What's On Our Fall Heating Check-Up, and Why the CO Test Matters Most

Cooling season gets the attention in this part of Texas, but furnaces here run harder than people expect once the fall cold fronts start rolling through, often in short, intense bursts rather than a steady winter. That start-stop pattern is hard on a furnace, and it's exactly why the fall check-up matters as much as the spring one, even in a climate that doesn't see much snow.

The full list

• Check the heat exchanger for cracks
• Vacuum clean the burner compartment and controls
• Clean and adjust the pilot assembly
• Check for gas leaks
• Check the flue pipe
• Check the filter
• Lubricate all moving parts
• Inspect the draft diverter and induced draft motor
• Test the electronic ignition
• Test all limits
• Measure temperature rise
• Measure manifold pressure
• Test for carbon monoxide

The heat exchanger and the CO test are the safety spine of the visit

A cracked heat exchanger is the single most serious thing a furnace check-up can catch, because it can let combustion gases mix into the air your blower pushes through the house. It doesn't always announce itself. A furnace with a hairline crack can heat a home just fine for years while still being a real hazard. That's why checking the heat exchanger and testing for carbon monoxide aren't optional line items on our list, they're the reason the list exists in the form it does. We also check the flue pipe and the draft diverter and induced draft motor together, since all three work as one system to carry combustion byproducts safely out of the house rather than back into it.

Gas, ignition, and the burner itself

We check for gas leaks at every fitting along the line, vacuum out the burner compartment and controls where dust and debris build up over a year of sitting idle, and clean and adjust the pilot assembly or test the electronic ignition, depending on what your system uses. Measuring manifold pressure tells us the burner is getting the correct gas pressure to burn cleanly and completely. An improperly adjusted burner doesn't just waste gas, it can burn dirty, which is its own contributor to a heat exchanger wearing out faster than it should.

Airflow, limits, and temperature rise

Testing all the limit switches confirms the furnace will shut itself down before overheating rather than after. Measuring temperature rise across the furnace tells us whether it's operating inside the range the manufacturer built it for, since a furnace running too hot stresses the heat exchanger and everything downstream of it, and one running too cool is usually a sign of an airflow problem elsewhere. We check the filter and lubricate every moving part that needs it, the same as the spring visit, because a restricted filter forces the whole system to work against itself.

What a service agreement adds on top of the visit itself

For customers on our Residential Service Agreement, the fall visit is one of two check-ups included every year, spring and fall, and it comes with a set of terms that matter more once something does go wrong: priority response status on event calls, a fifteen percent discount on repairs, a two-year guarantee on repair work done under the agreement, waived trip charges, and no overtime charge regardless of when a call comes in. The agreement is transferable too, which matters if you sell the house before it runs out. None of that changes what's on the fall checklist itself. It just means a furnace that's been checked twice a year has already had most of its likely problems caught before a cold front makes them urgent.

Why this runs every fall, without exception

We've run this exact routine for homeowners across Selma, New Braunfels, and the San Antonio side of the county line since 1999, and the reasoning hasn't changed: catching a problem during a scheduled visit is a world apart from finding it out at ten o'clock on the first cold night of the year, or worse, not finding it at all until it matters. A furnace that's had light use over a mild fall can still be hiding a cracked heat exchanger or a burner that's drifted out of adjustment, and the only way to know for certain is to have it checked, not just switched on and left alone. If it's been a while since that last happened at your house, call us at (210) 492-4426 and we'll get it on the schedule.