Ask most homeowners when they last thought about their furnace service and the honest answer is usually the morning it wouldn’t start. That’s about the worst time to meet it, too, since it’s already cold out, everybody else in town is calling for help on the same day and whatever little problem began the whole thing has had weeks to grow into a bigger one.
We’d much rather show up on a mild afternoon in the fall, and that’s the point of a professional furnace service, which flips the usual order around. Give one of our trained technicians somewhere around 45 minutes to an hour and they can clean, test and inspect the parts most likely to fail once the first hard freeze settles over central Georgia, and that short visit pays you back with months of comfort, energy bills that stay where they should and the peace of mind that comes from knowing the system is running safely.
People sometimes tell us they’ve stood in the hallway during a visit wondering what on earth the technician is doing in there with the panel off, so here’s the inside view, a walk through a real furnace service call from the moment we ring the bell to the moment we pull away, with what gets checked along the way and why each part of it matters.
Why a yearly furnace service pays off:
- Dirt and neglect are the top causes of heating and cooling system failure, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program, and that’s why the same program recommends having a professional look at the system every single year before heating season begins.
- Heating equipment is one of the leading causes of home fire deaths, according to the National Fire Protection Association, which recommends having heating systems inspected and cleaned every year before they’re fired up for the season, so a cleaning that seems minor turns out to be anything but.
- About 15,000 emergency room visits and nearly 500 deaths each year come from carbon monoxide poisoning nobody saw coming, and since the CDC lists gas furnaces among the common sources, the safety testing near the end of a furnace service is the part we’d never skip.
Minutes 1 to 10: listening, looking and asking questions
You might expect the toolbag to open right away, but on a good furnace service call the first ten minutes or so are spent talking and looking. That’s time well spent, because it tells the technician where on your particular system the attention needs to go.
The homeowner conversation
The first tool out is really just a few questions, asked right there in the doorway. Have you noticed a sound from the furnace you didn’t hear last winter, is there a bedroom that never quite catches up with the rest of the house, has the heating bill been creeping higher, and does anything smell strange when it kicks on?
Honestly, the homeowner is often our best diagnostic tool, since nobody else hears that furnace every morning, and if you tell us it clicks a few times before it lights, our technician already has a pretty good idea that the igniter or the sensor needs a closer look. Even on a visit where everything seems fine, knowing the system’s age and the date of its last furnace service points us toward the parts most likely to need attention.
Checking the thermostat first
Most visits move from the front door straight to the thermostat on the wall, since a furnace can only do what the thermostat tells it to. Our technician checks how it’s set, holds its reading up against the real temperature in the room and then calls for heat to make sure the furnace actually responds.
A thermostat that’s even a few degrees off can have the system running longer than it needs to, or quitting before the house is warm, and with smart models we’ll often look over the schedule and the heating modes too, since a setup that doesn’t fit how your family uses the house wastes money, especially on a heat pump that has backup heat to fall back on.
A walk around the equipment
We like to stand in front of the furnace for a minute with the panels still on and just take in the space around it. A clear, dry closet with nothing pushed up against the cabinet is the goal, and what tends to catch our eye instead are storage boxes, paint cans or a laundry pile sitting too close, a damp spot on the floor, or rust and scorch marks on the metal.
The vent pipe gets the same treatment, followed all the way from the furnace to where the exhaust leaves the house, since gaps, sagging runs and corrosion all show up there. Damp winters like ours are rough on that pipe and on the cabinet, and noticing the wear during a furnace service saves a lot of trouble compared with finding it after a failure.
Minutes 10 to 25: inside the heart of the furnace
Halfway into the furnace service, the power and gas get handled safely and the cabinet comes open, which puts the technician face to face with the parts that actually make your heat. This is where most of the cleaning happens, and it’s also where we catch a lot of breakdowns that haven’t happened yet.
Burners and ignition
The burners are where the heat actually gets made, gas and air mixing and burning, and after a few years of dust settling on them, a lot of what homeowners complain about starts right there, from flames that burn unevenly to slow lighting to the startling boom some people hear at startup. So during the furnace service our technician cleans them and lights the furnace to watch the flame, which ought to be steady and mostly blue.
The igniter gets attention right after, since it’s the small part that glows red-hot to light the gas. We look it over for cracks and make sure it heats up the way it’s supposed to, because igniters do wear out with use, and the constant on-and-off cycling on our mild days uses them up faster, so finding a weak one during a furnace service is a lot better than finding out on a freezing night.
