Heating Maintenance & Tune-Ups

Once a year for anything that burns fuel, without exception. Heat pumps want twice, because the same machine carries the cooling season as well and the outdoor coil takes a beating. If a system does both jobs, put the visits half a year apart — one before the heating season, one before the cooling season — rather than doubling up in the same month.

September to early November. Late summer is fine too. What you want to avoid is the fortnight after the first hard frost, when every heating contractor in the region is running emergency calls and routine visits get pushed. Booking in the quiet part of the diary also means a part identified on the visit can be ordered and fitted before you actually need the heat.

A one-inch pleated filter wants looking at monthly during the season and changing when light no longer passes through it easily — usually every couple of months, sooner with pets or building work. A four- or five-inch media cabinet goes six months to a year. Thickness matters more than the marketing on the box: a very restrictive filter in a shallow slot can choke a system badly, which is why we check static pressure with the filter you actually use.

Yes, for two reasons that have nothing to do with breakdowns. New equipment is where drift shows up cheaply — a gas pressure left a little high at install, a duct damper closed by a decorator — and catching it in year one saves the heat exchanger. And most manufacturers make documented annual service a condition of their parts coverage, so skipping it on a young system is the expensive place to skip it.

You are told on the spot, with the reading that prompted it, and sorted into three buckets: fix now for safety, fix before the season, or note it and watch the trend. Nothing gets done beyond the visit without your say-so. If it is a safety issue on a fuel-burning appliance we will tell you plainly that the system should stay off until it is put right, and arrange a repair visit.

We do. A plan covers the heating visit and the cooling visit, keeps your equipment history in one place, and puts you at the front of the queue when the weather turns and everyone calls at once. The details sit on the maintenance plans page. Buildings with several systems are usually better served by a written service agreement instead.

Yes, with different checklists. A boiler visit covers water treatment, the low-water cutoff, expansion and air control, and on steam the sight glass and the vents. A heat pump visit covers coil condition, defrost behaviour, refrigerant charge and how the backup heat is staging. Ductless heads get their blower wheels and drain pans cleaned, which is most of what goes wrong with them.

It can recover what has been lost, which is not the same as making a system better than it was new. A clean blower wheel, correct gas pressure, a properly fitting filter and a burner that is not sooting all pull consumption back towards where the equipment was designed to sit. If you want a genuine step down in running cost, that is an equipment and envelope conversation, not a service one.