Furnace Inspection

Earlier today we had our furnace inspected as part of an annual maintenance contract which we paid for last year. In September 2022 we had our furnace and AC inspected which I wrote about here... Heating and Cooling Maintenance... Ouch. The issues at the time were resolved. 

We got our new furnace and air conditioning unit from Central Heating and Cooling in October 2021 after a long Heating and Cooling Ordeal that followed a service call for an air conditioner problem that turned out to be a lot more complicated. So we ended up ditching the previous company Zenner & Ritter and went with Central for a new heating and cooling system. The new furnace has been fine and very efficient. Overall we are very happy with it and the AC unit. It's also nice to have the air filter unit added to the system.

However... I discovered a few months ago in October that Central Heating had been bought out and taken over by another company, Reimer Heating and Cooling. I found this out when I was trying to schedule the annual furnace inspection last fall which was covered in our maintenance agreement. We were supposed to have the furnace inspected before the start of winter but I was only able to get an appointment scheduled for January 4th. 

The technician came by today and did the inspection of the furnace. He did not look at the AC unit because of the cold. He said I should make a separate appointment for that in the spring. The tech was the same guy who inspected the furnace last year and we talked at length about the new company taking over Central. He worked for Central for 17 years and now worked for Reimer. He told me about some of the issues of the takeover and the scheduling problems.

When he completed the inspection the tech was ready to sell me another year of the maintenance agreement but I told him I wanted to see the plan in writing before committing with this new company. He understood my reluctance and gave me a pamphlet on the product. He told me I should contact the office for more info. The cost of the new maintenance agreement was $19.99 a month and covered the furnace, ac unit and hot water heater for annual inspections and repairs if needed but up to a certain point. The previous plan was $179 for the year and the new one would be about $240 a year. I think we might be better paying for services as we went along as needed.

So one of the things I need to find out is how much does it cost for a tech to come out and do an inspection. Do we need a tune up every year? I'll talk to some other companies and do some comparisons.