The flame sensor
Sitting near the burners is the flame sensor, a thin metal rod whose only job is to confirm that the burners actually lit, and when it can’t detect a flame, the furnace shuts itself off to be safe. The trouble is that a light film of residue builds up on it over time, and even a thin coating is enough to give you a furnace that starts, runs for a few seconds and quits.
Cleaning it takes just a few minutes of the furnace service, and those few minutes head off one of the most common no-heat calls we get all winter, which is about as clear an example as we can give of a small task saving a big headache.
The heat exchanger
Behind the burners sits the heat exchanger, a cluster of metal chambers that keeps flames and exhaust on one side and the air going to your rooms on the other. Every cycle heats that metal hard and then lets it cool, and enough years of that can open up a crack.
Our technicians take their time here, checking for cracks, rust or soot, because a damaged heat exchanger can let combustion gases, carbon monoxide included, slip into the air your family breathes. Of everything we look at on a furnace service, this one weighs the most on safety, and it isn’t something you can do properly without training and the right equipment.
Minutes 25 to 35: airflow and electrical checks
Making heat is only half the job a furnace service has to check on, since the furnace still has to get that warm air through the whole house efficiently, and it depends on a group of electrical parts to pull that off. This part of the visit covers everything that keeps the air moving and the system running smoothly.
The air filter
Pull the filter out and you can tell a lot about how hard the furnace has been working, since its whole job is catching dust before it gets to the blower or the heat exchanger, and a clogged one cuts the airflow until the furnace overheats and a safety switch shuts the burners off.
The technician checks it, replaces it if it’s due and confirms it’s the right size and type, and will usually tell you how often to change it in your house, which comes down to your pets, how many people live there and how much the system runs. Remember that in Georgia the same blower runs your air conditioning too, so that filter barely gets a day off all year.
The blower motor and wheel
Air gets pushed across the heat exchanger and out the vents by the blower motor and its fan wheel, and when dust coats the blades of that wheel, it moves less air, kind of like a ceiling fan with dirty blades that wobbles and doesn’t push much of a breeze anymore.
The technician takes a look at the blower and cleans it if there’s buildup, listens to the motor and checks it for heat, and then tests the capacitor, the small part that gives the motor its jolt to get started. If you’ve ever heard a blower hum without moving, a tired capacitor was probably the cause, and swapping it during the furnace service usually spares the much more expensive motor.
Wiring, controls and safety switches
Every furnace has a control board plus several safety switches built to shut things down if something goes wrong, and the technician goes through them, tightening loose wiring, looking for signs of overheating or corrosion and testing that each safety control responds the way it’s supposed to.
That step earns its keep after a stormy winter, since power surges and outages, which forecasters expect more of this season, are hard on control boards and connections, and a loose or damaged wire found during a planned furnace service is far easier and safer to deal with than one we have to hunt down in an emergency.
Minutes 35 to 45: safety testing that protects your family
The final stretch of the furnace service is about proving the furnace runs safely, which isn’t the same as proving it runs. These are checks homeowners have no way of doing themselves, and they’re the biggest reason a professional furnace service belongs on the calendar every year.
Gas pressure and connections
Gas pressure is one of those things you’d never think about until it’s wrong, which is why we measure it at the burners on every visit, since too little leaves the flames weak and the house underheated and too much can overheat parts and waste fuel. Then the technician works along the gas line from fitting to fitting, brushing on a leak-detecting solution or sweeping an electronic sniffer past each joint, since a small leak is the kind of thing nobody in the house would notice on their own.
It’s also the reason this piece of the job is reserved for licensed, trained people. A tiny change in the gas setup affects how cleanly and efficiently the whole furnace burns, so when it’s done right, your family stays safer and the monthly heating bill comes out lower than it would on a furnace that’s been left to drift.
Combustion and carbon monoxide testing
With the furnace running, a lot of our technicians bring out a combustion analyzer, a handheld tool that reads the gases in the exhaust, and those readings show whether the fuel is burning cleanly and whether the carbon monoxide levels are within a safe range.
Because carbon monoxide has no color and no smell, you can’t catch a problem on your own, so the technician may also suggest testing your CO detectors or adding a few near the bedrooms, a small step that adds an important layer of protection in any home with gas appliances. Our post on furnace safety inspections and carbon monoxide covers that in more detail.
