Does anyone actually do a yearly gas furnace checkup?

torontotim wrote: ↑ Nope. Knock on wood. Had a mid efficiency Lennox installed 16 years ago and never paid a cent for maintenance on it since. When it was installed they recharged the now-19 year old A/C as they had to do something with the coil. It's been fine ever since as well.

I pay $20 a month to rent my water heater with no real regrets. It was changed 3 years ago at no cost to me of course when I called them up and said it's too old for insurance.

I change my filter every month ($15 mid-range filters).

So I guess I've avoided about $2,000 in annual service fees on the furnace over 16 years. I look at it once in a while and it seems clean to me. Maybe I'll check out a YouTube video about whatever else I might actually do to 'maintain' it, but I think being a mid-efficiency unit helps keep things simple.

DaveTheDude wrote: ↑ ...I hear the unethical service providers may tag your furnace for replacement unnecessarily to get a sale when they inspect.

tew wrote: ↑ Depending on how long you've rented your water heater you haven't saved any money. Over 16 years you saved about $2000 on furnace fees but wasted $3140 on water heater rental fees versus purchasing. $4340 rental for 16 years - $1200 purchased. You've paid enough in rental fees to have replaced your HWT three times.

Mike2000z28 wrote: ↑ In Canada, it seems cost prohibitive to do it frankly and this goes for central AC as well. I swap my filter every 3 months and that's it. Why should I pay 250 bucks for someone to just look and say yeah it looks fine.

I notice that Ontario seems to have more competition and offers in general compared to Quebec where your hard pressed to find anyone trades wise.

Thoughts?

dirtmover wrote: ↑ Yes, even if you don't want annual servicing it's a good idea to try and build some sort of a relationship with a HVAC company you can trust. Chances are when you need them, you really need them!

torontotim wrote: ↑ It's been replaced twice in 20 years. Not sure how old the original was when I bought the place in 1999. It was replaced a few years later likely around 2004, and then again in 2018.

I've been paying rent on the heater since 1999 when I bought the house.

Not sure about the $1200 purchased - you think I can have a mid-efficiency water heater supplied and installed for $1200? Lets say I can.

20 years rent = $4,800 + tax as you seem to have done on the $20 monthly rental so $5,424
2 new water heaters = $2,400 + tax or $2,712, but somehow I don't think I'd be getting water heaters installed for $1,200+tax.

So I've spent $2,712 extra over 20 years to rent vs. own my water heater.

Its definitely something I've thought about, but I'm not losing sleep over the extra $135 a year I've paid for my water heater.

I'm also not out there celebrating the $125 a year I've not spent on furnace maintenance.

I'm just saying I haven't paid anything for furnace maintenance in 16 years and don't appear to be any worse off for it.

Dealmaker1945 wrote: ↑ I rent mine as well, and it is also almost $20/month now too. When I needed to replace it 4 years ago I was quoted $1500 to get an owned unit installed. I put that $1500 in my TFSA where I hold dividend stocks like banks that have yielded 5% plus. Over 20 years, that is $1,500 and I will have a valuable stock asset at the end that has risen in value, not a corroded water heater.

And of course, to get the benefit 20 years of life from your owned water heater you have to stay in your house 20 years. If you move before that, you give it to the next owner.

I am sure there are people out there who can get a guy on Kijiji to install a water heater for $800. Different strokes for different folks.

And the people who rent from scam outfits like National Water Heaters are making a mistake at those prices too.

torontotim wrote: ↑ Nope. Knock on wood. Had a mid efficiency Lennox installed 16 years ago and never paid a cent for maintenance on it since. When it was installed they recharged the now-19 year old A/C as they had to do something with the coil. It's been fine ever since as well.

I pay $20 a month to rent my water heater with no real regrets. It was changed 3 years ago at no cost to me of course when I called them up and said it's too old for insurance.

I change my filter every month ($15 mid-range filters).

So I guess I've avoided about $2,000 in annual service fees on the furnace over 16 years. I look at it once in a while and it seems clean to me. Maybe I'll check out a YouTube video about whatever else I might actually do to 'maintain' it, but I think being a mid-efficiency unit helps keep things simple.