WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - With brutally cold temperatures on the way this weekend, it's not the time for your furnace to let you down.

In most cases, you can easily avoid being left in the cold with a simple and inexpensive step.

Local furnace companies are swamped with calls right now and one man says most of those big repair bills could easily be avoided.

"They're starting to ring a lot more now that it gets colder. We're getting more calls,” said Dale Rotramel Jr., the owner of MJB Heating and Cooling.

Dale Rotramel Jr. was hard at work all day long on Friday helping customers. When we called for an interview, he had just gotten back from yet another call. So, what issues is he seeing?

"The most common thing that we see is people's lack of maintenance, not changing filters things that like will cause a lot of problems,” said Rotramel Jr.

So just how often should you change your filter?

"We tell people to change them every 4 to six weeks usually. But we find some of the people haven't changed for six months,” said Rotramel Jr. "Furnaces require a certain amount of airflow through the system. And when a filter gets dirty it starts choking that airflow off. So, it causes the furnaces to start overheating."

He says when your furnace can't get rid of the heat that's being produced by the fire, it just shuts down.

"The importance is making sure that it's working when it does it cold because a lot of times what happens is a lot of people wait until the first time it's cold to turn the furnace on. And then it doesn't come on,” said Rotramel Jr.

Rotramel says he's planning to rest over the next couple of days because things are bound to be busy again after the cold weekend. And most of it, because people didn't perform some simple maintenance.

"I would imagine on Monday we'll probably come into 30 or 40 missed calls or voice mails for people wanting to get on the schedule next week,” said Rotramel.

Rotramel tells us right now, he is booking appointments two to five days out. He adds even if your heater is working, get it checked out anyway. Don't wait until it gets cold again.