To avoid fires, and carbon monoxide poisoning, among many other dangers that come with having a furnace, you should be cautious of how you handle your heating appliance. Be ultra-cautious of what you put in your furnace room to be on the safe side.
What should you not put in a furnace room?
There are plenty of items you shouldn’t put there. Here are some that shouldn’t be there as given by furnace service professionals:
Cleaning products
The most common cleaning products such as grease removers, drain cleaners, bleach, and other detergents can easily spill, evaporate or even catch fire, putting your life and your family at risk.
To avert the risk of having these items, store them in any other place other than in the furnace room.
Fuel
If you are like homeowners, you have a lawnmower and store the lawnmower fuel in a canister that you often store in the furnace room. You should know that fuel evaporates fast, and the fumes are highly flammable.
In the event the wires in your furnace touch each other, there is a risk of fire starting.
Store the fuel as far away from the furnace room as possible. The same thing goes for gas and all kinds of oils.
Paint
You will find paint and paint thinners in many homes. Due to the materials, they are made from, the paints and the thinners tend to be highly flammable, and storing them near the furnace is extremely dangerous.
Don’t store the paint in the furnace room if you recently had a remodeling project. Store it somewhere else, instead.
Kitty litter
Since many people don’t go there, it might seem like an excellent idea to keep the kitty litter in the furnace room, but this isn’t wise.
This is because kitty litter contains ammonia, and if it evaporates, it can cause corrosion, and the heater exchanger could get damaged.
If you are like other homeowners who rarely give attention to their furnaces, you could spend thousands of dollars replacing the corroded furnace parts.
The best way to dispose of kitty litter is in a kitty litter box or any other way recommended in your jurisdiction.
Laundry
It’s highly recommended you keep away wet laundry. This is because the laundry evaporates, and the water vapor stays inside the room. Since most furnace rooms are poorly ventilated, the moisture from the laundry can cause moisture and trigger corrosion.
Avoid having wet laundry in the laundry room, but if you can’t avoid it, ensure that the room is properly ventilated so that there is enough airflow.
Boxes
If you visit furnace rooms in most homes, you will find them stuffed with cardboard boxes, making the room too cramped and unpleasant to live in.
Presence of cardboard boxes in the furnace room also puts you and your loved ones at risk as the furnace sparks can land on the boxes, resulting in a hard to put off fire.
Since cardboard burns quickly, the fire can spread too fast, which can easily see your house burning in no time.
If you can’t throw away the boxes once you are done with them, find any other place to store them, but don’t store them in the furnace room.
Pieces of furniture
The furniture contains treated fabric, wood, glue, adhesives, paint, and other flammable materials, so you should keep the furniture out of the furnace room. Besides the furniture, keep firewood and old pallets out of the room.
Pillows, mattresses, and blankets are also dangerous, so they shouldn’t see the insides of the furnace room.
Dust and dirt
There is no harm in having dirt and dust on your appliance. After all, they can’t catch fire, right? Well, while they won’t catch or cause fire, these microscopic particles can find their way into your furnace and filters, preventing the furnace from functioning optimally.
To be on the safe side, keep your furnace room clean. You can ask a furnace repair service Long Island professional to help with the cleaning or do it yourself.