Last week was my focus on safety post. Gas furnace safety is something that’s always on my mind. That’s not because gas furnaces are normally dangerous. But they do have the potential to become dangerous if people don’t remember to keep them regularly maintained and always call for our professionals when it’s time for repairs. Doing combustion analysis is only one part of the ways that our team works hard to make sure that the gas furnace in your house keeps your family warm and safe.
I’d like to focus on that whole “call for repairs” thing. If a furnace simply stops working, you’ll know it’s time to call someone to repair it. You don’t need a dog with a blog to tell you that! But there are other indications that a gas furnace is having trouble that people often ignore, hoping it will somehow just “take care of itself.” It won’t.
Contact us when you notice the following with your gas furnace:
- Weird noises: What counts as “weird”? Simply put, anything that you don’t expect to hear when the furnace is running. These include shrieking and grinding (probably motor troubles), clanging and rattling (maybe something is loose in the air handlers), booms (delays with the burners firing), and clicking (many options, but the worst is cracks in the heat exchanger).
- Uneven heating: Is one of the rooms in the house chillier than the rest. Don’t shut the door and decide you’ll just ignore that room for the time being. Cold spots in a house usually mean the heating system is losing power. It could also be trouble with the ductwork.
- Gas bills are getting scary: And I mean “too expensive” scary. I hope you keep good track of your heating bills each winter, because comparing them can quickly point out where something is going wrong. You can expect to pay more if the price of gas has increased, or if more people are living in your house. But if bills are rising without a reason that you can tell, it’s probably the fault of the furnace.