Furnace Tuneup ?
 

I plan to have a furnace tuneup by the Fall season.
I have a Trane T60 gas furnace, and from appearances, there are very few moving parts. I change the filter myself in the Fall before each winter season.

What exactly do they do, check, or adjust for a tuneup for a gas furnace ?

Thanks !

I have a gas boiler in my house in Ma. I've never had it serviced in 15 years. They burn pretty clean so they don't need cleaning like an oil fired boiler or furnace. I suppose it's good to have it looked at every 5 years or so but I'm not sure what good it does other than for your piece of mind.

Thanks Biggd for your response, much appreciated !

I believe there are 'Ignitors' (several), inside the firebox, that can fail over time, and can go out of alignment and require adjustment.

Interested in hearing from other Forum members ?

Furnace tuneup
 

I have my furnace cleaned every late-summer by the company I buy my oil from. Do I have all my eggs in one basket - yes, is it working out - yes. I have been with the same oil company for almost 20 years, and have had no problems. In my thinking, considering that the winter nights can get pretty cold, I want to have an excellent relationship with my heating company in case anything ever did happen and I needed them in the middle of some cold night.

Am I concerned about the "cleaning guy" oversizing the burner nozzle so I use more fuel - no, not at all. At some point you have to trust people who do work for you, otherwise you will end up a paranoid basket case.

So, the answer to your question is - call your fuel supplier and ask if they provide cleaning services, or, if not, do they have someone they trust that they can suggest to you.

Camp guy. I do the same. Oil and service from the same supplier. Have for seven years. Also, when service is required they are always available


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They check and clean the nozzle. Vacuum the burn chamber to remove carbon deposits, same for the chimney base (that little metal hatch isn't really for Santa Claus). Inspect for leaks and burn-threw and calculate the efficiency level and compare that to previous checks.

You can also expect a visual inspection of the exteriors of the furnace and ignitor components.

Typically recommended as a twice a year task (spring and fall). Any fixes that are turned up are more convenient and cheaper to fix during a scheduled service call than 2am in the winter.

The newer, hyper efficient furnaces probably have a similar routine.

Oil burners must be cleaned every year, they burn dirty.
Gas burns much cleaner and very rarely needs cleaning.

I have a high efficiency LP gas furnace that’s been through 5 heating seasons. Just replaced the single igniter and flame sensor after encountering several instances when the furnace would misfire and enter a time-out period before attempting to re-ignite. I ordered the replacement parts online (roughly $75 for both) to have them on hand for the service tech for this seasons service visit. For newer HE units, my understanding is that annual servicing is important.

For all you do it yourselfers...what's your gas pressures?

I have owned gas powered furnaces since 1978 and one 5,000 s/f house with two of them (these required a filter replacement and would stop working if they got dirty). When I inquired about any work necessary when owing the first house I was told there was nothing to do except replace or clean the air filter depending on type Pleated or dissimilar metals which are washed periodically.
Therefore nothing is required such as an oil furnace. Also oil is dirty and the house will be cleaner when using gas. My in laws had oil and scoffed when I told them this. I told them the dust in the house would be white. Then a time came when they rented a gas conversion, free installation by gas company.
They were surprised when the dust was white and the furniture was did not feel oily. I digress, but unless something has changed nothing needs to be done with a gas furnace. Do not know about LP however.

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Thanks Loub52 for your post, much appreciated !

You stated that 'you ordered the replacement parts online', can you please share that website here for the Forum members.

Thanks again for your contribution.

https://www.supplyhouse.com/

In terms of ordering, I have no practical knowledge of HE LP gas furnaces, but I had a head start in that my tech told me exactly the terms to search for, (e.g., flame sensor and igniter for my specific model LP gas furnace). I just started with a google search and found the site above the easiest to navigate. Their prices are very competitive and the parts were delivered in about a week.

We had a gas boiler in a rental condo that seemed to have an ignitor problem at the worst times when the supply houses were closed...nights, Sundays, etc. So when we had the last failure, I bought a new and extra set of replacement parts and hung them over the boiler. That way, when they failed, I only had to have the service tech replace them. Solved a lot of problems with parts availability. If they used them, I just went out and bought a new set to hang.

I understand that today's condensing gas boilers should be serviced ever 5 years or so, but you should check with the gas/propane provider or your owners manual for tips as to what and when needs to happen. Better to spend a few bucks than run out of heat of the coldest day.

Same here. Gas furnace in MA. Installed with house in the 1970’s. We bought the house in the 90’s. Maybe had it looked at twice. Still running fine when we replaced it a few years back.

Oil furnace in NH. you should be every year (such a dirty fuel, I hate oil heat) but I’d skip a year or two sometimes because we only ran less than one tank of oil a year.

The older style gas furnaces and boilers require little to no maintenance, I'm not familiar with the newer condensing units.
I hear, from many of my friends that have had them installed, they need yearly servicing and they have many more problems.

Excellent suggestion.

I too have extra igniters and extra burners (the tubes). New.