Getting your system ready for winter

What you can do yourself

The filter

Start winter with a clean filter. Five minutes, and it is the most common cause of avoidable service calls.

Carbon monoxide detectors

If you have any combustion appliance — gas furnace, gas water heater, fireplace — you need a working CO detector on every occupied floor.

Press the test button. Change the batteries. Check the manufacture date: these detectors last 7 to 10 years, and an expired one gives a false sense of safety.

The outdoor unit

If you have a heat pump, it works all winter:

• Clear away accumulated leaves, branches and debris.
• Make sure nothing blocks airflow at the sides or above.
• Check it is not sitting under a roofline that dumps snow in slabs.
• After a snowfall, clear the snow around the unit — never striking the fins.

Do not cover it. It needs to breathe.

The thermostat

Test the heat before you need it. Raise the setpoint a few degrees and confirm the equipment starts and the supply air warms up. Replace the batteries if it uses them.

The registers

Clear return air grilles and supply registers. A piece of furniture moved over the summer can have become an obstruction.

A quick listen

Run the system for a few minutes and listen. A grinding noise, a repeated click, a whistle or a bang at start-up are all signals. Healthy equipment makes a steady, unsurprising sound.

What needs a technician

The annual service: combustion analysis, heat exchanger inspection, carbon monoxide testing, refrigerant pressures, amp draws, coil cleaning, electrical connections and the condensate drain.

Book it in September. In October everyone calls at once.

If it fails anyway

1. Check the breaker — at the panel, and also the switch near the furnace, which looks like a light switch.
2. Check the thermostat — heating mode, setpoint above room temperature, fresh batteries.
3. Check the filter — a completely blocked filter trips the high-limit safety.

If all of that checks out, call 514 626-3913. Our emergency service runs 24 hours a day.

In deep cold, protect the plumbing while you wait: run a thin trickle of cold water at the farthest tap and open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls. A frozen pipe turns a heating failure into water damage.