Can I do HVAC maintenance myself?

[remagenman]

Hey folks, the yearly furnace/ heat pump maintenance is overdue but damn I hate spending $250 for some kid to come by spend a whole 30 minutes "cleaning" my equipment.

I am sure there is more to it than just swapping a filter but if I can learn to swap out a engine/transmission from an Audi by watching Youtube, I think I can learn to hook up a couple of gauges and such.

My area charges a ridiculous amount for yearly maintenance and no coupons have come my way. HVAC guys can maybe chime in an give me some tips, money is tight so I have to spend wisely.

ps, new furnace/heat pump were put in 4 years ago. Thanks.

 

[Homerr]

I'm not sure all that is involved but recently fixed my furnace clicking on/off by cleaning the sensor with a dollar bill. I think it's probably mostly preventative cleaning like for this issue.

 

[kd3pc]

go for it...but I would think twice about just jumping in. The "kid" has the bit of knowledge this will take, knows how to use and read the gauges and so on.

Spend the few bucks to know your setup has been checked out. I would watch and learn and then know where to spend my time learning. Be safe.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

In addition to replacing filters I clean the coils, blow dust/dirt out of everything and oil motors/bearings. Check belts and for any leaks in the duct work or exhaust. I also check the flame on the burners and pilot light.
Look for stains, drips, rust. damage and listen for noises.

 

[brownbagg]

yes you can

 

[remagenman]

Is $250 for a maintenance call normal around the U.S?

Last couple of times they came it just seemed very basic and at $500 an hour for labor maybe I'm in the wrong business!!

 

[SGKent]

depends, what kind of furnace and where are you in the US?

 

[sreeb]

Will you be able to sell yourself some new start capacitors? Easy way to double your savings

 

[DC73]

The owners manual and/or installation manual for your HVAC should have a list of recommended annual/seasonal maintenance procedures. Most of the maintenance items are easily handled DIY. The only maintenance related service I pay for is an occasional check of refrigerant and that's only after observing supply vent and return vent temperatures to verify a more thorough check might be needed.

DC

 

[metlmunchr]

If I had the money Americans flush down the toilet in just one year on heat pump "tune ups", I could call Warren Buffet and ask him if he needs to borrow any money.

 

[remagenman]

The owners manual and/or installation manual for your HVAC should have a list of recommended annual/seasonal maintenance procedures. Most of the maintenance items are easily handled DIY. The only maintenance related service I pay for is an occasional check of refrigerant and that's only after observing supply vent and return vent temperatures to verify a more thorough check might be needed.

DC

Thanks, seems like the most technical thing they did was check refrigerant level, if that.

 

[Kaizen]

Is $250 for a maintenance call normal around the U.S?

Last couple of times they came it just seemed very basic and at $500 an hour for labor maybe I'm in the wrong business!!

Lately they just try and get you for what they can. Due to this and poor work I decided to buy some equipment and do my oil burner maintenance. Guy on YouTube does a lot of oil videos. Lavoigne or something. Maybe some for you. I like knowing what my box is like and not blindly trusting. I did find a reasonable outfit if I have an issue I can’t fix.


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[xjfish]

My annual home furnace maintenance for the past 8 years or so (Forced air/NG) involves a minor shop-vac session and a filter replacement. Done. I try to clean out some air ducts with a vacuum occasionally. Every system is different. My old fuel oil furnace required significantly more maintenance. Worked great for many, many years...

 

[Vintage Veloce]

These need maintenance? The FAU? or the condensor/compressor outside? I replace the intake filter once a quarter but I've never done any other maintenance. What is there to do?

 

[Reborn]

How do you guys clean the coils, just take a shop vac to them?

 

[QwikKotaTx]

How do you guys clean the coils, just take a shop vac to them?

A shop vac may not work well. For outside coils most techs take off the upper cover where the fan mounts and spray with a hose outward to blast out lawn clippings and leaves. It's easy to damage the top area of the cooling fins though.

