After you purchase your HVAC system, you will likely feel pretty excited. Now you have a decent heating system to get you through the winter cold in the Toronto area. Perhaps you invested in a well-regarded brand, or purchased an efficient system. It’s likely that you also have a warranty on your new equipment, so if it breaks down quickly, you can make sure that cost is covered.
However, HVAC warranties can be voided if you aren’t careful. Most companies feature a warranty of up to one year on your system, but this warranty might include hidden fees. Once you install your HVAC system, follow a few tips to try to keep your furnace running. If you keep up professional maintenance and work with professionals, you are less likely to void your warranty and lose your coverage.
Use a Licensed HVAC Contractor
The first step to honoring a warranty is to get your HVAC system installed by a licensed contractor. Fortunately, that’s easy for residents in the Toronto area — at Consumers Energy Management, we perform installations, and only the best, licensed professionals can do that with us. Choose a professional to do the installation, rather than relying on a handy friend. Putting in an HVAC system is more complicated than it looks, and if you have an unlicensed person commit an error, then the warranty will not cover the damages.
Register and Maintain
After the installation, register your warranty in order to activate it. The people who do the installation can assist this process. Once you’ve done that, however, the work to maintain the warranty is not over. Most warranties require that you keep up professional maintenance. Have a specialist from Consumers Energy Management check out your system once a year, and change your air filters on a regular basis. Those two actions are often enough to reassure the manufacturer that you are doing your part.
In addition to maintenance, make sure you use authorized parts. Replacement parts might be cheaper, but they could void your warranty if your HVAC later breaks down within the warranty period. At that point, repair costs will be much more expensive than the authorized parts were.
Keep Documents
When your HVAC system starts to go haywire, make sure you keep the receipts and invoices from contractors. Keep them even when you purchase authorized parts. Without this documentation, the manufacturer might void your warranty by mistake, and you don’t have the forms to prove that they were wrong.
While you’re keeping your own documents, read up on your warranty policy. Some warranties require a processing fee to replace parts. If that’s the case, you don’t want to be surprised by a bill later on. Additionally, some warranties will void if you bring in a second contractor to take a look at your furnace. If not, you might still need to pay for labor costs out-of-pocket.
Most warranties can truly benefit residents when they first install an HVAC system. If your system breaks within a year, you might even get a replacement. Just make sure you are doing your part to keep your warranty intact during that time.