Heating your home can get expensive. Whether you’re paying high utility costs to heat your home when the temperatures drop or you find yourself paying a furnace repair company to solve one or more of the many common issues that affect household furnaces and home heating systems.
You can’t underestimate the power of good furnace maintenance when it comes to ensuring that your furnace is fully operational during those chilly winter months when you need it the most. The better you are about taking care of your furnace, the better your furnace will take care of you and your family.
Yet even with routine care and upkeep, a furnace can and will break down on occasion. The hope is that you aren’t facing a significant problem that’s going to cost you an arm and a leg to fix. Older models tend to be more finicky and the prevailing rule of thumb is that any furnace more than fifteen to twenty years of age should be replaced with a newer, more modern model.
But let’s assume your furnace is in the prime of its life and you’ve had to perform little to no repair work on the unit since you’ve had it installed. The reality is that you’re likely to run into a hitch at least once or twice, even with a dedicated maintenance schedule.
Let’s take a look at the common furnace problems that you could face and the repairs necessary to rectify the issue:
Ignition
Most of today’s furnaces will come equipped with an electronic ignition that is used to start the system. If your furnace isn’t starting, the pilot light could be out or it may be an ignition issue. Try to solve the problem by shutting off the gas for a couple of minutes then switch it back on again. Your furnace should power on and you’re good to go. If not, you may have a faulty ignition that needs replacing.
Open Doors
Another place to look for troubleshooting a non-functioning furnace is the furnace door. If that’s open, even a little bit, the furnace just won’t fire up. So be sure it’s closed up tight. If it’s not the furnace door, try the burner door. That also needs to be tightly shut if your heating system is going to work properly. Many furnace malfunctions are caused by open furnace and burner doors.
Check the Air Filter
Heating systems rely on proper, unobstructed air flow in order to operate. Without it, the system will overheat and shut down. In fact, it’s your furnace that is tasked with ensuring that your heating apparatus doesn’t suffer any damage. If your air filter is dirty, that will prevent air from getting in and the furnace will detect that the burner or heat exchanger are starting to overheat. That triggers a shutdown.
Loud Sounds
All furnaces tend to make noise, but if you are hearing louder than normal noises coming from the unit you could be dealing with a potential problem. It might be a belt that has come loose or snapped entirely or your furnace’s ignition is about to go bad and needs replacing.