For inside coils all I ever see them do is spray the top area of the coil with a non-corrosive cleaner but all that does is make the gunk fall on the lower coil area. They sit more or less like this > in the air flow. The best way to clean is to use plain water to flush out the gunk but it's not usually feasible to get a water hose in the attic. Be careful with cleaners that may be corrosive. A coil replacement is very expensive.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

[Jinks]

Since we have no idea of where in the country you are, or what kind of equipment you're talking about, there's no way we can give you good advice. I live in Florida. We use heat pumps. I live on a barrier island where the average life of the outdoor components is 5 to 8 years. I have a good guy that does any service I need. I talked to him about yearly maintenance visits, & his response was that he wouldn't waste his time or take my money. He said to rinse the cabinets & coils every so often & call him when I needed a repair. In 13 years I called him for one repair on each unit, so that was two calls. Last winter I had him replace both units with higher efficiency ones, haven't seen him since. Annual cost $0.00. Of course he's an independent. He doesn't need me to support a fleet of trucks, an office manager, a staff of secretaries, accountants, & cleaning people. I compared his cost to other bigger companies for the same units, & he's less expensive & does a better job without lying to me in the process. I do have to wait for him to be available to do major installs.

 

[Falcon67]

Is $250 for a maintenance call normal around the U.S?

Last couple of times they came it just seemed very basic and at $500 an hour for labor maybe I'm in the wrong business!!

I think my guy gets $160 for the year - spring/fall check up. Easy money on an all electric heat pump. Nothing much to look at, maybe clean the outside coils. We use 2" thick filters and change regular - no more than 2 months between change out, usually 5~6 weeks. Direct drive DC motors, no belts, thermocouples, pilot lights and such.

 

[fitter30]

Do you have a basic knowledge of electricity and done any electrical repairs like replaces switches or receptacles? Your condensing unit is the coil fined or look like a porcupine?

 

[Reborn]

A shop vac may not work well. For outside coils most techs take off the upper cover where the fan mounts and spray with a hose outward to blast out lawn clippings and leaves. It's easy to damage the top area of the cooling fins though.

For inside coils all I ever see them do is spray the top area of the coil with a non-corrosive cleaner but all that does is make the gunk fall on the lower coil area. They sit more or less like this > in the air flow. The best way to clean is to use plain water to flush out the gunk but it's not usually feasible to get a water hose in the attic. Be careful with cleaners that may be corrosive. A coil replacement is very expensive.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

Thanks. My furnace is in the garage so all options would be viable. I'll have to get a look at them to see what makes the most sense.

 

[firebirdparts]

Personally, I find that my heat pump stays incredibly, spotlessly clean. You could eat off it. I might not be the only one.

Just look at it. A first grader could get the heat pump open and closed.

Some people have a different experience, but if you're like me, the whole idea of annual maintenance is just wearing out the screws.

 

[acmikee]

yes you can do the maintenance yourself
outside unit wash your coil yearly using simple green and lots of water inspect electrical check contactor for pitting, tighten as needed, check disconnect, use electrical contact cleaner to clean any electrical if needed

indoor unit clean condensate pan and drain use simple green and water, inspect electrical, check coil clean if needed, check blower remove and clean if dirty check belt and bearings lube if you can, replace filter

 

[JRC3]

A shop vac may not work well. For outside coils most techs take off the upper cover where the fan mounts and spray with a hose outward to blast out lawn clippings and leaves. It's easy to damage the top area of the cooling fins though.

k

That's what I do. Last summer mine started acting up, it would run for 5 mins and stop, so I cleaned the evap coil and still had the problem. This spring I decided to clean the clean looking condenser coil. Worked perfectly all season after that.

Pretty bad when you can go see a doctor or dentist and pay less than some 20yo kid showing up and FaceTiming with his boss to try and diagnose an HVAC problem.

 

[JRC3]

This guy is pretty good. I've used his advice several times and watched many of his vids.

 

[QwikKotaTx]

I hear ya. I'm up to $17k on new a/c systems for our house!

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

[GirchyGirchy]

I just cleaned our condenser and evaporator coils last year, and straightened the fins on the condenser. They were dirty but not horrible, so I don't plan to do them every year.

