HVAC Questions and Answers for Homes in Oakland County

Yes. Maverick Heating and Cooling is family-owned and has been heating and cooling homes in Oakland County for 7 years. We are a crew of four. You can read more about our family business.

Yes. Showing up when we said we would is a promise we make on every job. When you call, we tell you honestly when we can be there, and then we are there at that time. To us it is a plain matter of respect: you rearranged your day around the visit, and it should not be spent waiting at a window.

It means you hear the truth before you spend anything. We find what actually failed, explain it in plain English, lay out your options and give you the price before any work starts. If the fix is a filter you can change yourself, we say so. If an old system is not worth repairing, we say that too and explain why. The decision is always yours.

Yes. Every job we do, from a small repair to a full new system, is 100% satisfaction guaranteed. It is the same promise on every visit, and as a family-owned crew of four our name is on all of it. If you ever have a question about work we did in your home, call 248-930-2080 and talk to us directly.

Call 248-930-2080. The phone is the only way to reach us, and that is on purpose: a short conversation tells us what your system is doing, lets us ask the right questions and lets you get a straight answer on when we can come. Our contact page has the details.

We serve homes and businesses across Oakland County, Michigan, part of Metro Detroit. Our service area page lists the communities we work in and has a page for each one. If your town is not on the list, call 248-930-2080 anyway. We will tell you plainly whether we can get to you, and if we cannot, you have lost one minute.

We work on most makes and models. That covers gas, propane and electric furnaces, central air conditioners, heat pumps, ductless mini-splits, garage heaters, water heaters, thermostats, ductwork and air quality equipment such as humidifiers and filters. The full list is on our heating and cooling services page. If you know the make and rough age of your unit, mention it when you call.

Yes. We look after shops, offices and other small commercial buildings as well as houses. See commercial HVAC service for what that covers. Heating and cooling for new builds and additions is described under new construction HVAC. When you call 248-930-2080, tell us what kind of building it is and what equipment it has.

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning. In a house that means the furnace, the air conditioner or heat pump, the ducts that carry the air and the thermostat that runs it all. An HVAC company such as Maverick Heating and Cooling repairs, maintains and installs every part of that system.

Check five things, all of them safe for any homeowner: the thermostat is set to HEAT or COOL and has fresh batteries, the filter is clean, the breaker has not tripped, the power switch at the furnace is on, and the registers are open. Outside, make sure the air conditioner and any vent pipes are clear of snow and leaves. If one of those fixes it, you have saved a visit. Stop there, though. Gas valves, burners, wiring and refrigerant are not do-it-yourself work.

Tell us what the system is doing, in your own words. The useful details are what kind of equipment it is (furnace, air conditioner, heat pump, water heater), roughly how old, when the problem started, any noises, smells or water, and whether a light on the unit is blinking. If you already checked the filter, thermostat and breaker, say so. It helps us arrive ready for the likely cause.

We arrive when we said we would, listen to what you have noticed and then test the equipment until we know why it failed, not just what it is doing. Before any repair you get the explanation, your options and the price of each one, and you decide. Once the work is done we run the system and check it. Our HVAC repair page has more on how a repair visit goes.

It depends on which part failed, the type and age of the equipment and how hard it is to reach. Cleaning a sensor or swapping a capacitor is a small job. A blower motor, a compressor or a control board is a bigger one. A fair price depends on knowing what actually failed, so we diagnose first. You will always have the price in hand before any work starts.

Repair it if it is fairly young, has been reliable and the fix is modest. Look hard at replacing when a repair would cost more than half the price of new equipment, when breakdowns are becoming regular, or when the unit is well into old age. ENERGY STAR suggests considering replacement of a furnace past about 15 years and an air conditioner past about 10. We give you both numbers and an honest opinion.

