Having a maintenance contract is very valuable for the homeowner. With a maintenance contract your equipment gets checked before each season. A good technician will not only make sure its clean and operating properly. He will also find problems before they actually break causing you to call for an emergency service call. Also this keeps your equipment running efficiently and it will last longer. A dirty system will definitely cost more to run. Most companies also give discounts on services for maintenance agreement customers. So call your favorite company and invest in a maintenance agreement.