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Fill out the form below to receive your complimentary Fall Maintenance Inspection courtesy of NICE Home Services. Supplies are limited.
Video Transcript
Abraham Walker: Hi. My name is Abraham Walker, with AskAWalker, a Northern Virginia real estate agent. I’m here with Darnell, the Comfort Solutions Specialist at Nice Home Services. We’re in October. This time of year, it’s time for you to think about your furnace maintenance. Nice Home Services has a fall maintenance and inspection program, that I wanted to make sure you knew about. Also, watch until the end of this video, and learn how you can get a complimentary … How much is the inspection usually?
Darnell Scott: Normally $179.00.
Abraham Walker: Excellent, so it’s a $179.00 inspection. Watch until the end of this video, to find out how you can get your complimentary inspection. I have plenty of inspections to go around.
Darnell Scott: Yes we do.
Abraham Walker: Courtesy of Darnell.
Abraham Walker: Okay, so the reason why furnace maintenance is important, is because your furnace hasn’t been on for maybe six to nine months. Right? You don’t really want to test whether or not your furnace works on the day you need it, so it’s very important for you to consider getting your furnace maintained or provided some type of maintenance services. There are some things you can do yourself, that we’re going to go into. Other things just really have to be done by a professional.
Abraham Walker: Okay, so Darnell. What are some of the symptoms for a failed furnace?
Darnell Scott: Well, some of the symptoms are, the first major one is, your furnace just starts up and then turns off a few minutes later.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: The second one, is overheating. Your furnace runs for a bit too long.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: The-
Abraham Walker: So wait. Overheating is … It just keeps running?
Darnell Scott: Yeah. It just keeps running continuously, and the home gets way too hot basically.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: You have to actually go to your mechanic room and turn it off.
Abraham Walker: Turn it off, right.
Darnell Scott: Exactly, indeed. There would be uneven heating throughout your home.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: Some parts of the home get more heated than others.
Abraham Walker: Gotcha.
Darnell Scott: Another one would be gas smells throughout your home, which is very bad.
Abraham Walker: Right.
Darnell Scott: If you smell gas and your furnace is operating, call a professional immediately and get it looked at.
Abraham Walker: You should also call the professional if you have a gas smell and you have a heat pump. That’s not good, because there’s no gas in a heat pump, right?
Darnell Scott: There’s no gas in a heat pump at all.
Abraham Walker: So if you smell gas, it’s an issue.
Darnell Scott: It’s definitely an issue.
Abraham Walker: Yes, it’s an issue. I didn’t mean to throw you off there.
Darnell Scott: No, it’s okay.
Abraham Walker: I was waiting to use my knowledge.
Darnell Scott: Yes.
Abraham Walker: Yes. Okay. So, what’s the fifth thing?
Darnell Scott: The fifth thing, and what I believe is the most serious, is that if your carbon monoxide detectors go off.
Abraham Walker: Okay. So you turn your furnace on or you turn your heating source on, the carbon monoxide detector goes off …
Darnell Scott: Yes.
Abraham Walker: That’s an issue.
Darnell Scott: That is a major issue. That’s an issue that can make you and your family sick in a very short period of time, and can cause you a great amount of harm. So turn it off immediately, and then call and HVAC professional to come and take a look at it.
Abraham Walker: Okay, so with the carbon monoxide detector, do you test that?
Darnell Scott: Absolutely, you should test it every year. I would say every October.
Abraham Walker: Okay. Yeah.
Darnell Scott: Make sure the battery is in there. If it hasn’t been replaced in two years or more, make sure the sensors are still good in it.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: If the sensors turn out to be bad, just get a new one. They’re not that expensive. You can buy one from Home Depot or Lowe’s for fairly cheap.
Abraham Walker: Gotcha. Of the five symptoms, we have turn on and off, we have uneven heating, number three is overheating, number four is gas smell and the fifth one is the seal or carbon monoxide detector is triggered. Which one of these is the one that happens the most, the most popular one?
