Heating Inspection
Before The Cold Finds The Fault
Annual heating maintenance for gas furnaces, electric furnaces, and heat pumps across the Las Vegas Valley. An inspection in October costs a fraction of an emergency call in January, and it is what keeps your manufacturer warranty valid.
Why A Heating Inspection Matters More In The Desert
It sounds backwards. Las Vegas runs heat for six or eight weeks a year, so surely a furnace here needs less attention than one grinding through a Midwest winter. In practice the opposite is true, and the reason is the ten months in between.
A valley furnace spends most of the year sitting idle in an attic, a closet, or on a rooftop while fine desert dust settles onto the burners, the flame sensor, and the blower wheel. Then it gets switched on cold during the first November cold snap and asked to work perfectly. That long idle period can expose issues that were not noticeable at the end of the previous heating season.
Annual heating maintenance is one of the most worthwhile things a homeowner can do to avoid a January emergency call, and it is the only thing on this website that reliably saves people money rather than spending it. It is also, quietly, a warranty requirement — most manufacturers require documented annual service to keep parts coverage valid, which catches a lot of people out at exactly the wrong moment.
We service gas furnaces, electric furnaces and air handlers, heat pumps, and rooftop package units, whatever brand is on the unit. If something is already wrong, this is not the right page — start with furnace repair instead.
What A Heating Inspection Covers
Our residential heating inspection is designed to identify visible signs of wear and address potential concerns before they develop into larger issues. This is what the technician works through.
Heat Exchanger & Combustion Safety
Electrical Components & Controls
Airflow & Distribution
Gas System (Gas Furnaces)
System Operation & Performance
Final Safety Review
Inspections are primarily preventative. They do not include in-depth diagnosis or repair of refrigerant issues, electrical failures, intermittent problems, airflow complaints, or other system malfunctions.
Any concerns requiring additional troubleshooting or repairs may require a separate visit if we are unable to complete the repairs on site. If repairs can be completed at the time of the inspection, those charges are added to the invoice with your approval.
An inspection does not guarantee that equipment will not experience a failure between scheduled visits.
Swamp cooler maintenance is not included.
Heat pump and air conditioning inspections follow their own checklists — the cooling side covers temperature split, capacitors and contactors, and airflow across the evaporator coil. Both are covered below.
What A Heating Inspection Actually Gives You
Fewer Surprises
An inspection puts eyes on the parts that commonly wear — flame sensors, ignitors, capacitors — and flags anything that stands out. Finding a marginal ignitor in October is a scheduled visit. Finding it in January is a cold house and a rush.
A Longer Service Life
A properly sized, maintained gas furnace reaches 15 to 20 years in this climate. A neglected one runs dirty, works harder for the same output, and gives up years early. Given what replacement costs, the arithmetic on an annual visit is not close.
Warranty Coverage That Holds
Most manufacturers require documented annual maintenance for parts coverage to remain valid. Homeowners tend to discover this at the point of claim, when a ten-year warranty turns out not to apply because nobody kept records.
Bought a system recently? Keeping the maintenance record is what protects your 10-year manufacturer parts warranty.
Furnace, Heat Pump & Package Unit Inspections
Three different systems, three different checklists. A technician who runs the same list on all of them is not doing the job.
Furnace Maintenance
Gas and electric. On gas equipment the emphasis is combustion and safety — burners, flame sensor, ignition, heat exchanger, gas pressure, venting, and the rollout and limit switches.
On electric furnaces and air handlers the work is almost entirely electrical: heating elements, sequencers, contactors, and the transformer.
Heat Pump Maintenance
Different failure profile entirely. We check the defrost cycle and board, the reversing valve changeover, auxiliary heat strips, refrigerant-side performance, and the outdoor coil, which collects dust and landscaping debris year round in this climate.
Because a heat pump runs in both seasons, the two scheduled visits cover both sides of the system.
Package & Rooftop Units
Single-unit units on the roof, extremely common on homes in the valley and small commercial buildings. Same checks, plus unit seals, roof curb condition, and the weather damage that rooftop equipment accumulates and nobody sees.
Plenty of contractors quietly avoid these. We service them.
Inspection Plans
For homeowners who would rather it was simply handled than remember to book it every autumn.
A maintenance plan puts your seasonal service on a schedule instead of on your to-do list. We contact you when it is due, the visit gets booked before the season turns, and the documentation that keeps your manufacturer warranty valid is kept on file rather than in a drawer.
