Paying for furnace problems can be quite irritating, mainly if they occur every now and then. So what should homeowners do to maintain their furnaces?

I have been repairing AC furnaces for a long time now, and I know what are those things you should do to keep your furnace running properly.

So In this article, I’ll list the TOP 9 Furnace maintenance tips that every homeowner should follow. Some of these are minor problems but can lead to a big ones if you don’t operate them correctly. So make sure to read all the tips

Maintenance Tip No#1: Change Your Furnace Filter

Furnace maintenance tip number one is to change your filter regularly (every month or two). A dirty furnace filter can cause the furnace to overheat, and sometimes it’ll completely stop working.

So how frequently should filters be changed? If you have a 1-inch filter that should be replaced every month or two. I know many people will say that they last three months.

But let me tell you one thing the only time they last three months is in the fall when you're not really using your air conditioner or furnace or you're barely using them.

But if it's negative 30 degrees outside and your furnace runs all the time, your filter will get plugged up in three or four weeks.

So if you use your plugged-up filter, the blower motor will have difficulty trying to suck the air. Sometimes, you’ll end up burning your blower motor due to these dirty filters.

Also, if your furnace is making whistling sounds and everything stops when you take that furnace filter out, that's a good indication that the filter has come to its end cycle. So, you should generally replace 1-inch filters every month or two.

Maintenance Tip No#2: Duct Cleaning

Furnace maintenance tip number 2 is duct cleaning. Now, this is the most common problem when you have some kind of home renovation going on.

If you're remodeling your kitchen or something. Especially if you're doing sheetrock flooring carpeting, that will get your ducts really dirty, especially the coil that sits on top of the furnace.

And on top of that, if you're not replacing your filter as regularly as you should, that a-coil will start to get dirty.

Unfortunately, duct cleaning is not something you can do yourself. You do have to hire duct cleaners but here are a few pointers on that if you're doing some kind of remodeling, make sure you're replacing your filter more frequently.

Because that will get dirty a lot faster, and after you're done with the remodeling, we recommend cleaning your ducts.

And the most important part about that is to get your evaporator coil cleaned. So if you do hire some duct cleaners, make sure you ask them to clean the coil along with all the ducts

Maintenance Tip No#3: Keep Your Return Grills Open

Furnace maintenance tip number three is to keep your return grills always open. And not blocked by anything and to keep most of your supply registers opened up as well.

Some people like closing off the supply registers, like in the basement or upstairs, because it gets too hot.

So the rule of thumb is that you don't want to close off more than one-third of all the supplies in your house. So if you have, let's say, twenty-one registers, seven is the absolute maximum that you should be closing, but really optimally, you should keep them all open.

As for return grills, they're usually bigger and return the ones sucking air in. They will never have shutoffs on them. You can't close a return grill.

And one thing to watch for is that you don't have any couches or shelves in front of those return grills, so nothing is blocking them.

Because they're sucking the air in, your furnace will overheat if you have some of those return grills blocked. So make sure they're open, and they're clean.

If your registers have a lot of dust and you can see dust, just get a vacuum cleaner and vacuum it all out. If the ducts and vents are dirty, you can call a duck work company to clean it.

Maintenance Tip No#4: Check Your Thermostat

Furnace maintenance tip number four is to check your thermostat. Many thermostats will have batteries, and many customers won't be aware that the thermostat has batteries.

Now usually there will be a low battery symbol that appears, but unfortunately, most people will miss that little notification until their furnace stops heating.

Or in other times, when the batteries get weak, that low battery symbol doesn't always appear before you start having problems. So a good thing to do is check out your thermostat and pull it off the wall to see if it has any batteries.

And also, if you have a programmable thermostat, learn how that programming works.

Because if your thermostat accidentally gets bumped into the program mode instead of the manual hold, your temperatures can jump around all over the place. Suddenly, your thermostat setting will go down to 62 and then back up to 68, which can be really frustrating.

Maintenance Tip No#5: Check Your Furnace Humidifier

Furnace maintenance tip number five is to check your humidifier. So not everybody will have a whole house humidifier, but quite a few furnaces do have them.

And the only thing you should be aware of about the humidifier is replacing the water panel (Humidier’s filter). If you use your humidifier, your water panel will get dirty.

If you press on the water panel and your finger just crumbles right through it that means you should replace that water panel.

Now talking about the dampers, most humidifiers will have a damper. So what this damper basically does is close and opens up the air supply to the humidifier.

So it’ll have a switch or lever-like thing that will operate its opening and closing. So you want your humidifier to close in the summer and run in the winter, and you turn it on and off with that switch.

Maintenance Tip No#6: Carbonmono Oxide Detector

Furnace maintenance tip number six is the carbon monoxide detector. In most states by code, you should have a CO detector or a carbon monoxide detector on every single living floor of your house no more than 10 feet away from bedrooms where people sleep.

There are stand-alone carbon monoxide detectors and the duals detector, with a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector in one.

These detectors are super helpful since you use an HVAC item at home. And you should replace them every 5 or 7 years.

Maintenance Tip No#7: Furnace Gas and Power Shutoffs Switch

Every AC owner should know about the furnace power and gas switch. Most of the time, people don’t know these; they pay technicians for these minor things.

If you look at the sides of your furnace, there’ll be a power switch. You’ll have the junction box or the power switch and if you don't see a power switch at the side of your furnace, just follow the cable that comes out of your furnace.

Your gas supply valves will also be on the side of the furnace. You just have to look for them. And how to tell if your gas supply is on or off.

So just remember this about the valves if it makes a cross, that means that's off, and if it goes with the pipe, the gas supply is on.

Maintenance Tip No#8: Check and Clean Your Flame Sensors

Furnace maintenance tip number nine occasionally a couple of years to clean the flame sensor. A dirty flame sensor happens to be the number one furnace problem. So periodically cleaning it will prevent it from causing trouble down the road.

Maintenance Tip No#9:Check Intake And Exhaust Pipe

Maintenance tip number eight involves only high-efficiency furnaces. So if you have the plastic PVC exhaust pipe and intake pipe, a good thing to check for is to go outside where those pipes are and ensure that those pipes are not covered in the snow.

Especially if you live in a snowy area, those pipes often get covered by snow, and of course, if the exhaust and intake are covered by snow, your furnace will stop working. So make sure the area underneath those pipes is shoveled so the snow is not getting too high.