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When it comes to keeping sure your heating and AC are in good working order, small checks here and there are always effective. Even better, you can learn to pay attention to some things about that machinery that adds to the comfort of living in your home. The more you know, the easier it will be for you to get prepared the moment any sign of malfunction rears its head.

That’s especially true for the sounds your heating and AC makes, since these can give you crucial hints as to whether everything is okay or you need to pick up your phone and have a professional repairman visit your home.

We have some sounds that are definitely causes for concern below. Next time you hear any of them, you will know to get in touch with a professional before the issue gets worse. Just a reminder before you dive in: while these sounds can be great pointers, they are not replacements for having your heating and AC checked every so often by a professional.

Booming or Banging

It’s difficult to be sure without having checked the unit itself and how it’s insides are holding up, but you make a fairly safe bet that banging sounds might be the result of what’s generally called delayed ignition. A basic explanation for it is that it’s when the gas that’s powering your furnace stops coming in quickly enough, causing it to fail to ignite immediately. It will then pool up and ignite in a tiny explosion, explaining the booming sounds you might be hearing.

As it sounds, this fault is not to be taken lightly. Left unchecked, it can crack your heat exchanger. When that happens, either flammable gas or carbon monoxide may begin to leak into your home. In the worst case scenario, a situation like this poses serious health risks, making it something to have taken care of urgently if you suspect that it might be happening with the systems in your home.

Even if it doesn’t get that dangerous – still something you don’t want to leave to chance – it no doubt spells greater faults for your heating and heating and air conditioning system, along with gigantic repair and replacement costs. Avoid all that by having a professional take a look at it early.

Rattling

While the booming sound explained above will certainly scare you or at least give you pause when you first hear it, the rattling sound we are about to go into will definitely annoy you and, if no other reason, that might be cause enough for you to get it checked out.

It’s no less a sign of your heating and AC needing immediate professional attention, though, and, as will all troubling signs, you are advised to call a professional when you first spot it. The rattling itself tends to be a sign that there’s something loose within the system. While this doesn’t need to immediately alarm, bear in mind that it can snowball into bigger and bigger issues over time, compounding repair costs or rendering the entire system irreparable if care isn’t taken in a short enough time.

It’s hard to tell which part is loose from just listening to the rattling. The trained ear of a professional might be able to tell from just confirming the part where the rattling is coming from or the nature of the rattling, but they will still need to get deep into your heating and AC system. That highlights the scariest thing about this sound: you don’t know whether it’s just a loose screw or something as huge as a cracked heat exchanger. Be on the safe side and get it fixed as soon as you hear the sign.

Screeching

When your furnace starts to screech, it will make similar noises to those you might be used to hearing from your car. Unlike with your car, though, these noises herald nothing but unsettling news for your Cleveland, TN home. There are a couple of reasons why your home might start to make a sound like this, but they tend to boil down to a broken belt that needs repair as soon as possible.

Besides just having to deal with the irritating screeching sound for longer, leaving the belt unfixed for an extended period of time is a sure way to cause extensive damage to your system, That significantly elevates the repair costs you will have to fit and, in particularly terrible situations, it might mean you have get rid of the system altogether and opt for a replacement. The best move is to call a professional while the issue is still relatively manageable.

Screeching isn’t as ominous a sign for your heating and AC as booming and rattling since those are two can very likely be harbingers of health hazards in your home, but screeching alone only points to problems that affect the system itself. Even, it’s not a problem to take lightly, since it doesn’t threaten to cause you to incur extra spending as the system gets more and more damaged. The efficiency of your heating and AC system will also suffer, affecting your comfort.

Your heating and AC system can make other sounds in addition to those, and you will need to call a professional to seek clarification on what exactly they mean for your system. The three sounds explained above, however, are the ones you are most likely to come across, and they give you at least a preliminary idea of what could be going wrong.

Whatever sound you hear, make sure to call a professional as soon as you can. That’s the best way to get the problem nipped in the bud before it spreads across your system and becomes even more troublesome and costly to handle. We are able to provide this service through Cleveland, TN. Call at Metro Plumbing, Heating & Air us to put your heating and AC problems behind you.