Furnace, I don't do squat to, other than replace what parts break. It's a '91 unit and is very easy to troubleshoot and work on. After having to pay too much money for the first part that broke (ignitor), I bought every replaceable part for the furnace, plus the blower motor and capacitor, and keep them in a tote.

 

[James-W]

Other than replace the filter I don't know there is much of anything to do maintenance-wise on a natural gas furnace. I try to replace the filter every 3 or 4 months, but I look at it to see how dirty it is.

For the central air unit I clean the outside unit every Spring. I take off the metal grid around it and then I use my shop vac to clean all the **** that gets sucked into it. Once I get that done I use my garden hose and clean everything up really good. I spray some Simple Green on it and that seems to help get some of the caked on crud off after it soaks for awhile. Then I spray it with the garden hose and that makes it look like new again.

 

[texasprd]

I used to work part-time in college for a family friend who was in the business. Gas furnaces always got the heat-exchanger inspected for cracks, as that could give CO a path into the breathable air. That was a long time ago - I don't know if that's still a need with gas units.

 

[MattRMagnum]

I would say it depends on the company.

I paid two companies to come do a diagnostic on my packaged unit (heat/ac in one box) this year, since I have zero experience with them. First company cleaned the filter, checked the ducts, and said that I needed a bunch of parts, to the tune of $4500.

Since I don't commit to repair bills bigger than $500 without multiple bids, I called another company. The guy who came out checked the voltage on everything, and sold me a single capacitor for $15. After replacing that, and reseating a few components which had seemingly gotten loose (the unit is 20+ years old), he said that the thing was running fine, and there wasn't anything to do but use it until something broke.

After seeing the inside of it, I'm planning to service it myself in the future (most companies make the blower motors and serviceable parts easy to access and repair/replace).

Oh, and the first visit was $99 special where they pushed hard for me to join an annual subscription, and the second was $159 (not including the capacitor), just for a frame of reference.

 

[DC73]

Other than replace the filter I don't know there is much of anything to do maintenance-wise on a natural gas furnace.

It's an opportunity for inspection and cleaning. Even the best of filters won't catch everything and blower fans, motors, cooling coils, heat exchangers, etc get filthy and need a good cleaning. Some blower fan and motor bearings need periodic lubrication although it seems that most are now sealed.

DC

 

[mmb617]

It's an opportunity for inspection and cleaning. Even the best of filters won't catch everything and blower fans, motors, cooling coils, heat exchangers, etc get filthy and need a good cleaning.

My tale of woe on that subject. I was of the opinion that as long as the furnace (gas, forced air) was working all I needed to do was replace the filter at regular intervals. And then in the middle of a really cold spell it quit. It was around zero outside and I needed it fixed ASAP. The furnace guy found that the A coil for the A/C was coated with fur and had restricted the air flow to the point that it burned out the blower motor. We had multiple cats and dogs and as mentioned the filter wasn't catching everything.

A new blower motor was $800 (variable speed) but that wasn't the worst part. It would take a couple days to get one and I couldn't wait. A new furnace was the end result.

The first couple years I had the furnace company do the annual maintenance and I watched them perform that service. All they really did was clean everything, including the A coil which was sprayed with a cleaning solution. Oh sure they jiggled some connections to make sure they were tight and put in a new filter each time, but really what I was paying $100 for was a cleaning.

I found that I could buy spray cans of the coil cleaner at the box store and started doing that job myself and wrote the date last done on the ductwork so I wouldn't forget to keep up with it.

So far, so good.

 

[JRC3]

"Filter" huh, what's that? I bought a 1960 foreclosure to live in. The furnace used to be in the garage but was moved in 2003 to convert the garage to living space. My guess is the original furnace never had a filter. Ever.

I cleaned my own ducts, every square inch. And yes, those were mice.

 

[fitter30]

On my previous post #19 ask what type of condenser coil you have finned or porcupine because they have to cleaned differently. Finned coil if its not a high efficiency unit the coil is single pass. Pull the louvered panels spray coil with medium pressure don't bend the fins. High efficiency units have to look at the end of the coil without the external piping. Does it look like that there is two rows of coils and the tube sheet metal end looks like it's two pieces. If so the coil needs to get spread apart. Remove all the panels and top coil is either screwed or plastic wire tied together and spread coil gently about 1.5-2" wash each coil separately. Porcupine coil use low water pressure usually no nozzle are else fins will get smashed. The only time i use cleaner is when coil is extremely dirty.

