Furnace Technicians Getting Slammed With Service Calls
(CBS) -- If you're like a lot of people, you wait until it's cold before trying to turn on your furnace for the first time.
As CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports, that can be a huge mistake.
Blue flame lights up a furnace in suburban Wheeling. When the homeowners fired it up Friday morning, it simply wouldn't work.
They called for a furnace-repair technician at Abt Electronics. The technician, Daniel Raysby, says it was a relatively easy problem to fix.
He says with a cold snap coming a lot of homeowners are finding furnace problems they didn't realize they had.
A common culprit: the sensor that detects a flame.
"Just because people don't get it cleaned. It builds up carbon, and then we have to come out at 2 o'clock in the morning just to scrape it off," he says.
He checks air temperature, finds any gas leaks and checks for dirty filters -- all common trouble areas. Regular maintenance is a money saver, he says.
Depending on the company, a regularly scheduled service check can cost anywhere from $80 to $120.
An after-hours emergency or calling during a cold snap will cost you much more potentially.
