Even the best furnaces from the most trusted manufacturers in the industry are not going to function with 100% reliability. Furnaces are, like all other heaters, mechanical systems. They suffer wear and tear that will cause problems down the road, even when a routine maintenance schedule is adhered to. Routine maintenance is certainly the best way in which to avoid the need for furnace repair in Cincinnati, OH, but problems are still a matter of when, and not if.
While the majority of heating maintenance tasks do need to be handled by trained professionals exclusively, there is actually one item that you can check off the list yourself. That is changing the air filter in your furnace. Yes, your maintenance technician will do this when tuning up your system. However, this is something that really has to happen more than once a year, so that won’t really cut it. These filters are cheap and easy to replace, so don’t let a dirty filter cause problems for your system.
You’ll Pay More to Heat Your Home
The harder that your heater has to work in order to heat your home effectively, the more money it is going to cost to do so. That is pretty simple for most people to understand. What surprises many people, though, is just how much a dirty air filter can drag down the energy efficiency with which their heaters operate.
If you were to blow through one straw that was free of blockage, and then one that had the wrapper bunched up within it, it would obviously be more difficult to blow through the obstructed straw, right? The same is true of a filter with a dirty furnace. All of the heated air distributed throughout your house must pass through this filter, so clogs are a serious concern that can seriously affect your bottom line.
You’ll Strain Your System
We are not alarmists. The concerns that we express here on our blog are very real ones that many homeowners face. Trust us when we tell you that the toll a dirty air filter can take on your system is also very real. We’ve seen plenty of furnaces that suffered excessive wear and tear due to dirty air filters, and we’ve repaired plenty of them, too.
As we mentioned above, you are definitely going to encounter occasional repair needs with your furnace. There is nothing that can be done to completely eliminate such risks. There is no point in asking for trouble, though, which is precisely what you’re doing when you fail to change your air filter regularly.
Your Indoor Air Quality May Suffer
A lot of people hear “dirty air filter” and assume that the primary concern is going to be with subpar indoor air quality. Now, it is true that your indoor air quality may suffer, but it is not the primary issue. Why not? Well, this type of air filter is there to protect the HVAC equipment itself, not the air quality throughout your house.
That being said, a very dirty filter could cause unfiltered air to pass around the filter if resistance is great enough. Airflow will always follow the path of least resistance, remember. Plus, the dust and dirt that builds up on components within the system will also start to negatively affect it’s overall performance, too.
Schedule your heating services with Bartels Heating & Cooling.