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How Regularly Should You Maintain Your Furnace?

September 30, 2020

Between specialized lawn applications and raking, you likely do a good deal of work to prepare your yard for colder weather. Indoors, your furnace is the same. It also requires tune-ups to keep it working correctly all through the fall and winter.

But how often should you maintain your furnace in Portland? What if it’s newer? Or operating well? Is maintenance required then? Let’s go over why furnace maintenance is important and how frequently you should request it.

Why Furnace Service is Essential

Your furnace is essential to keeping your home cozy during the winter. When it’s regularly serviced, you’ll enjoy dependable, efficient heating. If you frequently avoid maintenance, your furnace can accumulate grit. This can lead your furnace to work more than it needs to and, consequently, drive up your energy expenses. Avoiding service could also cause your furnace to break down, sticking you with costly repair bills that could have been preventable in many situations.

One of the most important tasks you can do without help is frequently replacing your furnace’s air filter. When your filter gets filthy, your furnace could start reacting by doing something called short cycling, where it turns on and off more frequently to stop overheating. Apart from the fact that this affects your gas bills, it also reduces your furnace’s life span since it’s on more often.

If you have a flat filter, we suggest getting a new one at least once a month. Pleated filters can keep filtering up to three months. An easy approach to find out whether you need to replace your filter is by pulling it out and moving it toward the light. If you don’t detect light through it, you should get a fresh one.

However, how often you should change your filter is dependent upon how regularly your furnace runs, if you have dogs or cats and if anyone in your home suffers from allergies. The Three Rivers Heating & Cooling professionals can assist you if you’re unsure how frequently you should change your filter or what the best kind is for your family.

How Regularly You Should Schedule Furnace Maintenance

We suggest scheduling furnace maintenance in Portland once a year, preferably during the time between air conditioning and heating time. This will offer you a head start just in case you have to have any repairs and will confirm you get headache-free heating all winter long. It also keeps your manufacturer’s warranty valid, which is important if you just installed a new furnace.

Besides getting a new air filter and keeping your register grates free of dust, we don’t advise trying furnace maintenance alone. Your furnace is a complex machine that requires assistance from a heating and cooling specialist. All our friendly Three Rivers Heating & Cooling professionals have passed detailed courses to better serve you. They’re also fully licensed and insured, providing you peace of mind that your furnace is in experienced hands.

Here are some of things we’ll complete on our maintenance visit:

  • Examine critical parts of your furnace, like the heat exchanger, blower and burner.
  • Clean the interior of your furnace, in addition to the flame sensor, burner and blower.
  • Check the flue to verify it’s venting correctly.
  • Test complete furnace performance for safety and ideal heating.

Now is an outstanding time to request your furnace maintenance appointment with Three Rivers Heating & Cooling. Our pros are here to help you enjoy a headache-free winter with energy-efficient warmth. Contact us at 503-213-4433 to book your appointment now, and remember to check our offers for select discounts on your upcoming maintenance appointment.