly kept furnace can also be hazardous to your family’s health.
It is, therefore, essential to regularly get professional furnace maintenance services from trusted experts. But how would you know that your furnace needs servicing and repairs? We give you five common signs to help you know when your furnace needs servicing.
- Gas Leaks
When you smell gas, it means your furnace has a leakage. You will need to call an HVAC expert to check and fix the problem. The gas in your furnace is highly flammable, and a single spark could cause a disaster in your home. Hence, turning off your furnace immediately after you sense a gas leakage is recommended to avert a nasty fire accident. If possible, leave the house until an expert fixes the leak.
- Unusual Furnace Smells
Newly installed furnaces might come with a pungent smell. However, as time elapses, the smell should disappear. There are furnace smells that begin suddenly and refuse to disappear. When you realize the unfamiliar odor is lingering for longer than usual, it is time to have your furnace serviced.
Strong smells emanating from the exhaust pipe could signify poor combustion, which may produce the deadly carbon monoxide gas in your home. While carbon monoxide is an odorless gas, aldehydes (by-products of poor combustion) are easy to smell. Hence, they can alert you of gas leakage.
- Uneven Heating
Whenever your furnace is not properly keeping your home warm at a steady temperature, you need to call in professionals to service it. You know your unit is not functioning well when you begin to get hot and cold patches around your house, indicating uneven heating.
Ordinarily, different locations of your house are likely to have different temperatures. For instance, your basement is expected to have lower temperatures than the upstairs. However, where there are significant temperature differences in comparable environments, it can only mean that your furnace needs servicing and repairs.
- The Unit Has Trouble Starting
The older your furnace gets, the more it needs regular servicing and maintenance. At some point, you might begin having trouble starting it and keeping it on.
Most of the issues leading to such a situation may originate from indoor AC coils, dirty filters, or secondary heat exchangers. A dirty flame sensor may also make your unit work sporadically. If it takes several attempts to turn your unit on or you are forced to restart it multiple times in a day, then it is time to call in an expert to service and repair it.
- It Produces Strange Noises
A furnace that is in good working condition produces a steady humming sound. If your unit starts to produce peculiar noises – such as rattling, banging, irregular hums, and groaning sounds, it should be a warning that something is wrong.
If the noises persist, you should call a professional to check the furnace and find out what the cause of the funny noises could be. Such action will ensure that your unit doesn’t develop serious malfunction or break down.
Conclusion
Ensuring that your furnace is in good working condition is essential in keeping your family warm and safe, especially during winter. Moreover, regular servicing and maintenance will avert major breakdowns, saving you expensive repairs.