Darnell Scott: The one that happens the most is, your furnace just turns on and turns off.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: That’s the most common one.
Abraham Walker: What are some of the reasons for the furnace turning on and off?
Darnell Scott: Well, the first and most common reason is that, you just haven’t or a homeowner just hasn’t changed their filter that often.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: Bad airflow, essentially.
Abraham Walker: You’re supposed to change the filter once a year, right?
Darnell Scott: Every 30 days, actually. If you have a one inch filter, for us it’s 16x20x1, 20x25x1 inch filter, they should be changed every 30 days.
Abraham Walker: So not every year?
Darnell Scott: Not every year.
Abraham Walker: Okay. All right. So every year is way too infrequent?
Darnell Scott: Yes, most definitely! Every year is way too infrequently.
Abraham Walker: Note to self. All right, so you recommend changing the filters, so that’s something that a homeowner can do. Right?
Darnell Scott: That’s something a homeowner can easily do themselves.
Abraham Walker: Okay, what’s another reason why the furnace turns on and off?
Darnell Scott: Another reason why the furnace turns on and off, I would say is bad venting.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: Bad venting from the flue pipe, essentially. Every gas appliance has a flue, that pushed out the carbon monoxide gases. Right? If the safety inside your furnace isn’t putting enough power to pull out those gases, then it will just turn the furnace off immediately. So that’s another reason why, the furnace would turn on and then turn off.
Abraham Walker: Gotcha. What’s another reason, because there’s five reasons total, right?
Darnell Scott: Yeah. I missed it …
Abraham Walker: It’s okay.
Darnell Scott: Another reason is that-
Abraham Walker: We have some notes.
Darnell Scott: … Yeah we have some notes here. Another reason is a dirty coil.
Abraham Walker: Right.
Darnell Scott: So the evaporated coil essentially sits overtop of the furnace, and that can get clogged up and dirty, due to not changing the filter, essentially.
Abraham Walker: Oh, this filter thing is serious.
Darnell Scott: The filter thing is serious.
Abraham Walker: Right.
Darnell Scott: So, if you haven’t been changing-
Abraham Walker: Wait, wait, wait, but some of the filters say that you can change it every 90 days.
Darnell Scott: Okay. If you read them closely, they say up to 90 days.
Abraham Walker: Okay. So, we can’t do it 90 days?
Darnell Scott: You can’t do 90 days.
Abraham Walker: You wouldn’t recommend the 90 days?
Darnell Scott: No.
Abraham Walker: What about if I buy the expensive filters, because I did.
Darnell Scott: If it’s a one inch filter, you change them every 30 days. That’s how it is. You don’t want to go too expensive, because those very expensive filters tend to be pretty thick and dense, and that can lower your airflow to begin with.
Abraham Walker: Oh my goodness.
Darnell Scott: So you don’t want to go too expensive with the filters.
Abraham Walker: Gotcha. I wonder if Home Depot has a 365 day return policy. My goodness. Okay.
Darnell Scott: Probably not.
Abraham Walker: With the coils being clogged, because of the filters, is that service, that cleaning included in the fall maintenance inspection?
Darnell Scott: It is not included in the fall maintenance inspection, because that should rarely happen.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: You should maybe have to get your coil cleaned every four to five years, maybe.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: But if you’re changing your filter every 30 days, you never have to worry about it.
Abraham Walker: Gotcha, gotcha. Just talk to Darnell if you want to get the price for that coil cleaning service.
Abraham Walker: We’re at three now.
Darnell Scott: Three is a dirty flame sensor.
Abraham Walker: Okay.
Darnell Scott: The flame sensor is a safety device on the front burners. When it ignites, we have flames everywhere. It gets to the end of the burner row, and there’s a flame sensor there. That flame sensor gets nice and hot-
Abraham Walker: You gotta make your hand signals over here.
