Furnace tune-up before winter

Why do it before the first cold snap

A furnace that has been off since spring has not been tested. Dirty filters, a worn blower or a failing control show up on the first cold night, and that is the night every heating company in your area gets the same call. A fall appointment turns the same problem into a scheduled visit.

What gets checked

• The burner or heat source and how it lights.
• The blower and the filter, which together decide how much air moves.
• The heat exchanger, where a crack is a safety problem.
• The flue and venting, so exhaust leaves the house.
• The thermostat and the safety controls that shut the furnace down.

Older homes, older furnaces

Across the towns we cover, the oldest median home is in Melrose, built in 1938, and 10 of 23 towns have a median year built before 1950. Homes that age often have more than one generation of heating equipment, so it helps to note what you have and about when it went in. See the housing figures for each town.

If the furnace is done

We walk you through repair against replace. A like-for-like furnace gets no standard Mass Save rebate. A heat pump is the equipment Mass Save pays for; see the calculator for what that leaves on a quote. Boiler instead of furnace? Read boiler tune-up.