They won't fail when it's convenient. They'll fail on the worst possible day — when you have zero options, zero time, and someone else controls the price.
It happens without warning. You get home and something's wrong — no heat, no hot water, a puddle where there shouldn't be one.
You start calling. Nobody can come for days. You take whoever shows up first. You sign whatever they put in front of you — because you're desperate and you have no leverage.
It doesn't matter what month it is. When a system fails, your options collapse immediately.
This happens to Western Mass homeowners every single month of the year. Almost every single one had a system showing warning signs for years.
The signs were there. The bills crept up. The system made noises it didn't used to. But it still worked — sort of — so they waited.
Here are the three systems most likely to fail in your home, what they cost you while they're dying, and how to find out exactly where you stand before something forces your hand.
Most at risk if installed before 2010
A furnace installed in 2005 was 90% efficient on day one. Today it's likely running at 70–75%. You're paying for 100% of the gas. You're getting 75% of the heat.
New furnaces modulate — they run at 40% capacity when that's all the house needs. Yours fires at 100% every single time. Like driving everywhere with your foot floored.
A cracked heat exchanger lets carbon monoxide into your home's air supply. You can't see it, hear it, or smell it. Ask any contractor: "Did you inspect the heat exchanger?" If they hesitate — get a second opinion immediately.
Cast iron doesn't fade. It just stops.
Boilers don't fail gradually. They work — until they don't. No warning. No grace period. Just no heat, no hot water, and a repair call that can't happen until next week.
Cast iron was built to last. It was never built to be efficient. Your "still working fine" boiler may be burning 35 cents of every fuel dollar for nothing.
25% of MA homes heat with oil. In rural Western Mass it's higher. With oil prices more than doubling in 3 years and Mass Save no longer rebating fossil fuel replacements — every season you wait narrows your options and raises your cost.
Gets the least attention. Causes the most expensive damage.
Furnaces fail with cold air. Water heaters fail with floods. Not a drip — a flood. Ruined floors. Saturated walls. An insurance claim that takes months.
The tank corrodes from the inside out. Outside looks fine. Inside, it's degrading toward the day it lets go — often while you're at work or away for the weekend.
Smart heat pump water heaters learn your household routine, optimize automatically, and flag problems early. They use ⅓ the energy of a conventional electric tank — and Western Mass homeowners currently qualify for rebates that significantly offset cost.
All three systems share one failure pattern: they quit at the worst possible moment.
Not when you have time to research. Not when contractors have availability. When they're slammed, when you're busy, when the timing couldn't be worse — that's when aging systems choose to go.
When that happens you're not a customer making a decision. You're a hostage accepting terms.
The only power you have in that moment is the power you chose not to use when the system was still running.
Two minutes. Four questions. Find out exactly where your system stands — before something forces your hand.
Answer 4 quick questions and find out exactly where you stand — before something forces your hand.
Here's something the industry doesn't want you thinking too hard about: a free estimate isn't free. It's a sales call wearing a costume.
When a contractor visits for a "free estimate," they have one outcome in mind before they walk through your door. They need to sell you something. Their visit has a cost — and they recover it on the back end. Which means the advice you get is structurally compromised before they even look at your system.
A licensed ITS department head comes to your home with one purpose: to tell you the truth about your system. Whether that's "you're fine for another 3 years" or "here's exactly what needs to happen — and here are your five options."
No pressure. No agenda. An honest written assessment from someone qualified to give one.
You just paid $120 to not spend $10,000. That's the most valuable $120 you've ever spent.
The $120 credits toward whichever of our five packages fits your budget — from cost-conscious to white-glove premium.
Once you approve the work, we move. No quote-and-disappear. No "we'll be back next week." The last thing a homeowner with a failing system needs is a contractor who doesn't show up.
Every person who enters your home works directly for ITS. Background-checked, vetted, and licensed. Not a crew pulled from a staffing app the morning of your job.
HVAC, plumbing, and electrical — under one roof. No coordinating between three separate contractors, no finger-pointing when something overlaps.
Bronze through Platinum. Budget-conscious to ultra-premium white glove. You choose what fits your situation and your family — not what fits our margins.
A licensed ITS department head inspects your system and tells you the truth — in writing. No sales pressure. No agenda. Two outcomes and you win either way.