How often do you get your furnace/central air checked/tuned?

Z

ZZman

Joined
Mar 17, 2008
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Location
Michigan
Today I am getting my furnace tuned up for the first time along with a Aprilaire 1410 thicker air filter added to my system.

My 90+ furnace and central air was installed in 2004!

Other than a new compressor capacitor in the central air unit, it has never been serviced.

So how good are you on getting these checked/tuned up on a regular basis?
 
I watched lots of videos on YouTube of furnace tune ups and some seem very basic and others very comprehensive.
 
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My wife's late uncle, who was an HVAC tech, said only if it stops working. Ours was installed in 2001. The blower quit 2 years ago. We called a repair service. The service guy installed a new blower motor, inspected the rest of the furnace/AC unit, and said everything looks great. That's one service call in 17 years.
 
Never. I replace the filters regularly and stick my head in it once or twice a year to wipe down the coils.

I hose down the outside unit to get the dirt off of it when I have to water my yard after laying down the bug killer so once or twice a year.
 
80% Efficiency Carrier. The unit was installed in 1995. We've been in the house for 15 years and had exactly one call on the furnace (replaced the control board). A/C has been repaired three times, most recently this last summer. Tech said everything looked good on a basic check of the furnace, and to leave it alone.

We know we are on borrowed time, but that's OK.
 
ZZman said:
Today I am getting my furnace tuned up for the first time along with a Aprilaire 1410 thicker air filter added to my system.

My 90+ furnace and central air was installed in 2004!

Other than a new compressor capacitor in the central air unit, it has never been serviced.

So how good are you on getting these checked/tuned up on a regular basis?
Click to expand...
They come 2X a year.
 
Considering the furnace and A/C cooling my apartment, I think leaving it alone is fine. Both are at least 20 years old. I did personally pay for Freon in the system last summer, but no one ever checks on it.
 
No a/c here.

Furnace, I typically get that cleaned very 2 years. It runs year 'round, making hot water for the house, so it's never off for long periods of time. The oil company says to clean every year but whenever I've watched, it doesn't seem that gunked up, and the tech usually comments about that, so I take it as a sign that once a year is too often.
 
Spectre694 said:
Never. I replace the filters regularly and stick my head in it once or twice a year to wipe down the coils.

I hose down the outside unit to get the dirt off of it when I have to water my yard after laying down the bug killer so once or twice a year.
Click to expand...
I do wash down my a/c unit outside quite often as the cottonwood really like to stick to it.
 
My A/C unit - Heat Pump came with a years service. They basically cleaned out the condensate drain line, and checked the charge levels. When I saw the amount of freon that was lost during the pressure checks, I decided that would be the end of it.
Since that time I replaced a capacitor, clean the drain line annually, and keep the filters changed, no issues at all. The unit is 6 years old now.

My brother, however, has gas fired hot water (baseboard) heat. I decided to check his for him one time and found the "boiler" heat exchanger totally plugged.....he was complaining about the high cost of running that unit! No wonder, half the gas he was burning was going straight up the chimney.
So it depends on the system, some need a little more work than others. It seems to me that there are more issues with #1 - Oil Heat, #2 - Natural Gas, including condensing 90% efficient units, and #3 - All Electric/ heat pump. In order from most maintenance to least.
 
Oil burner furnace that heats the home and still runs when no heat needed for hot water. Every 12-18 months the unit is cleaned, new canister filter, new nozzle, and the arms of the burner (forgetting the correct term) adjusted.

AC unit gets a new filter in June/July depending on temps and again in late August depending on how the last filter looks. With 3 kids, 2 dogs, and me the filters can get dirty when running the system hard. I'm petrified of my AC as it's using the old freon and it's outrageously expensive to capture and fill around me.
 
I have the A/C looked at every spring. It's facing 110 degree days when summer hits, so it's important that refrigerant level is optimum and everything is running smoothly. I've never had the furnace looked at.....until something in the circuit board of my old unit failed a few years ago, and it got dragged down the attic stairs and replaced by a Trane unit. Allegedly it couldn't be fixed. I trust A/C companies every bit as much as car salesmen.
 
I replace the furnace filter every month or so in the winter. It gets dirty fast. I do keep a CO alarm right next to the furnace incase it were to start emitting CO gasses. The blower is getting a little noisey. I have not been able to locate a new one yet.

The furnace is in the part of the house that was built in 1965. I know it has been there since 74 that I know of.
 
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Actual professional service is around every three-four years. I watched guy closely one time and just repeat what he did.

Both heat and A/C got a thumbs up from the last techs that were out here. System is twenty-one years old. I'll probably replace in four
 
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