First rule out real danger: if you smell gas or a carbon monoxide alarm is sounding, get everyone out of the house and call 911 from outside. Otherwise, if the unit is making a loud new noise or is iced over, switch it off at the thermostat. If it smells of burning, switch it off at its switch or breaker as well. In winter, keep outside doors and windows shut and close curtains at night. In summer, pull the shades and run fans. If the house is getting dangerously cold or hot, call 248-930-2080 and we will tell you honestly how soon we can be there.

Often the fan is set to ON at the thermostat, so the blower keeps running between heating cycles. Switch it to AUTO. If the air is still cold, the burners are probably lighting and then shutting off early. A clogged filter that overheats the furnace, a dirty flame sensor and a worn igniter are the usual suspects. Change the filter first. If that does not cure it, it is time for furnace repair.

That is almost always dust. Over the summer a thin layer settles on the heat exchanger and burners, and it burns off in the first hour or so of the season. Open a window and let it clear. A smell that keeps coming back, a sharp electrical or plastic smell, or any soot around the furnace is different. Shut the furnace off and have it checked.

Usually because the warm air is not getting there. Leaking or disconnected ducts, long runs to the far end of the house, too few return grilles and closed or blocked registers are the common causes. ENERGY STAR estimates a typical duct system loses 20 to 30 percent of its air through leaks and poor connections. Ductwork repair and sealing fixes many uneven houses, and a zoning system helps where one thermostat cannot serve two floors.

If the weather and gas rates have not changed, the system is working harder than it should. Check the filter first, since a clogged one makes the furnace run longer for the same heat. Other common causes are leaking ducts in a crawl space or attic, a thermostat fan left on, a failing part that keeps the furnace cycling, or equipment near the end of its life. A furnace tune-up often finds the cause.

Around 68 degrees while you are home and awake in winter and around 78 in summer are commonly cited energy-saving starting points. Adjust for what is comfortable in your house. The Department of Energy says setting the temperature back 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours a day, while you sleep or are out, can save as much as 10 percent a year. A programmable or smart thermostat does that for you. With a heat pump, keep setbacks small, because a deep one can switch on costly backup heat.

No. We do not work on boilers, or on the radiators, hot-water baseboard and radiant floors they feed. Our heating work is gas, propane and electric furnaces, heat pumps and garage heaters. A boiler-heated house usually has no ducts, so central air is not a simple add-on, but we can cool it with a ductless mini-split, which needs no ductwork and can heat the rooms it serves as well.

Start with the two things you can fix yourself: a clogged filter and a thermostat that is not set to COOL. Next, look at the outdoor unit. If its fan is not spinning, or the coil is matted with cottonwood fluff and grass clippings, the system cannot get rid of heat. Beyond that, the common causes are a failed capacitor or contactor and a low refrigerant charge from a leak. Those need AC repair.

Ice on the copper line or the indoor coil means the coil has dropped below freezing, from too little airflow or too little refrigerant. Turn the cooling off and set the fan to ON so the ice can melt, then put in a clean filter and open every register. If it freezes again, the cause is likely a blower problem or a refrigerant leak. Do not keep running it iced over.

Your air conditioner is the likely source. As it cools the air it pulls moisture out, and that water drips off the indoor coil above the furnace into a pan and down a drain line. When the line clogs with slime or the pan cracks, the water ends up on the floor. Switch the cooling off so it stops making water and call us. A blocked drain is usually a straightforward fix.

Heat rises, the roof bakes in the sun, and the second floor sits at the far end of the ducts, so it gets the least air when it needs the most. Leaky ducts and too few upstairs returns make it worse. Sealing and balancing the ducts often helps. Where it does not, zoning or a ductless mini-split for the hot rooms gives the upstairs its own control.

No. A system that needs refrigerant every year is leaking, because the charge it was installed with should last its whole life. If the charge is low, it leaked out, and adding more without fixing the leak only buys a little time. The right repair is to find the leak, fix it and then set the charge correctly. Handling refrigerant is not a do-it-yourself job. See refrigerant leak repair.

