Keeping your oven healthy during the cold

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — The weather is getting cold and the houses are getting warmer.

Checking your chimney

When soot and other accumulations in chimneys become too much, it can be dangerous to the oxygen in the house.

“You’re in danger of filling your home with carbon monoxide,” said Nate Rice, chief of the Peoria Fire Department’s fire prevention division.

With a recent chimney fire in Peoria, Rice calls for chimney safety.

Chimney fire on south side of Peoria caused by faulty wood burner

“The first thing to do is make sure your chimney is cleaned by a professional chimney sweep,” he said. “What happens is that the soot from burning over time builds up in your chimney flue. That ignites if too much builds up inside that flue.”

While checking your chimney is essential, what about checking the heat in your home?

Checking your oven

“This is really important, check the filter and make sure you change it and the date because a lot of people think it’s good, but you check the date and it was two years ago,” said Jawaun Johnson, a service technician at Fritch Heating and cooling.

As temperatures drop, people are paying more attention to their oven.

Fritch Heating & Cooling in Peoria is starting to get more calls to do these furnace checks.

“The busy season is starting right now,” said Joseph Milton, vice president of Fritch Heating & Cooling. “Right when the weather drops into the 30s, and you have that first moment where people have the ‘oh shit, I sure hope my furnace works this year. That’s really where our winter just takes off.’

The work being done ensures that the air circulation in the house is safe to breathe.

This includes changing the furnace filter, even when you think it’s fine.

“What I would do is I’ll show them their filter because I’ve had a couple of customers say, ‘Hey, I just changed the filter,’ and I come over and check it out, and it’s just as dirty as the one we just showed you show,” Johnson said.

These furnace checks should be done once a year, and the maintenance usually takes between 45 minutes and an hour.

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