Venting and draft
The exhaust from your furnace needs an open road out of the house, and on every furnace service our technician traces the vent pipe to make sure it’s fastened tight, sloped the right way and clear of things like bird nests or debris, then checks the draft, which tells us whether the exhaust is actually rising and leaving or hanging around near the furnace.
High-efficiency furnaces also make water as a normal part of how they run, so we make sure the condensate drain line is clear, since a clogged one can shut the furnace down, and in humid Georgia homes those drains tend to collect buildup faster than people expect.
After the visit: what you walk away with
When the panels go back on, you should be leaving with more than a furnace that runs, namely a clear picture of where the system stands, a safer setup and some idea of what the rest of the season looks like.
A clear report on your system
Once the last panel is back on, our technician walks you through the visit, starting with what got cleaned and what got adjusted and ending with an honest read on each part, the healthy ones and the ones getting tired. Anything that needs fixing comes with an explanation of why it matters and a sense of whether it should happen this week or can wait until spring.
With that in hand, you get to decide when the work happens, since a part that’s only beginning to wear can usually be changed out on a day that works for you rather than during an emergency on the coldest night of the year, and that kind of planning is one of the quieter benefits of a yearly furnace service.
Why timing matters in central Georgia
ENERGY STAR recommends a heating checkup every fall, before the contractors get busy, and that advice carries extra weight in Georgia this year, with forecasters expecting a wetter winter, sudden cold snaps and a higher risk of ice storms, especially in north Georgia communities like Athens, Covington and the Walton County area.
Each cold front sends a wave of service calls across the region all at once, and the homes that already had their furnace service done are much less likely to get caught up in it, and if something does go wrong anyway, the technician who comes out already knows that system’s history.
The real cost of skipping service
Putting off a furnace service for a year feels like saving money at the time, but the costs have a way of turning up later. A dirty furnace works harder and runs longer and burns more energy doing it, worn parts that could have been replaced cheaply can fail and take bigger, pricier components down with them, and without the safety testing, a cracked heat exchanger or a blocked vent can go a long time without anyone noticing.
Keeping up with service is also how furnaces reach a ripe old age, and every extra year pushes back the cost of a replacement, which is why plenty of homeowners put it on autopilot through a Comfort Club maintenance plan or book a yearly furnace maintenance visit. If your system does need work during the visit, our team can handle furnace repair right away.
Get ahead of the first hard freeze. When you’re ready, Contact The Air Conditioning Specialist to schedule your furnace service in Covington, Milledgeville, Augusta or any of the surrounding counties, and let the heat be one less thing to worry about this winter.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a furnace service visit take?
In most houses we’re in and out within 45 minutes to an hour. Older equipment, a home with a second or third unit, or a furnace that turns out to be dirtier inside than expected can stretch the furnace service out a little longer.
How often should I schedule furnace service?
Our answer is the same one ENERGY STAR gives, which is once every year, and fall is the sweet spot because the heat hasn’t started working hard yet. You’ll also beat the crowd, since the phones get busy as soon as Georgia’s first cold snaps arrive.
What does a technician check during furnace service?
Pretty much everything between the thermostat on your wall and the vent on your roof. That means the burners and igniter, the flame sensor, the heat exchanger, the filter, the blower motor and the wiring and safety switches, and then a round of safety tests on gas pressure, combustion, carbon monoxide and venting, along with the condensate drain if you have a high-efficiency furnace.
Can I service my furnace myself?
Some of it, yes, since changing the air filter, keeping the space around the furnace clear and testing your carbon monoxide detectors are all safe for anyone to do. For your own safety, though, leave anything to do with the gas, the burners, the heat exchanger or the electrical parts to a licensed technician doing a proper furnace service.
Why does my furnace need service if it’s working fine?
Because the problems that cause the worst breakdowns usually develop without any warning you’d notice. A flame sensor that’s getting dirty, an igniter that’s getting weak or a hairline crack in the heat exchanger can leave today’s heat perfectly normal and still lead to a breakdown or a safety risk later, and a yearly furnace service is how those get caught early.
Is furnace service more important this winter?
This year it probably is, since forecasters expect a wetter Georgia winter with sharp temperature swings and a higher chance of ice storms, which means more strain on heating systems and more risk of outages, and a furnace service before the season starts is the best way we know to get ahead of that.