Darnell Scott: Oh sorry. That flame sensor gets nice and hot, and it sends a signal down to the control board, and lets it know that we do have a flame here, and you should keep providing it with gas. If that flame sensor is too dirty, it just turns off, because that signal isn’t being sent. The control board now thinks that there’s just gas just spilling out through your home.
Darnell Scott: If the flame sensor is dirty or hasn’t been cleaned in a year or two, that will happen. It just needs to be cleaned by a professional.
Abraham Walker: Gotcha. Excellent. The last one is something about an igniter malfunction.
Darnell Scott: Right. The igniter. The igniter is the device that literally ignites the gas. The gas comes through the burners, and ignites it. Well, the igniter needs to have enough power going through it to ignite the gas. If that igniter is weak, then it won’t do that. If the igniter doesn’t ignite the gas, the flame sensor doesn’t sense the flame, the control board turns everything off, and your furnace just stops, all over again.
Darnell Scott: All of these things should be checked every year, to make sure they’re operating properly.
Abraham Walker: So it sounds like of the five items that could cause the most popular issue, the fall maintenance inspection program, will cover reviewing those things and letting the homeowner know if there’s any problems.
Darnell Scott: Absolutely.
Abraham Walker: Okay. Excellent. Now let’s go into what’s including in the fall maintenance inspection. There’s what one, two, three … Oh, look another odd number, five. What is there first? The standard furnace operations is included?
Darnell Scott: Exactly, right. Every furnace that’s manufactured in America anyway, or around the world, or that’s here in America, has a data plate on it. That data plate tells us what are the normal operations for that furnace. Our technicians are highly trained. They go by the data plate, and they turn on your furnace, and they check to make sure that it’s operating like it should. The standard operating procedures for that furnace is on the data plate. If it’s outside of that, then we will let you know.
Abraham Walker: Gotcha. The next part is the venting inspection.
Darnell Scott: Exactly. The venting inspection is, one of the most important in my opinion. That has to do with your carbon monoxide leaving out of the home, instead of coming into your home. We want to make sure that it’s venting properly to keep you and your family safe.
Abraham Walker: Excellent, please do keep us safe.
Darnell Scott: Yeah.
Abraham Walker: The next one is the burner inspection.
Darnell Scott: Right. The burner inspection. That speaks to the igniter, the burner itself, making sure those are clean, all the safety’s on the burner, and the flame sensor. All of those things are included in the burner inspection.
Abraham Walker: Okay. The fourth inspection is the blower inspection.
Darnell Scott: Right. The blower assembly is actually the piece of equipment that moves the air through the home, and through the furnace cabinet. If that blower is extremely dirty or not pulling enough power to move the air, then your furnace will turn off immediately, or at least malfunction in the very near future.
Abraham Walker: If applicable, the heat pump inspection.
Darnell Scott: Exactly. Heat pumps, obviously don’t have gas.
Abraham Walker: Right, right.
Darnell Scott: But they use refrigerant to pull heat out of the air from outside, even when it’s very cold, and put it inside your home. If there’s not refrigerant in the system or the safety devices inside of the air handler are malfunctioning, then it won’t operate properly. A very common issue is the defrost board on the heat pump outside goes bad, but we can get into that later.
Abraham Walker: Excellent, excellent. Well Darnell, thank you so much for sharing that information with everyone.
Abraham Walker: Also, Darnell has been so nice to actually provide me with several complimentary fall maintenance inspections. There’s a link down below, probably it’s going to be right here, probably going to put the link right there, in that little area there. Go to that website, fill out the form, and then you can receive your complimentary inspection until they run out. Supplies are limited.
Darnell Scott: It’s true.
Abraham Walker: I do appreciate you coming on and explaining all of this technical jargon for us.
Darnell Scott: No problem. Indeed.
Darnell Scott: Until next time, folks.
Abraham Walker: Excellent. I’ll see you on the next video. Peace.
