One of our service calls yesterday was a broken furnace that another Chicago heating company had installed only a couple years ago. After about 25 minutes of troubleshooting we finally realized the return air duct that the heating company installed was too small. The problem with this is (which any reputable heating company knows) is that if your ductwork isn’t sized properly your furnace will not work like it should and will cause premature repairs and/or intermittent operation.

When choosing a Chicago heating company for your service or installations make sure to get involved with the heating company sales engineer or technician. Do a little reading up before they arrive and ask the heating company rep. a lot of good questions. Your participation and a little education will help you make better decisions when choosing a Chicago Heating Company for your service and installations.

Chicago Furnace Service - Furnace Service Chicago il cook county

Usually furnace problems occur in the ignition system. The most common 3 parts that fail on a furnace would be your furnaces inducer motor, hot surface ignitor (or spark ignitor) or your furnaces flame sensor. The least expensive part on your furnace to repair is the flame sensor. A furnaces flame sensor is kind of like a thermocouple on older model furnaces. The furnaces flame sensor tells the gas valve that it has a pilot flame and that it’s ok to let the gas valve open on the call for heat so it can heat your home. When these go bad your furnace will either work intermittently or not at all and needs to be replaces.

The most expensive furnace service call would be your furnaces inducer motor. The inducer is a little pricey but is required for your furnace to work properly and safely. A spark ignitor on your furnace is a middle of the road repair and is required for proper service from your furnace. I know this was a little short but if you have a service question about your furnace or need furnace service in Chicago call the experts in Chicago furnace service today at (773) 330-3689.

Check your the air filter in your furnace. If you haven’t changed the air filter in your furnace in a while or you changed it at the beginning of the air conditioning season, it’s probably time to do so now. A clogged air filter can damage a furnaces blower motor which is about a $300 furnace repair in Chicago. In addition, if your furnace goes out in the middle of the night you will pay a lot more than that for a emergency furnace repair in Chicago.

The next most important element to having a trouble free furnace in Chicago is furnace maintenance. Your furnace is just like your car and needs yearly furnace maintenance to keep all the furnace parts running smoothly. A typical furnace maintenance tune-up costs around $89 for a professional Chicago furnace repair contractor and if you pay anything less, I guarantee you they are not spending the time to do a complete furnace maintenance like they should. It takes time to tune-up your furnace properly and any reputable Chicago furnace repair company will spend the time to do it right and most importantly, will guarantee their work after. That’s it for now, stay warm Chicago!

It was still very cool for most of the later spring and early summer in Chicago this year and the resulting effect was that those pesky cotton wood tree seeds didn’t clog up our customers air conditioning units like they usually do. This is a big thing for certain areas of Chicago that have cottonwood trees, I know there’s some people cringing out there at thought of these things. Anyways, stay cool and see you next time.

A Quality York Home Furnace & Air Conditioning System Diagram

York makes great heating and air conditioning equipment for both residential and commercial applications. This diagram shows the indoor furnace which circulates the air in your home and also supplies the heat to your home. The outdoor unit on the lawn is your condensing unit, better known as your outdoor air conditioning unit. There is also a hepa filter installed inline that filters and cleans the air running through your furnace. The evaporator coil is the second part of the AC system and that sits a top of your furnace and get cold to the touch. The air flows past that indoor A-Coil (evaporator coil) and humidity is removed and the air is cooled at the same time.

The biggest misunderstands I had today were people weren’t exactly sure of what their outdoor air conditioning unit even looked like, which is fine. I worked all day and all night long working with people and guiding them through the process of finding their outdoor AC units. Some were under decks, others were on the roof and some were sitting on the side of the condo building. Many of our customers are first time home owners and it’s our pleasure to assist you and to help you understand your home heating and air conditioning system components and how they work together.

I hope this helps people better understand their home comfort system and next time they call for an air conditioning repair or furnace repair you will be better able to identify the components to help us better serve you! Have a busy rest of the week, thanks for reading and check back soon for more heating and cooling information.

A Goodman 3-Ton Air Conditioning Unit

#1. A professional air conditioning service tech should always remove the top off of your air conditioning unit. This is the top part of the air conditioning unit where the fan blades and fan motor are attached to a perforated steel top. For air conditioning units located on the roof, the hvac service tech should always clean the air conditioning coil with high pressure nitrogen. Nitrogen is non-flammable and a high pressure gas that cleans air conditioning coils well. For air conditioning units that are located on the ground, they will probably use a water hose. In my personal opinion, each one has a little bit of a pro and con, but both methods work well.

The next most important aspect to air conditioning maintenance and repair is the refrigerant charge, super heat, sub cooling and temperature difference. A typical temperature difference in a residential air conditioning system should be around 20 degrees farenheit. To get the TD you must measure the temperature at the return air duct and the supply air duct. That air conditioning  temperature difference should be around 18 to 20 degrees, typically. The other part of that equation is the refrigerant charge.

The TD has a lot to do with the refrigerant charge in your air conditioner.  If your air conditioner is low on refrigerant, the TD will be higher, let’s say around 25 degrees. If it’s overcharged it will be more like 15 to 17 degrees farenheit. There is one more thing that affects the TD and it’s the air flow.

Air flow in a central air conditioning system is critical. If your air filter is clogged or your AC coil i plugged and air is having a hard time flowing through the air conditioning system this will throw the TD off as well. Typically, the way you can tell if there is an air flow problem in your air conditioning system is through your pressure guages. Typically you will see an abnormally low, low pressure side reading of around 66 degrees or so. You see this reading because there is not enough air flow to boil off all that refrigerant going through the air conditioning coil because the air filter or a-coil is clogged.

This may be getting a bit on the technical side but whole point here is that there’s more to air conditioning maintenance than just price. As of late, there are so many companies quoting such low prices for air conditioning clean and checks I don’t understand how they are making any money. Some companies are charging $59 for a clean and check. It costs $30 in gas and wages just to make it to a customers location. Those companies must be charging for unnecessary or unethical air conditioning repairs or service that is not needed. I know as an hvac business owner that these guys will not be in business very long or are a fly by night company anyway that won’t be around to back up their work. Or they are just taking people for unnecessary repair. The whole point of this post on air conditioning maintenance is so you can hopefully take away a sense of what a professional air conditioning company does compared to some kid working out of his garage would do and charge. Remember, you get what you pay for. If you ever have any questions about anything related to air conditioning please give us a call and we would be happy to answer any questions you may have, free of charge. Thanks Chicagoland and have a cool summer!

As you can imagine if your air conditioning unit is not maintained you can create uncomfortable situations and usually when you need your air conditioning the most. Air conditioning repairs in Chicago are busiest from June to September so remember to have your air conditioning system checked out early. And next time your air conditoining system is running, remember this interesting tid bit about removing water (humidity) from your air.

Air Conditioning Maintenance. Keeping your air conditioning unit clean and in tip top order is crucial to the longevity and reliability of your air conditioning equipment. Call a professional air conditioning contractor to perform this service which should cost somewhere between $89 and $99 for the maintenance. Call us for your air conditioning repair and maintenance needs.