Thursday, December 9, 2010

What to check before you call a service company

Three basic items to check before calling for service.

1) Make sure power to the furnace is on. Usually there is a switch on the side or top of the furnace, hint: try turning the power off for one minute and then turn back on. Even furnaces have computers that need to be reset for various reasons

2) Check for proper thermostat setting. If the thermostat is in the heat position and set above room temperature try turning the heat/off/cool switch to off and then back on.

3) Check the manual gas valve located on the gas piping coming into the furnace. Make sure the valve handle is parallel with the gas pipe.


Taking a moment and checking these items I’ve mentioned may prevent a larger percentage of service calls.  However, lest we should overlook another basic maintenance item on the furnace checklist, make sure you have changed the filter in your furnace before calling a repair company.  Furnace companies will sometimes view a dirty filter as a reason to charge a customer even more.  Although this behavior is not very nice, or perhaps ethical, some technicians will consider a dirty filter as the homeowner’s lack of interest in saving money.  “Heck, if they don’t have the time to change a filter than they certainly won’t mind paying the bill for it.” 


On the positive side, if you follow these steps you may even solicit the opposite response from your heating and cooling company.  Just tell them that you tried performing these basic steps but found the problem was something more complicated then the average homeowner checklist. Whenever a customer has shown some interest in solving the problem before calling our company I always try to put myself in their shoes.  If they went to this trouble they are probably concerned about an expensive repair bill.  I have attempted a few automobile repairs on my own for this very reason. 


Hope this gets you back in operation and saves a few dollars!


Written by Randy

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