Is Now a Good Time for Heating Maintenance?

Written on: August 2, 2021

Proper and regular maintenance by a professional heating oil technician helps your home heating system operate more efficiently, saving you on energy costs and helping to avert costly repairs. Following a proper maintenance schedule can also keep your equipment warranty in force and can extend the life of your heating system too.

Why worry about this now? Scheduling your heating oil system maintenance before autumn arrives makes sense for a few reasons.

Convenient Scheduling

When the first hint of fall foliage appears, it’s the beginning of the busy season for your local Hudson Valley heating oil service provider. Their schedule is quickly filled with requests for heating oil deliveries, emergency repairs, and heating system tune-ups from people who have delayed getting their equipment maintenance done. You may find it difficult to get your tune-up service done at a time that’s convenient for you.

On the other hand, your heating oil service provider’s schedule is much more open at this time of year. That means you can more easily schedule your tune-up for a time that works for you.

Repairs Are Handled Faster and Easier

Annual maintenance is important because your professional heating oil technician can discover small problems before they become bigger and more costly problems. When you schedule your tune-up in the summer, your technician has more time and flexibility to get any repairs done—without the need to rush off to a no-heat emergency.

Heating Repair Warning Signs

If you haven’t scheduled your heating maintenance service yet, you should do it as soon as possible. You don’t want to be faced with heating repairs in the middle of winter.

If you notice anything out of the ordinary with your heating system – like one of these telltale signs for a heating repair– contact your equipment service provider as soon as possible.

• Unusual noises – Most modern heating equipment runs pretty quietly. If you hear banging, clanking, or other unusual sounds, something is probably about to go wrong – if it hasn’t already.
• Odors – If your system is working properly, you should never smell fuel oil. An oil smell could be caused by a leak, burner troubles, a heat exchanger failure or exhaust system problems. You should schedule service as soon as possible to correct this situation. If you detect smoky odors when your oil burner is operating, it might be the result of a fireplace or exhaust fan running at the same time as your oil burner. A smoky odor occurs because a backdraft is pulling flue gases through the exhaust system and into the home.
• Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) – Have you noticed that a layer of dust forms not long after a thorough house cleaning – or that your allergy symptoms get worse when you spend more time at home? A furnace that isn’t working properly could be circulating dust, mildew, and other contaminants throughout your home. If you change your air filter and the problem doesn’t go away, you’ll need to call in a heating professional to diagnose the problem.

If you have an old system that is not as reliable as it was before and you’re tired of spending money on repairs, you should start researching your options for replacing your equipment.

This is especially important if the age of your heating system is 25 years old or older. That’s because just like any other piece of equipment around the home, systems will eventually deteriorate and require replacement.

If you’re ready to explore new heating system options for your home, reach out to your local heating oil service company and ask about saving money on new heating oil equipment with New York State rebates.