We sell maintenance plans. We also have a hard time selling them to certain customers because we know they wouldn't see the value. Here's an honest breakdown of when they pay off and when they don't — written by someone who can afford to lose some plan revenue.
What a maintenance plan actually is
In our case, our maintenance plan includes:
- One scheduled furnace tune-up per year (fall)
- One scheduled AC tune-up per year (spring)
- Priority scheduling for any service calls (members go to the front of the line)
- 15% discount on any repair parts or replacement equipment
Cost: roughly $150-$300/year depending on the equipment covered.
Other HVAC companies structure their plans similarly — some include a few extra things like air filter replacements, water heater inspections, or extended warranties.
When they're clearly worth it
If three or more of these are true for you, a plan almost certainly pays off:
- You have multiple HVAC systems (furnace + AC, or furnace + AC + heat pump). The tune-up bundling discount adds up.
- Your equipment is 5+ years old. Older equipment benefits more from annual professional inspection because there are more developing problems to catch.
- You live in a town we can't reach quickly during peak season. Priority dispatch matters more for outlying areas — Brinston, Dunvegan, Glen Robertson — where a 24-hour wait would otherwise be common.
- You have a rental property or a parent's home you maintain remotely. Having us automatically scheduled means you're not the one remembering.
- You'd otherwise forget to schedule maintenance. Most people, honestly, fall into this category. The mental load of remembering "I should book the furnace tune-up before winter" is real, and skipping years adds up to early equipment failure.
For homeowners in those situations, the plan typically pays for itself in repairs avoided over a 2-3 year window, and saves several hundred dollars more over the equipment's lifespan.
When they're probably not worth it
A plan is harder to justify when:
- Your equipment is brand new (under 3 years old) and under manufacturer warranty. Mostly the manufacturer covers any major part failures. The tune-up itself is still worth doing but you don't necessarily need a plan structure.
- You're planning to move within 12 months. The plan doesn't transfer with the home, and the savings won't accumulate fast enough.
- You're already disciplined about scheduling. If you've been booking annual tune-ups for years on your own, you're already getting most of the value.
- You only have one piece of equipment (say, just a furnace in a small home) and you're handy enough to do basic homeowner-level maintenance yourself (filter changes, condensate line clearing, condenser fin cleaning).
If 2-3 of those are true for you, just call us in the fall and we'll do your tune-up à la carte. No need to be on a plan.
The "insurance" framing is wrong
Some HVAC companies sell maintenance plans as a form of insurance — "for $250 a year, you get protection against breakdowns!" That's not really what they are, and we don't sell them that way.
A maintenance plan doesn't prevent breakdowns. It prevents some breakdowns by catching developing problems early. It also doesn't pay for repairs if something does break — it just discounts them.
The honest framing: a maintenance plan is a behavioral commitment device that ensures the maintenance actually happens, plus a small priority-and-discount benefit when things go wrong.
What you should compare us against
If you're evaluating different HVAC companies' plans, the right comparison is:
- What's included in the tune-up itself? (Some companies do a 15-minute look-over and call it a tune-up. Ours is 45-60 minutes with combustion analysis, electrical testing, coil cleaning.)
- What's the discount on repairs? (15% is standard; some companies offer 20% but tack on diagnostic fees that erode the savings.)
- What's the response time guarantee? (We don't promise sub-X-hour response because rural geography means we sometimes can't honor it. Companies that do promise it often don't deliver.)
- What happens if you cancel? (Ours: cancel anytime, no penalty.)
Beware: some HVAC plans are structured as multi-year contracts with early-termination fees. Read the contract.
Honest financial math
For a typical 2-system SD&G home (furnace + AC), with our plan:
- Annual cost: $250
- Equivalent à la carte cost of the two tune-ups: $300
- So before any repair discounts, you're saving $50/year just on the tune-ups
Plus over a typical 5-year window you'll likely have 1-2 repair events. At 15% off, the discount on those is another $80-$150 in savings. Net: the plan saves the average household about $130-$250 over 5 years.
That's not life-changing money, but it's real, and the bigger win is operational — never forgetting to schedule, never being put at the back of the line when something breaks.
Our recommendation
If you currently book tune-ups annually on your own and you'd describe yourself as "good at remembering this stuff," save your money. Just call us in the fall.
If you're like most people — busy, distracted, and your last furnace tune-up was "I think two years ago, maybe three?" — get on a plan. The plan exists for you. Call (613) 363-9011 or see the maintenance plans page for details.
We won't be offended if you decline. We'll be more offended if your furnace dies in January because nobody looked at it for four years.