3 tips to keep your heater purring during bitter cold

HOUSTON – Houston’s cold snap means more people are firing up their heaters. Some people find their furnace isn’t up to the challenge.

That is when people like Joe Bany, director of field operations at John Moore, get a call.

Here are three tips from Bany that he said will help your heater keep the cold at bay.

1. Check the air filter

“Maintenance is something you should be concerned about,” Bany said. “If you can get it done in the next couple of days, do it. If it’s a little later, do it anyways, because the same maintenance work, works for your AC unit in the summer, too.”

Bany said it is important to keep the blower motors inside your system clean, as well.

2. What’s with that burning smell?

Bany said that burning smell you get when you fire up your heater is dust burning off the unit. He said if that smell continues, you should call a professional for help.

3. Don’t assume

If your system survives the first cold snap, do not assume that all is OK.

“Everyone always thinks, ‘If I make it through that first one, I’m OK,’” Bany said. “But you never know. You’re going to be putting your system under incredible stress for the next few days, and then go away and come back.”

Bany said that it is that off-again-on-again relationship people have with their heaters that expose weak parts of the system that need to be changed.