Oil furnace maintenance plan are offered by furnace manufactures and heating and cooling repair companies. These plans provide you with annual or bi-annual inspections and routine maintenance of your system.

At the appropriate time, a service person will visit your home and make sure that your furnace is in tip-top shape. Items that are typically checked include cleaning and adjustment of automatic controls and burners, lubrication of parts, tests for combustion leaks and shutoff responses and inspection of safety systems.

All of this ensures that your furnace is operating efficiently and without hazard to your home. Plus, if the equipment starts to show its age, the technician can advise you of how long before the system fails.

The first step is to off the power to your oil furnace. Then you need to look for the door or panel that opens to the blower, which is often marked “filter”. Once you locate the door, lift it off its hooks or unscrew the tiny screws that hold it in place.

After removing the door or panel, you’ll find the removable filter mounted under the blower motor; slide it out and check the wording on the filter’s edges to see whether it should be cleaned or replaced with a new filter. If the filter is disposable, record its specs and buy a replacement filter that matches. Ten all you have to do is slide the new filter into place with the correct side pointing up and secure the panel that conceals the blower motor.

Periodically check each of your heating ducts and registers for blockage. If any of them are blocked remove the objects so the air flow can happen freely. Don’t place furniture in front of places where the air comes out or your natural gas furnace will have to work harder.

The simplest and cheapest oil furnace maintenance that you can perform on a furnace is to change the filter on a regular basis. Replacing the filter can be done as frequently as monthly or quarterly. As an easy reminder you can change the filter every time we reset our clocks when the time changes.

Carefully disconnect wherever is easiest and clean them. You can test them for flow by pouring water through and see it that it comes out readily at the opposite end. Check for cracked or broken lines and replace if need be. Reconnect making sure nothing is loose or kinked.

The nice thing about oil furnace maintenance is hiring a professional is that you leave no doubt. You know for sure that the job is going to get done on time and without any mistakes. If you are unsure of your own handy work, you may find yourself doubting the work you have done.