 

[jd_1138]

A few years ago, wife got a call from a local HVAC co. offering a furnace checkup for $39.99, and the dude talked her into a duct cleaning for an extra $300. As he was "cleaning" the ducts, I noticed his tubing was sucking in atmosphere at about 10 different spots (duct taped half ***). And the tubing was connected to the vacuum in his van with a super loose clamp that was sucking in air.

The clamp was held in (if you could call it that) with a hanger (one of the things you screw into a rafter in your garage to hang a bike from). I was like WTF. Called the dude over to show him his shoddy equipment. He didn't say anything, just got a pissed off look on his face, and went hunting for his duct tape. I told him we wouldn't be needing his duct cleaning services. Probably 99% of his customer base has no clue they're paying him for nothing. All because he's too lazy/cheap to go and pick up $50 worth of correct tubing.

 

[jjrbus]

A $1200 quote some time ago for a simple RV AC repair got me doing my own auto AC work.

Had a decent home AC guy that disappeared. A succession of smash and grab Ac company's got me to DIY install my own mini splits in the house.

Can you do your own maintenence? If you are willing to put a bit of time into learning to do it right I do not see why not.

Little tech hint. Some of the You tube gurus don't have a clue what they are doing, tread carfully.

 

[Jim greengo]

Since we have no idea of where in the country you are, or what kind of equipment you're talking about, there's no way we can give you good advice. I live in Florida. We use heat pumps. I live on a barrier island where the average life of the outdoor components is 5 to 8 years. I have a good guy that does any service I need. I talked to him about yearly maintenance visits, & his response was that he wouldn't waste his time or take my money. He said to rinse the cabinets & coils every so often & call him when I needed a repair. In 13 years I called him for one repair on each unit, so that was two calls. Last winter I had him replace both units with higher efficiency ones, haven't seen him since. Annual cost $0.00. Of course he's an independent. He doesn't need me to support a fleet of trucks, an office manager, a staff of secretaries, accountants, & cleaning people. I compared his cost to other bigger companies for the same units, & he's less expensive & does a better job without lying to me in the process. I do have to wait for him to be available to do major installs.

That's pretty much what I tell people.
Rinse off the outside condensing unit in the summer when ever you mow the grass,and check filter every month.
In the winter check filter every month,call me if you have any problems.

 

[grounded-b]

Lately they just try and get you for what they can. Due to this and poor work I decided to buy some equipment and do my oil burner maintenance. Guy on YouTube does a lot of oil videos. Lavoigne or something. Maybe some for you. I like knowing what my box is like and not blindly trusting. I did find a reasonable outfit if I have an issue I can’t fix.

Steven Lavimoniere. Search this on YouTube. He a character, but does repair a lot of oil burners.

 

[ThomasZ]

You know what they say. Enthusiast with a bit of knowledge can be even more dangerous than an absolute beginner. I would recommend call HVAC guys.

 

[JRC3]

You know what they say. Enthusiast with a bit of knowledge can be even more dangerous than an absolute beginner. I would recommend call HVAC guys.

Meh. Basic stuff like changing a filter and spraying off a condenser are tasks just about any TGJF member should be able to tackle with ease. Not much different than changing motor oil, air filters, or even a car battery. Do either of those task incorrectly and the results could be quite expensive. Hooking a battery up backwards could burn the house down if done close to the house or in the garage. Should those task be left to the auto service guys?

 

[CKS1955]

Meh. Basic stuff like changing a filter and spraying off a condenser are tasks just about any TGJF member should be able to tackle with ease. Not much different than changing motor oil, air filters, or even a car battery. Do either of those task incorrectly and the results could be quite expensive. Hooking a battery up backwards could burn the house down if done close to the house or in the garage. Should those task be left to the auto service guys?

Ditto.

Jay