(WSIL) -- The official start to Autumn is less than a week away, and that means it's time to check your HVAC system.
"There's a lot of things we do when we do a heating and air checkup that can really extend the life of your systems�"
Daniel Butts is a Service Technician at Charlie's Heating and air. He says now is the time to get your HVAC system checked.
"…and you don't want to be caught in the middle of a heat or air conditioning season and not have what you need."
We talk about this every year, but with a communicable disease affecting supply chains everywhere, RSP Sales Manager, Lisa Gentz, says tackling HVAC problems early is especially important.
"But with the pandemic and the slow down of manufacturing and the difficulties that they've had to get supplies, these last two years have just really been difficult to predict."
Being proactive about maintenance may keep you from waiting on a backordered part in the middle of winter. While the infamous computer chip shortage is also at play here, Butts says it's not the main disruption.
"It's not so much been the chips that's been the issue for us as far as the control boards, the thermostats or anything like that,"
"You know, we're affected by that on our higher end pieces of equipment, for sure the variable speed stuff, but I think it's just in general a shortage of materials in general," says Gentz.
"You know it's actually been more along the lines of just raw materials such as plastics or metals that actually go into the systems themselves," says Butts.
Local heating and air suppliers have been proactive, trying to stock up on what they can, says Gentz.
"You know, we're seeing shortages on a lot of things and challenges all across the board, so yeah we're trying to stock up as much as possible and buy in quantities when we can."
Their advice to you, is to be proactive as well.
"Make sure you at least turn the system on and let it run for a little bit, that way you just know that it's still working. That way, you can identify a problem early enough that we can get out there and fix it before we're totally buried and you are just kind of stuck where you are," says Butts.
An easy way to improve the performance and extend the life of your HVAC system is to change your filter often.
Technicians say dirty filters are one of the most common causes for service calls.
