Home appliances will give you valuable and efficient service when you take good care of them. However, it is not uncommon for most of us to ignore weird behaviors in our machines. These include strange noises that most people ignore hoping they will disappear naturally.
It would be helpful to be wary of the little tell-tale signs in your home appliance since some of the things we usually brush aside might be signs of a bigger underlying problem. In this article, we offer expert advice on what you can ignore, what you can fix on your own, and what might need you to call an expert with the requisite experience in furnace repair in Spokane, WA for instance, when dealing with furnace repair. Watch out for the following signs:
Is Your Furnace Fan Always Running?
Your fan is typically set to “auto,” meaning it should only run when your furnace is heating. If you realize that your furnace fan is always running, you might face one of the following issues.
A Manual Fan Limit That Is Switched To “Override” Mode
You need to find the fan limit switch and check out whether it is pushed in. if that is the case, then it means that your furnace has been set to the “always on” mode. You need to pull out the white button to reset the limit switch.
Your Fan Settings Aren’t Right
To discover whether this is the issue, you should set your thermostat 1-2 degrees below your current room temperature. If it doesn’t get back to the original reading after a few minutes, this will mean that your furnace might be overworking while heating up. It could indicate a problem with heat circulation in your house.
To fix the problem, always set the fan to “auto” mode instead of “on.” When switched to the “on” mode, the fan is forced to run even when it is not necessary, which ends up wasting energy and, consequently, inflating your monthly bill.
A Wiring Problem
If the above two tips don’t work, you might be staring at a short in the fan switch or the thermostat’s wiring system. In this case, you cannot do it yourself for safety reasons. The services of your HVAC technician might come in handy at this point.
Is Your Furnace Clean?
Your furnace needs to be cleaned from time to time, and you may not have to make that service call to get it done. You need to change your air filter once every one to three months, because when it gets too dirty, it easily blocks clean air from circulating in your house. It might make your home chilly since the dirt stops the furnace from staying on long enough for proper heating.
If your furnace overcompensates to heat your home, it will likely wear out faster or even break down completely. When changing filters on your own, ensure that the shut-off fan of your furnace and the thermostat are switched off.
Does Your Furnace Emit an Eggy Smell?
Such a smell results from the addition of mercaptan to gas lines. Since natural gas is colorless and odorless, its combination with mercaptan gives it a sulfuric or rotten egg smell, making it easily detectable in case of leakage. You should immediately shut down your gas lines when you discover the eggy smell since any open flame near the gas leakage might cause a severe fire accident. You are better off calling an expert to fix the leakage.
Conclusion
While you can easily do most preventative maintenance tasks on your furnace, some repairs require a skilled and experienced technician due to their dangerous nature. Therefore, it is advisable to have the number of your trusted local HVAC technician on the speed dial.
