The burner assembly converts fuel into heat for your home. Proper maintenance ensures efficient, safe combustion:
- Visual Burner Inspection: We examine burner condition looking for rust, corrosion, or deterioration that affects performance. Burner surfaces should be clean with evenly spaced ports allowing proper flame distribution.
- Burner Cleaning: Using specialized brushes and compressed air, we remove carbon deposits, dust, and debris from burner surfaces and ports. Clean burners produce efficient, consistent flames reducing fuel waste and extending equipment life.
- Burner Flame Analysis: After cleaning, we observe flame characteristics during operation. Proper gas furnace flames should be steady, blue with small yellow tips, uniformly distributed across all burners, and without excessive noise or lifting. Yellow or orange flames indicate combustion problems requiring immediate correction.
The heat exchanger transfers combustion heat to your home's air. Cracks or holes create dangerous carbon monoxide hazards:
- Visual Inspection: We examine all accessible heat exchanger surfaces using inspection mirrors and cameras for cracks, holes, rust perforation, or stress damage. Heat exchanger integrity is critical for safe operation.
- Carbon Monoxide Testing: Professional combustion analyzers measure carbon monoxide levels in flue gases and living spaces. Elevated CO indicates incomplete combustion or heat exchanger cracks requiring immediate attention.
The blower motor and wheel circulate warm air throughout your home. Proper maintenance ensures quiet, efficient operation:
- Blower Wheel Cleaning: We remove the blower assembly and thoroughly clean the squirrel cage wheel. Accumulated dust and debris reduce airflow capacity, increase energy consumption, and create noise. Clean blower wheels restore factory airflow specifications.
- Motor Inspection and Lubrication: We examine motor mounting for secure attachment, check bearings for noise or resistance, lubricate motor bearings if equipped with oil ports (many modern motors are permanently sealed), and inspect motor windings for overheating signs or insulation damage.
- Airflow Measurement: We measure static pressure at supply and return plenums, calculate total external static pressure, verify measurements fall within furnace specifications, and identify ductwork restrictions or design problems affecting performance. Proper airflow is critical for efficiency, comfort, and equipment longevity.
Multiple safety devices protect your furnace and home. We test each control ensuring proper operation:
- Limit Switch Testing: High-limit switches prevent dangerous overheating by shutting down burners when plenum temperature exceeds safe levels. We verify proper temperature rating for your furnace model, test switch operation and timing, confirm proper mounting and heat sensing contact, and replace switches showing wear or improper operation.
- Flame Proving System Check: Modern furnaces use flame sensors or flame rods to prove burner ignition. We clean and test sensors, verify adequate flame current (microamps), check positioning relative to burner flame, and ensure systems shut off gas flow if flame is not proven.
