The weather is turning warmer every day, and soon enough homeowners in the area will be turning off their heaters and turning on their air conditioners. Ironically, we actually see more heating repair calls now – when heaters have been running for months on end – than earlier in the winter when the strain had not yet begun to show. If your system is in need of repairs, it pays to discover that fact sooner rather than later.
You should never attempt to diagnose a problem with your heater, let alone repair one. Proper heating repair requires formal training and licensing. It involves potentially dangerous components like gas, and can constitute a hazard to your whole home without proper care and precautions.
Spot the Problem First
Just because you shouldn’t formally solve a problem with your heater, however, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to spot one and call in a qualified service. Anything that doesn’t correspond to your heater’s normal ability to function is grounds to shut the system off and call in a repair service. Some of them may have been present for months: quiet signs that something is wrong and possibly growing worse.
Luckily, there are several symptoms that tend to recur over a wide array of problems. If you can notice them, you’ve gone a long way towards getting the issue solved. Some of the more common symptoms include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Low Air Flow. If something is blocking the vents, or the vents are damaged in some way, it can slow the flow of air through your vents. Or it may be a problem with the fan motor. Regardless, it means that hot air will sit in your system and eventually cause important components to overheat,
- Reduced Heat Levels. Air that isn’t as hot as it should be will force your system to work harder than it should. It can be created by anything from clogged burners to a breach in the ducts pulling cool air in. As you can probably guess, it wastes a great deal of energy.
- Strange Noises. Chances are, you are very familiar with the sounds your heating system makes when it’s running. Any sound that doesn’t match the familiar noises of the heater working – rumbles, hums, clangs, knocks and anything in between – probably spells trouble. In most cases, those weird noises will start and stop in time with the starting and the stopping of the heating system.
- Short Cycling. Heating systems use much more power turning on and turning off than they do simply running. Ideally, you want your heating system to run for at least 15 minutes at a time. Otherwise, it engages in short-cycling: using far more energy than it should and ultimately leading to a serious breakdown.
The sooner you can notice such issues, the less the repairs are likely to cost, since the damage has not had as much time to spread. For heating repairs of all kinds in Allison Park, PA, call the professionals at Boehmer Heating & Cooling!