Yes, if you choose the right kind. A standard heat pump loses efficiency once the outdoor temperature falls below about 35 degrees and often needs backup heat. Cold-climate models are built for winters like ours: to earn ENERGY STAR's cold climate label, a unit has to keep at least 70 percent of its rated heating capacity at 5 degrees. Many homes here still keep a backup heat source for the coldest nights. Read more about heat pumps.

A light coat of frost is normal. The outdoor unit runs colder than the air around it, so frost forms, and every so often the heat pump runs a defrost cycle to melt it. A whoosh and a cloud of steam during defrost are normal too. A unit locked in solid ice is not, and neither is backup heat that never shuts off. Keep snow cleared away, and never chip ice off the coil.

It is a heat pump paired with a gas furnace. The heat pump heats the house in mild weather, when it is at its most efficient, and the furnace takes over once the outdoor temperature falls below a set point. In summer the heat pump is your air conditioner. For a Michigan home that already has gas service, it is a sensible middle path between all-gas and all-electric.

Yes. A ductless mini-split connects one outdoor unit to one or more indoor units through small refrigerant lines, so no ducts are needed. Each indoor unit has its own control, which lets you cool, and heat, room by room. They suit boiler-heated homes, additions, finished attics and rooms the main system never reached. Whether one can carry a whole house depends on the layout and how many indoor units it takes.

Between 30 and 50 percent is the range the EPA recommends, and it should stay under 60. In a Michigan winter, furnace-heated air often drops below that, which is where a whole house humidifier helps. If your windows sweat during a cold snap, turn the humidifier down. In a muggy summer, or in a damp basement, a dehumidifier brings it back into range. Fix any water coming in first.

The highest your system can handle without choking the airflow. Higher MERV numbers catch smaller particles, and the EPA advises MERV 13, or as high as the system's fan and filter slot can accommodate. The catch is that a dense one-inch filter in a system not built for it can restrict air. A deeper media filter cabinet gives fine filtration with less resistance. See air purifiers and filtration.

Probably not on a schedule. The EPA does not recommend routine duct cleaning, only cleaning as needed, and says it has never been shown to prevent health problems. The cases where it makes sense are substantial visible mold inside the ducts, signs of rodents or insects living in them, or ducts so clogged that dust blows out of the registers. If there is mold, the moisture behind it has to be fixed or it comes back.

Less than the packaging suggests. The EPA finds that typical home UV lamps have limited effect on bacteria and mold, and there is no standard measure of how well a UV cleaner works. Some electronic cleaners and ionizers can also produce ozone, which irritates the lungs. For most homes, a good pleated filter that suits the system and is changed on time is the better place to start. Our indoor air quality page compares the options.

Once a year each. Have the furnace checked in the fall before the heating season and the air conditioner in the spring before the first hot week. A heat pump works in both seasons, so it is worth a look twice a year. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends a yearly professional inspection of every fuel-burning appliance, including its flue and vents. See HVAC maintenance.

A proper tune-up is a check of everything that wears, loosens or gets dirty. We check the thermostat, tighten electrical connections, measure what the motors are drawing, inspect the condensate drain and run the system through a full cycle. On a furnace we also check the gas connections and pressure, the burners and the heat exchanger. On an air conditioner we clean the outdoor coil, inspect the indoor coil and check the refrigerant charge and airflow. Details are under furnace tune-ups and AC maintenance.

At least every three months, and look at it monthly whenever the furnace or air conditioner is running daily. Pets and remodeling dust shorten that. Four- and five-inch media filters go longer than one-inch ones. The same filter serves the air conditioner, so it matters in July as much as in January. A clogged filter is one of the most common causes of a breakdown.

More than most people think. Change the filter on schedule, keep supply registers and return grilles open and uncovered, and keep storage away from the furnace. Outside, keep about two feet clear around the air conditioner and rinse its coil gently with a garden hose with the power off. In winter, keep the plastic intake and exhaust pipes free of snow. Leave gas, refrigerant and anything behind an electrical panel to a technician.