Plans typically cover the annual heating visit, the annual cooling visit, priority scheduling when the valley gets busy, and a discount on any repairs found along the way. Given that heating and cooling equipment shares several components, having both covered by one plan tends to make more sense than treating them as separate problems.
Call and we will walk you through what is available and what it costs — no obligation, and no pressure to sign up on the phone.
Ask About Maintenance PlansHow An Inspection Visit Works
Booked For A Real Window
You get an arrival window you can plan a day around rather than a vague promise of sometime between morning and evening. Autumn bookings are easier to schedule tightly than emergency winter ones, which is another argument for going early.
The Full Checklist, Not A Walkthrough
The technician works through the inspection checklist above, taking actual measurements rather than relying on visual impressions alone. Temperature rise, gas pressure, and electrical readings are recorded, not estimated.
You Hear About Anything Marginal
Components that are working but degrading — a weak capacitor, an ignitor drifting out of spec, a blower wheel loading up — get flagged with a plain explanation of how urgent they are. Some things need doing now. Most can wait, and we will say which is which.
A Written Record You Keep
What was checked, what it measured, and what to watch. This is the documentation manufacturers ask for when a warranty claim is made, so it is worth keeping somewhere you will find it in eight years.
Carbon Monoxide And The Heat Exchanger Check
The heat exchanger inspection in a gas furnace inspection is not a formality. A cracked heat exchanger is the main furnace-related source of carbon monoxide in a home, and it is not visible or detectable without inspection. There is no smell, no noise, and no warning light.
Working carbon monoxide detectors on every level of the home are essential if you heat with gas. They have a service life of five to ten years, and they are the only warning you will get between annual visits.
If a detector sounds, get everyone outside into fresh air and call 911. If you smell gas or rotten eggs, leave the house without touching switches and call Southwest Gas or 911 from outside — then call us afterwards, not first.
Heating Inspections Across The Valley
The same inspection checklist and the same written report wherever you are in the Las Vegas Valley.
Also serving Anthem, Seven Hills, and Centennial Hills. Not sure if you are in range? Call (702) 600-3737 and ask.
Related Guides
Background worth having before you book heating maintenance.
Heating Inspection FAQ
Twice a year — once before the cooling season and once in September or October before the first cold snap. The short heating season leads people to assume they can skip it, but the ten-month idle period is exactly the problem — desert dust settles on the burners, flame sensor, and blower and causes most first-use failures. Most manufacturers also require documented annual heating maintenance to keep parts coverage valid.
Burner condition inspection, ignition system testing, heat exchanger inspection, blower motor and wheel inspection, airflow and temperature rise measurement, safety control testing, electrical and connection checks, gas pressure verification, venting inspection, thermostat operation, filter guidance, and a written report of what was measured. Heat pumps follow a different checklist covering defrost, reversing valve, and auxiliary heat.
It puts eyes on the system before the season starts, so worn components can be identified while the house is still comfortable. It also extends service life — a maintained furnace reaches 15 to 20 years in this climate, a neglected one gives up years sooner — and it keeps manufacturer parts coverage valid.
September or October. Schedules are open, a fault found can be fixed calmly rather than urgently, and any part that needs ordering arrives while your house is still comfortable. Booking in December means competing with everyone whose system has already failed.
Yes, and arguably more — a heat pump runs in both seasons, so it accumulates roughly twice the operating hours of a furnace. The checklist is different: defrost cycle and board, reversing valve changeover, auxiliary heat strips, refrigerant-side performance, and the outdoor coil, which collects dust and landscaping debris year round here. The two scheduled visits cover both heating and cooling.
It can. Most manufacturers require documented annual maintenance for parts coverage to remain valid, and homeowners usually discover this at the point of claim rather than before. Keeping the written report from each visit is what protects the coverage. If you have had a system installed recently, this matters more than most people realise.
More often than the box suggests. Desert dust loads filters considerably faster than the manufacturer's national guidance assumes, and a restricted filter is a common cause of a furnace tripping its limit switch and shutting down on safety. We will assess yours during the visit and give you a realistic schedule for your home rather than a generic interval.
No — that is a repair visit, not an inspection. A maintenance visit assumes a working system and is about prevention. If yours is blowing cold air, not starting, or short cycling, start with furnace repair so it gets diagnosed properly.
The entire Las Vegas Valley — Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Summerlin, Green Valley, Anthem, Seven Hills, Centennial Hills, Spring Valley, Southern Highlands, Enterprise, Paradise, and Mountain's Edge.
Book Your Inspection Before The Season Turns
An autumn heating inspection takes about an hour, keeps your warranty valid, and costs considerably less than the January version of this conversation.