CLEVELAND — Shawn Toth owns Sure Temp Services and Mechanical. He said you can prevent some heating problems in a storm by clearing snow away from your exhaust.

The exhaust kit has “do not block“ on it for a reason. 

What You Need To Know

  • HVAC Service Technicians were busy over the holiday fixing furnaces. 

  • They have advice that can avoid losing your heat in a storm and expensive repairs

  • Clearing snow and changing filters and batteries are good preventative measures. 
​

“This is what you want to do before you give us a call," Toth said. "This is some of the maintenance things you can look out for."

Otherwise, he said your furnace could shut off. And carbon monoxide could build up in your home. Toth had plenty of calls over the holiday. He’d tell customers to try cleaning it out first before sending someone over. 

“That would help the customer and us to find out if that’s the cause," Toth said. "But if it continued, then we’d have to go out there and see what’s going on.” 

And inside the house, simple maintenance like changing a furnace filter can go a long way. “Your furnaces are already working hard," Toth said. "You’re making them work hard when you’re starving air to come through there.” 

Toth said it’s also a good idea to make sure there are fresh batteries in your thermostat and in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Toth said this adds another reminder that the circulation of air in your home may not be working right. 

“We now know that this past storm has cost some people their lives when it could have just been simply having batteries or having the fire detection CO2 there," Toth said.