When it comes to home comfort, the Comfort Bear would like to ignore strange noises coming from appliances in the home—but ultimately this would be a bad idea.

It’s easy to deny that something may be amiss with our heaters when they start making an odd sound, since fixing it can be a nuisance. But just like the Comfort Bear, you shouldn’t neglect these signs of furnace disrepair.

A rattle may be something as benign as an easy-to-fix loose panel, or it could suggest a cracked heat exchanger which can lead to a hazardous carbon monoxide leak. It’s important to protect your family—if you hear anything outside of the normal cycling of your furnace and air whooshing through your vents, please give us a call. We’ve listed below some of the common sounds you should alert us to.

Today’s furnace models are built with efficiency, performance, and safety in mind. No matter what heating system you have however, HVAC systems need to have regular attention to be at peak performance. Regular furnace maintenance is key to keeping your air filter changed, your blower motor blowing and your air flow flowing! If you want confidence that your heating system can meet the temp settings on your thermostat, then keep regular maintenance going with these maintenance tips and keep your system’s energy efficiency as high as possible this heating season; as well as the added bonus of lower energy bills!

Why is it so important to keep your furnace maintenance up on a regular maintenance schedule? What can you do to keep the various parts of your system running optimally, and increase the lifespan of your system? 

Here are a few things regular maintenance can help avoid and DIY tips to perform them:

When it comes to an air conditioning or heating system, safety is always at the top of the list. Homeowners not only want systems that perform greatly, provide excellent indoor air quality and reduce energy bills; but they want their heating & air conditioning to be safe for them and their loved ones.

With heating systems there are many choices from mini-splits to heat pumps to natural gas furnaces. Some are ductless, some are electric, some have a pilot light and use flammable/combustible gas to build-up heat in the home. Regular furnace maintenance is key to any system, having consistent seasonal tune-ups from a reputable company in your service area and keeping the furnace filter changed can help keep your HVAC system running correctly and safely.

One of the most effective furnace safety tips and means to keeping your family safe when using a gas furnace or water heater is to have carbon monoxide detectors placed throughout the home, with fresh batteries installed on a regular basis. If your HVAC system develops a CO2 gas leak and you do not have carbon monoxide detectors installed in your home you run the risk of being exposed to carbon monoxide poisoning. 

Natural gas furnaces, as well as water heaters, are hugely popular and are used across the country to heat homes in winter months, and any HVAC system that utilizes a gas furnace will come with some safety concerns that homeowners should be aware of.

Comfort Bear here. Let me tell you something about my cousins from the Arctic:

When they’re looking for a tasty meal, they rely on a sharp sense of smell. It’s so strong that they can even smell prey from under the ice.

If you humans had a sense of smell that good, you might be able to sniff out a fishy HVAC contractor. A bad HVAC contractor is a huge loss of both time and money, but it can be difficult to spot them.

Of course, humans do have something like this sense of smell, but they call it their intuition and experience. I’ll share some of that experience with you so you can sniff out a bad contractor.

Heating season is upon us, which means that it’s time to make sure that you have what you need to stay comfy and warm over the next few months. I tend not to worry too much about heating issues, having fur and all. For those of you not adapted to arctic climates, though, you might want to make sure that your furnace is in good shape before relying on it on a daily basis.

Preventive maintenance is ideal for making sure that your furnace stays healthy throughout the winter season. Still, there is a chance that you’ll have to deal with some level of issue during the winter, though, which is why you need to keep an eye out for signs that your furnace is dealing with some kind of problem. The following are some common signs that a furnace is in need of repair.

You need to be especially vigilant for signs that your furnace is developing issues during the winter season this year. The daily temperatures are reaching extreme lows, which means you’re likely placing more strain on your furnace that increases the likelihood of issues developing. We’re not suggesting that you go without heat, of course. Merely that you take steps to ensure that your system stays in the best possible shape. One of the ways you can do that is actually to listen for warning signs that your furnace is in trouble. If you’re not sure what to listen for, read on.

Low furnace output is a common problem during the heating season, when demand on the system is high. It’s also one of the most inconvenient times to have that particular problem. If your furnace happens to be putting out less heat than you think it should be this heating season, there might be a number of different reasons why. Read on find out more about the various problems that might cause low furnace output, and what can be done about them.

If your thermostat seems to refuse to get your home warm enough and your furnace is not providing the levels of heat that you need to stay comfortable, you probably need to have a professional HVAC technician troubleshoot what is going on. Before you call for professional furnace troubleshooting and furnace repairs, though, you should check a few things yourself to make sure that it’s not a minor DIY furnace problem that you can take care of yourself and not have to spend money on the service call for your HVAC system. We’ve outlined a few of those minor issues below.