Heat/Air Maintenance Agreements

[azanon]

Are these worth paying for if you dont know much about your central air system? The extent of my knowledge is that I know to change the filters once a month, and I get the leaves and grass off the condensor on the units outside.

The folks i use want like 180/year for 2 inspections per year to maintenance my system (I have dual ac/dual furnaces). Its less for one system.

I did get it last year, and it seemed like my bills did drop some, but I dont think the units had been serviced for years. I'm thinking maybe skip every other year?

I was just wondering if i can get by cheaper on this. Should i just go buy a book that will teach me how to maintenance them myself? If its complicated, i wouldnt want to do it.

[grumpy]

My experience with maintenance agreements was that the best part was that I got priority for service calls. If the weather in the spring suddenly hit 85 degrees and my AC didn't work I got a tech that day. Without a service agreement your request goes into a different queue and it could be days before you get the system fixed. Do you want to pay the premium to get that service? It's up to you.

Grumpy

[KB]

I faithfully change my filter every month year around. And have a maintenance visit to check the ducts, air conditioner and heater every 5 years or so. I have only bought new or relatively new homes lately, and have never needed any other service.

I wouldn't buy an agreement unless I was buying an older home and then would request a 1 year warantee service with the home purchase. Other than that, I've had to repair rarely.