Customer question: Just how important is maintenance on heating and air conditioning equipment?  Hear what our professional technicians have to say....  Anton's professional NATE certified technicians can prove to you just how critical seasonal precision tune ups are.  "We provide service to the greater St. Louis metropolitan area.  It really is sad to say however it is true, the areas in St. Louis where our customer's understand the value in seasonal tune ups, we rarely have emergency service calls", says Steve Anderson, Anton's Service Manager.  "We are in our customer's homes each season to catch that early rubbing noise, clogged drain, dirty filter or flame sensor and that's just what it is, catching the small situations early before they get out of control and create serious costly damage.  I recommend to all my family, friends and customers to have regular maintenance.  It saves money is the bottomline".	Steve Anderson, Service Manager
Energy Star - United States Environmental Protection Agency This department has published an informative brochure to assist homeowners in saving money and energy by understanding their heating and air conditioning equipment.  On page 6 of this brochure, A Guide to Energy-Efficient Heating and Cooling, the two critical issues for heating and a/c equipment is changing the air filter regularly and having professional tune ups.  "A clean filter will prevent dust and dirt from building up in the system, which can lead to expensive maintenance and/or early system failure.  Check your filter every month, especially during winter and or at least every three months."  The second critical issue is to have the system professionally tuned up each season.   "Proper maintenance by a qualified technician is one of the most important steps you can take to prevent future problems.  Contractors get busy during summer and winter months, so it is best to check the cooling system in spring and the heating system in the fall.  Plan the check up around the beginning and end of daylight-saving time each spring and fall."
What is my blower wheel and why does it need cleaning? This picture shows a clear example of a blower wheel.  This part of the blower motor is used to move the conditioned air into the home.  The blower motor is used for summer and winter, basically whenever the equipment is on and moving air.  As you can clearly see in this picture the fins of the blower wheel are beginning to fill with dust.  This changes the volume of air the blower wheel is able to move.  This problem increases over time and the air flow is diminished resulting in less conditioned air flow into the home.  Also, this adds drag to the motor and will cause premature failure of the blower motor.  Regular maintenance and filter changes will prevent this situation from occuring and preventing costly emergency repairs.	Click to enlarge this picture to see detail.