Furnace Maintenance Tips To Avoid Fire Cleaning

10/24/2021 (Permalink)

Make a maintenance schedule for the furnace in your home in Emporia, VA, to avoid fire and smoke damage.

The furnace in your home in Emporia, VA, helps to regulate the indoor temperature. When it breaks down, it can affect not only your family's comfort level but also the overall safety of your home. To avoid the need for fire cleaning due to a smoking furnace, it's in your best interest to establish and stick to a regular maintenance schedule.

Prevent Need for Smoke Cleaning With Basic Checks

The first sign that there is a problem with the furnace is often the temperature inside the house. You set the thermostat to your preferred comfort level, and the system does not respond. Unless your furnace is actually smoking, it is best, to begin with, a few basic checks:

• Check to see if the breaker powering the furnace or system has been tripped.
• Raise the thermostat a few more degrees to see if that triggers the automatic start.
• Push the reset button on the furnace.
• Check the pilot light on a gas furnace or the oil level on an oil-fueled model.
  

Despite the simplicity of these small checks, sometimes one of them is just the jumpstart the system needs. There are other situations in which turning it off and on again is not the answer, though.

Replace Filter To Keep Intake Clean

Dirt and furnaces aren't a good mix. According to fire cleaning experts, dust that gets inside the furnace can make it less efficient and waste energy. It also can become a fire hazard if the problem gets too out of hand. If you have ever experienced the unpleasant smell of dust burning off the coils of a unit during its first use of the season, you can probably imagine how easily a fire could erupt.

There are two things you can do to keep dirt out of your unit. First, replace or clean the filter on a regular basis. In a home where the system gets a lot of use, it's smart to check the filter to see if it needs changing every other month. Second, have your furnace cleaned at least once a year to remove the dust that does get past the filter.

Schedule a Professional Tune-Up Appointment

Other than dirt in the system, there are several reasons why a furnace may not work as well as it should. Fuel may not be getting to the unit or may not be igniting properly when it does. The blower that distributes air to the house may malfunction. A faulty thermostat can also cause problems.

Regular professional maintenance can identify these problems early and fix them before they turn catastrophic. A tune-up right before the first cold snap can keep you from needing smoke cleaning as the furnace begins to work harder to warm your home. Another inspection after the worst of winter is over catches any issues that need repair before summer begins.

A trusted fire cleaning team can mitigate the mess caused by a smoking furnace, but it's better to prevent the problem in the first place. With a few basic tricks and regular maintenance, your furnace can work more reliably.