Is a yearly HVAC tune-up actually worth it?
Fair question. It's easy to skip when everything's working, and nobody loves paying for a visit where nothing gets fixed. Here's what you actually get for the money, and when we'd tell you not to bother.
What we're doing during that hour
On a furnace, we clean the flame sensor and burners, check the heat exchanger for cracks, test the safety switches and the igniter, check for carbon monoxide, and look over the blower. On a heat pump or AC, we clean the coils, check refrigerant pressures, test the capacitors and contactor, and flush the condensate drain. On all of them, we check the wiring and the thermostat.
Most of that is looking for parts that are about to fail. A weak capacitor or a cracked igniter still works fine in September. It's January when it quits.
What it costs, and what it saves
A tune-up runs $129–$199 around here. A weekday service call alone is $99–$179 before any parts, and after hours costs more. If a tune-up catches one problem early, it's paid for itself.
There's the energy side too. A dirty filter, a dusty coil or a system that's low on refrigerant works harder to do the same job. You won't notice it day to day, but it shows up on the PUD or PSE bill.
The safety part
If you have a gas furnace, the yearly check includes the heat exchanger and a carbon monoxide test. Problems there are rare, but it's not something you want to find out about the hard way. Tune-up or not, make sure you've got working CO alarms.
How often
- Gas furnace: once a year, ideally late summer or early fall.
- Central AC: once a year, in the spring.
- Heat pump: twice a year. It heats and cools, so here it runs most of the year.
- Mini splits: once or twice a year, plus rinsing the filters in each head every month or two.
When we'd skip it
If your system is getting replaced in the next few months anyway, save your money. And if you're handy, changing filters, keeping the outdoor unit clear and rinsing mini split filters covers some of the basics. The rest (refrigerant, combustion, electrical) takes a tech and the right tools.
The one thing to do every month
Check the filter. Hold it up to a light, and if you can't see light through it, change it. It's the cheapest thing you can do for your system, and it's the thing we find skipped most often.