Life With Boys

See, aren’t you glad to have me as an informant. I get to learn everything the hard way and then pass the knowledge I’ve gleaned on to you.

Today’s lesson — the importance of furnace and air conditioning servicing

Seems an air conditioner needs to be serviced every year — if you do this it can last 20+ years. This means keeping the outside unit clean (free of leaves, dirt and cottonwood fluff), changing the furnace filters regularly (if they look like carpet they need to be changed), making sure little people don’t put screws into the draining tube and getting the freeon charged. Oh — you also need to make sure the ducts are open (ours weren’t) and 80% of the vents in your house need to be wide open.

If you don’t do this you will find yourself replacing the whole thing the day before you go to Hawaii. (You can replace just part of it but then the warranty is sometime void or isn’t as long.)

(And I’m not getting on Matt about this — the HVAC guy said he did a good job cleaning it out — if you’re going to clean it out yourself be sure not to bend the fins. Also good to note — try not to bend the fins with the lawnmower, weed wacker or other flying toy-like items.)

There will be a quiz …