Blog | ServiceMax

Tips to Keep Safe with a Gas Furnace This Winter

October 31st, 2016

Do you have a natural gas furnace to provide your home with warmth over the winters? Chances are good that you do, since gas furnaces are the most common type of residential heater in the country—and their powerful heating ability makes them especially popular in in places like Chicago that experience harsh winters.

Although a gas furnace is a great way to heat your house, it can present a number of safety hazards without proper care. These aren’t difficult or arduous steps, but they can make a big difference for your home:

Do You Need a Humidifier in Winter Because of the Furnace?

October 23rd, 2016

One of the important indoor air quality installations that we handle for homes in Chicagoland is a whole-house humidifier. During the winter, moisture freezes out of the air and often leads to air with less than 30% relative humidity—too dry for comfort. When the humidity is this low, it adds an unpleasant edge to the already cool temperatures because heat can leave the body quicker. It also allows for the quicker spread of illnesses and can create damage to wooden and painted surfaces.

Check Your Gas Furnace before Winter

October 17th, 2016

The most important way to check up on your home’s gas furnace to make sure that it’s ready to handle another tough Illinois winter is to schedule professional maintenance. Our regular maintenance program is an easy way to take care of this each and every year.

If you’ve already had your heating maintenance appointment, we still recommend that you make a check on your furnace a few weeks afterward, right before the major cold strikes. It’s simply good planning, and you can never be too sure about your furnace!

Your Heat Pump Won’t Switch to Heating: Here Is What’s Wrong

October 10th, 2016

The weather is finally starting to cool down along with other signs that fall has truly arrived (i.e. Halloween merchandise in all the stores). If you have a heat pump to provide comfort for your house, now is a good time to switch it over to heating mode to see if it’s working correctly. If the heat pump comes on and either blows out cold air or room temperature air rather than the warm air you expect, you want to know about the problem now rather than when the serious cold weather arrives.

If You Have a Boiler, Is It Time to Get a New One?

October 3rd, 2016

Last week, we wrote about making the choice to replace an aging furnace. But you may be one of the homeowners who relies on a boiler and radiant heating for winter comfort, rather than a furnace. You will have to deal with replacing your boiler at some point, although the considerations with a boiler are a bit different than those with a furnace.

The Great Fall Furnace Replacement Debate

September 26th, 2016

Last week we wrote about the importance of maintaining your furnace each fall. This week, we’re turning to a more extensive version of furnace maintenance: replacing a furnace with a new one. A time will come when continuing with regular tune-ups and scheduling repairs are no longer the best option for a furnace. We’ll look into whether this is the fall when you should arrange to have a new furnace installed.

Furnace Maintenance: You Need It Done Every Year!

September 19th, 2016

If we have to guess what type of furnace you have working to keep you and your family warm during the winters here in Illinois, our first guess would be a natural gas-powered furnace. And the odds are good we would be right, because gas furnaces are still the most common type of heating systems found in homes throughout the U.S. Gas furnaces are powerful, able to overcome the most intense winter chills, and the lower price of gas compared to other heating oils and electricity makes them attractive for cutting down on energy costs.

A Seasonal Maintenance Q & A

September 12th, 2016

The early fall is the best time of year for homeowners to prepare for the winter ahead. One crucial task for cold weather preparedness is to schedule heating maintenance from a professional HVAC technician. (And yes, as we talked about last week, this must be done every year.) Maintenance provides numerous advantages: energy savings, protection against emergency breakdowns and repairs, and extended equipment life. But some homeowners still feel on the fence about signing up for a regular maintenance program. We’d like to address some of the common questions that people ask about one of these programs.

Do I Need to Have Heating Maintenance This Fall When I Just Did It Last Year?

September 5th, 2016

Yes! Absolutely! Maintenance for your home’s heating system isn’t something that you only have done every “couple of years.” It’s something that you need to schedule each and every fall. To make it easy, you can sign our Residential Maintenance Agreement, and we’ll notify you at the start of the fall that you’re due for maintenance.

Why a Dirty Outdoor AC Coil Is a Problem

August 29th, 2016

We’ve recently written about some of the more common issues that an air conditioner may face as the end of summer approaches. All the stress of the previous months of outdoor heat can add up to a malfunctioning cooling system—even if the system received professional maintenance. We’re going to take a closer look at one of these late-summer problems in this post: the dirty outdoor condenser coil.