An important aspect of home upkeep is regular assessment and maintenance of your HVAC and plumbing systems. Many companies specializing in both fields provide a maintenance club that extends to both systems. For the provider, it’s an opportunity to earn customer loyalty. For the homeowner, it provides savings, convenience, and many other perks.
Better Home Comfort and Peace of Mind
Home maintenance experts recommend three important service appointments a year. Those include an annual plumbing inspection, seasonal heating maintenance, and seasonal cooling maintenance. Fall is an excellent time for a plumbing tune-up because of the impending holiday season. This is a time when many host big family gatherings. With a heating tune-up in the fall, your technician will service your heater before you need that extra warmth. This gives you confidence it will come on and stay on when you need it. You get that same confidence with a cooling tune-up in spring before the warmer weather sets in.
Higher Energy Efficiency
Maintaining optimal efficiency is important, and heating and cooling technologies can become less efficient through normal usage. With higher electricity and fuel consumption come a bigger carbon footprint and budget-busting heating and cooling bills. Fuel-burning equipment can burn fuel less efficiently, and electric equipment can consume dramatically more electricity. Beyond your heating and cooling, water heating is a concern too. For the average household, it represents nearly 20% of total annual energy consumption.
Reduced Inspection and Maintenance Costs
Those three vital maintenance appointments all have a fee associated with them. When you schedule those appointments individually, you pay for them individually. A maintenance plan membership bundles those three core services and often gives you a bundling discount.
Monthly and Annual Payment Options
Many maintenance clubs give you choices of how to pay for membership. One option is to break the total cost into 12 equal monthly payments. By spreading your maintenance costs over an entire year, it’s much easier to fit it into your budget. The other option is to pay for the membership in a lump sum. This lets you deal with it once a year and not have to worry about it until next year. Sometimes, there may even be additional discounts for paying up-front.
Hassle-Free, On-Time Maintenance Scheduling
One of the issues with three maintenance appointments a year is that we all lead busy lives. It can be a hassle to schedule appointments early in the spring and fall when there’s a lot going on. You may forget, and by the time you remember, it may seem easier to put it off until next year. With a maintenance club, you won’t have to worry about that. Your provider will remember for you and contact you in advance to set up a convenient appointment.
Develop Strong Relationships
Another advantage of a maintenance club is that it helps to develop a strong relationship between a customer and a business. You’re building a history with an established company you can rely on. If there’s a problem, you have confidence the company will stand behind the work. You can expect greater customer service and build familiarity with your HVAC technicians and plumbers. This helps on several fronts. It makes you more comfortable when they’re in your home. It also lets them get familiar with your systems. That can make a big difference during diagnostics and when providing advice.
Seasonal Heating Tune-Up
Heating tune-ups involve a multipoint inspection of all heating-related equipment. That can include your furnace, heat pump, hybrid heating system, blower, and so on. Our technician will clean all the combustion and other equipment and correct minor wear and tear. We’ll test and calibrate the thermostat. For fuel-burning systems, it’s also important to inspect the exhaust system and test any carbon monoxide detectors.
Seasonal Cooling Tune-Up
Cooling tune-ups are similar but focused on your central air conditioner, heat pump, or ductless AC. It involves a multipoint inspection, thorough cleaning, and wear and tear correction. An important step with cooling systems is cleaning the evaporator coil. It not only improves energy efficiency but helps to protect indoor air quality. Cooling systems also have an outdoor unit that requires servicing of the condenser pump, coil, and fan.
Annual Plumbing Tune-Up
Annual plumbing maintenance is important to ensure that you have optimal water pressure and enjoy ample hot water all year long. Our team performs a 65-point whole-home inspection. That involves checking all visible plumbing, fixtures, drains, hoses, and shut-off valves. Our team will dye-test all toilets and check your water heater. We can recommend any necessary water heater maintenance. Common tasks include flushing the tank and replacing the sacrificial anode rod.
Water Test
During the plumbing inspection, our team also performs a water quality test. We’ll do that whether you have a municipal water supply or well water. Our plumbers can detect issues with water hardness, acidity, alkalinity, and impurities. If there are any concerns, we’ll discuss them with you. You can also explore solutions, such as a whole-house water softener, water filtration system, or water conditioner.
Less Prone to Repairs
Routine maintenance can help you avoid the most common repair issues homeowners experience with their heating, cooling, and plumbing systems. There’s far less risk you’ll have to deal with a sudden, inconvenient, and expensive repair. That includes a furnace that won’t turn on, an AC that blows warm air, or a clogged drain. Our team can also recommend proactive repairs. No one wants to deal with any repair, but at least a proactive repair is a lot less expensive and a lot more convenient.
Repair Discounts
A core goal of a maintenance club is to help customers avoid repairs. That’s why many memberships include a discount should you need one. In our case, basic membership gives you a 10% discount on all parts, materials, and labor for all HVAC and plumbing repairs. If you opt for a Platinum membership, we increase the discount for HVAC repairs to 20%. Note that these discounts apply to proactive repairs just as they do to the unexpected ones.
Extend Equipment Life Span and Lower Total Costs
Another reason routine maintenance is so important is that it extends the life of your equipment. It’s why most HVAC warranties require it. Heating and cooling systems that can fail within 10 years can last 15 years or more with maintenance. You can also extend the life of your water heater, fixtures, water-using appliances, and much more.
HVAC System Replacement Discount
Even with routine maintenance, you’ll eventually need new HVAC equipment. That’s why many companies reward customer loyalty with a discount on that significant investment. In our case, basic membership includes a $400 discount on any HVAC system replacement. If you’re a Platinum member, we increase that discount to $500.
Join a Maintenance Plan in Frederick
Markool Heating & Cooling provides a maintenance plan for our residential and commercial customers throughout Frederick, MD and the surrounding areas. Our HVAC technicians install, maintain, and repair all manner of heating systems and cooling technologies. We also clean ducts for better air quality, comfort, and energy efficiency. Our plumbers repair pipes, perform repiping services, clean drains, repair sewer lines, and install and service water heaters.
Call today or contact us online to ask any questions about our services or schedule an appointment.