The size a load calculation calls for, not the size of the old one and not a rule of thumb based on square footage. A proper calculation looks at insulation, windows, air leaks and which way the house faces. Bigger is not better: oversized equipment runs in short bursts, heats and cools unevenly, wears faster and, in summer, leaves the house cool but clammy. Our HVAC installation page has more on sizing.

They are efficiency ratings, like miles per gallon. AFUE is for furnaces: it is the share of the fuel that becomes heat for your house over a season, so a 95 percent furnace loses about 5 percent up the vent and elsewhere. SEER2 is for air conditioners and heat pumps in cooling, and higher means less electricity for the same cooling. Neither tells you how fast the house warms or cools. That is sizing.

A gas furnace typically lasts 15 to 20 years, and a central air conditioner is often quoted at 12 to 17. These are typical ranges, not promises. Correct sizing, a careful installation, clean filters and yearly maintenance push equipment toward the long end, and neglect does the opposite. Age alone is not a reason to replace something that still runs well and safely.

New air conditioners and heat pumps are now built for refrigerants with a lower climate impact than R-410A, which was the standard for years. Your existing system is not affected: an R-410A unit can still be serviced, and nobody is required to replace one. The older R-22 has not been made or imported in the United States since 2020, so it is scarce. Refrigerants are not interchangeable, so an old unit cannot simply be filled with the new one. More under AC installation.

Plan on roughly 10 to 15 years for a tank and about 20 for a tankless unit, which are the Department of Energy's typical figures. Signs a tank is near the end are rusty hot water, rumbling as it heats, hot water that runs out sooner than it used to and dampness around the base. A tank that is leaking from the body cannot be repaired. Close the cold water valve above the heater, turn the gas control to off or switch off the breaker on an electric unit, and call us about replacing it.

On a gas water heater, the usual cause is a pilot or igniter that will not light or stay lit. On an electric one, check the breaker first, then suspect a burned-out heating element or a failed thermostat. If you have some hot water but far less than before, sediment in the tank or a broken part inside it is more likely. We handle water heater repair and replacement.

It can be, if it matches how your household uses hot water. A tankless unit heats water only as it flows, so it never runs out and does not keep a full tank hot all day. Its limit is flow: two showers and a washing machine at once can be more than one unit delivers. It also does not mean instant hot water at the tap. That wait depends on the length of your pipes.

Leave the building right away, then call 911 and your gas utility from outside. On the way out, do not flip light switches, use appliances, open the garage door with its opener or use a phone indoors, and do not light anything. Do not look for the leak. Stay out until the utility or the fire department says it is safe. Once they have cleared the house, call us if the problem is in your heating equipment or water heater and we will repair it.

Get everyone outside into fresh air and call 911. Do not stop to air out the house or hunt for the source. Carbon monoxide has no color or smell, and the early symptoms feel like the flu without a fever: headache, tiredness, nausea, dizziness, shortness of breath. Leave and call 911 if you feel those symptoms even without an alarm, and stay out until responders say it is safe. We recommend an alarm on every level of the home and outside each sleeping area.

The heat exchanger is the metal wall inside a furnace that keeps the burner exhaust apart from the air blown through your house. A crack can let the two mix, which is why it is taken seriously. It cannot be patched. The fix is a new heat exchanger or a new furnace, and the furnace should stay off until that is done. If we find one, we explain exactly what we found and what your options are before anything else happens.

Turn it off at the thermostat when it is doing something that will cause more damage or could be unsafe: a burning or electrical smell that does not clear, a loud new banging, grinding or screeching, a yellow furnace flame, soot, ice on the air conditioner or water leaking from the unit. For a burning or electrical smell, switch it off at its switch or breaker as well. If you see smoke or flames, get everyone out and call 911. A breaker that keeps tripping should be left off, not reset again. Then call 248-930-2080 for urgent heating and cooling repair. A gas smell or a carbon monoxide alarm is different: leave the house and call 911.