It’s a good idea to keep the area around the furnace clean as well as the furnace itself clean. We made a video that goes over Getting Your Furnace Ready For Winter if you’d like to reference that.
A dirty filter restricts the airflow and when your furnace can’t move enough air to disperse the heat it’s creating, it can overheat. This can make you think your furnace isn’t working but in reality, it’s just a dirty filter.
You will need a vacuum, some compressed air, and a soft-bristle brush for this next part. Be gentle when you are cleaning the inside of your furnace, especially around the circuit board.
You want to make sure that there aren’t any loose electrical connections.
If the blower gets dirty, it can’t move as much air as it was designed to and can cause the fan to wobble, making noise and shortening the life of the fan. So, clean as good as you can with where you can reach. If your fan is really dirty you may want to have a professional clean it.
At this point, I like to turn the furnace back on and if it fires up and stays on, I’m good to go. You want to listen to the ignition to make sure the gas ignites and stays lit.
The things listed above are all most of you will need to do but if you wanted to go above and beyond you could also clean your flame sensor, the gas jets, and the blower wheel. Those are for future articles though.
