Lone Star Cooling and Heating
Get help with Furnace Tune-Up
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Call (325) 219-0005A pre-season check of a furnace: burners, ignition, flame, venting, the visible parts of the heat exchanger and every safety control, so the heat starts reliably and burns cleanly when the cold arrives.
01Furnace tune-up
Most heating tune-ups are routine. These signs are worth mentioning at the visit, and the last two deserve attention sooner.
A furnace that sat unused all summer can have dust on its burners, a fouled flame sensor, or a vent partly blocked by debris or a nest. A tune-up finds these before the first cold night does.
A furnace that clicks and retries before lighting, or lights and then shuts off within seconds, often has a dirty flame sensor or a weakening igniter. A tune-up cleans and tests them before the furnace locks itself out.
On a gas furnace where the flames can be seen, they should burn mostly blue and steady. Yellow, lazy or lifting flames suggest dirty burners, a poor air supply or a venting problem, and can mean incomplete burning that produces carbon monoxide.
Black soot around the burner opening or scorched paint on the cabinet points to flame or combustion gases escaping where they should not. The furnace is best switched off until it is checked, because this can accompany carbon monoxide.
02Item by item
A furnace tune-up works through two groups of parts: those that make and vent the flame, and those that keep it safe.
The burners are inspected and cleaned, the igniter is checked for cracks or wear, and the flame sensor is cleaned so the furnace can confirm its flame. A technician watches the flame, checks gas pressure, and follows the vent from the furnace outward, looking for blockages, loose joints and any sign that combustion gases are not leaving as they should.
The limit switch, rollout switches and pressure switch are the controls that shut the burners down when something is wrong, and each is tested. The blower and filter are checked, the visible parts of the heat exchanger are looked over, and the temperature rise across the furnace is measured against the range on its label. High-efficiency furnaces also have their condensate drain cleared.
None of this services the furnace. All of it keeps people safe until it has been checked.
Leave the building without switching anything on or off or using a flame, and call the gas utility or 911 from outside.
Get everyone out into fresh air and call 911. Stay outside until responders say it is safe to go back in.
Switch the system off at the thermostat, and at its breaker if the panel is safe to reach. Leave it off until a technician has looked at it.
Furnace Tune-Up
Serving Abilene, TX.
03Why it matters
Most furnace parts affect comfort. A few decide whether the furnace is safe to run at all.
A furnace is built to refuse to run when conditions are wrong. On most modern furnaces, a blocked vent keeps the pressure switch from closing, so the burners never light. An overheating furnace trips its limit switch, which shuts the burners off, and flame spilling out of the burner area trips a rollout switch that cuts the gas. These controls rarely act, which is exactly why they are tested on purpose rather than trusted.
Venting gets the same care. Combustion gases, including carbon monoxide, are meant to leave through the flue or vent pipe and nowhere else. A crushed pipe, a nest in the vent, a separated joint or a cracked heat exchanger can send them into the building instead, and a tune-up is one of the few times anyone looks.
04Questions
A typical visit inspects and cleans the burners, cleans the flame sensor, checks the igniter and watches the flame. It also checks the vent and draft, looks over the visible parts of the heat exchanger, tests the limit and pressure switches, checks gas pressure and the blower, and measures how much the furnace warms the air passing through it.
It can catch warning signs, such as rust, a flame that wavers when the blower starts, or carbon monoxide in the exhaust. Much of the heat exchanger is hidden inside the furnace, though, so a look during a tune-up is not the same as a full examination with a camera and testing.
Yes. A tune-up checks the furnace on one day, and an alarm watches the air every day after. Any building with a gas furnace or another fuel-burning appliance benefits from working carbon monoxide alarms, placed as the alarm maker directs.
If it smells of burning, is leaking water, or the outdoor unit is humming without its fan turning, yes: switch it off at the thermostat. A system that runs but does not keep up can usually stay on until it is looked at.
A smell of gas, a carbon monoxide alarm, a burning electrical smell, or no heat or cooling in dangerous weather: urgent. A system that runs longer than it used to, a new noise or one room that is off: worth a visit soon, but not tonight.
Lone Star Cooling and Heating
Call Lone Star Cooling and Heating, have us call you, or describe the issue.
Prefer to talk?
Call (325) 219-0005