How To Maintain Your Boiler
4 easy ways to keep your boiler in tiptop shape
New York winters can be especially tough if your home loses heat in the harshest weather of the season. Whether you live in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx, or parts of New Jersey, you want to know that you can rely on your boiler to run efficiently and keep your home toasty warm no matter how cold it gets.
The best way to do that is to commit to regular boiler maintenance and check-ups every year, ensuring that your home heating system will be there for you season after season. This essential money-saving investment keeps your boiler running at maximum efficiency and helps avoid many of the typical problems that can occur when routine maintenance is neglected.
4 easy ways to maintain your boiler
Whether you have a steam boiler or a hot water boiler powered by either heating oil or gas, you should:
- Follow the manufacturer’s maintenance recommendations. Did you know that four out of five heating system breakdowns are actually preventable? You can increase your odds of having a trouble-free heating season by reading the owner’s manual provided by the manufacturer in traditional form or online. Be sure to understand what you should and shouldn’t do when getting ready for another year of boiler use.
- Make boiler safety your priority. It’s really important to make sure that no materials such as newspapers, paint cans or other flammable items are stored too close to your boiler.
- Check your boiler water levels. For older steam boilers, the water gauge should be checked from time to time to make sure the water level isn’t too low as this could cause a shutdown. If the water in the gauge looks rusty, that means it’s time to call a technician to come flush the water out. The automatic water filling systems found in more modern hot water boilers are usually good at keeping water levels where they should be — but again, if yours fails you’ll want to call us.
- Schedule your annual boiler tune-up. Having our experienced Rucci Oil service technicians come out to do tune-ups means they’ll be able to fix any minor concerns such as worn-out parts before they become a bigger problem. Regular maintenance also makes your boiler run safely and efficiently — and that in turn helps you save money on heating fuel costs. While the ideal season to schedule boiler maintenance for is the spring or summer, there’s never a wrong time to request a boiler tune-up if you haven’t had one yet this year.
What a typical annual tune-up includes
Depending on the type of boiler you have, our technicians will likely:
- Inspect and test the equipment and its operating controls
- Perform a variety of safety checks
- Adjust controls to optimal efficiency levels
- Clean, lubricate, adjust or replace parts such as oil filters, nozzles, strainers, motors, bearings, fans and circulators
- Tell you about your boiler’s condition, what they did and what they recommend
When your boiler needs replacing
Following these tips will help you increase your boiler’s useful life and reduce the need for costly repairs. But eventually, it will need replacing. Our expert service technicians can look at your existing boiler and help you decide whether it should be repaired or replaced.
If it’s time to buy a new boiler, our knowledgeable team can help determine the right make and model for your home within your budget. Today’s modern, high-efficiency gas and oil boilers are better for the environment and your wallet. Because they incorporate energy-saving controls that lower your fuel use during mild weather and offer more evenly distributed heat, you could reduce your annual heating costs by 30% or more when you replace your boiler.
The right service plan for your boiler
Having a service plan for your home heating system is a great way to keep your boiler in excellent shape and reduce the need for expensive repairs. All of our service plans include a 15-point heating tune-up at no extra charge. Tune-ups can cut your annual fuel use by as much as 10% and help prevent dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from building up.
Contact us for boiler issues
If you’re in Brooklyn or surrounding boroughs and need boiler service, maintenance, repair or replacement, contact Rucci Oil! Our experts are standing by to help.