What to Check for Before Calling About Your Furnace Repair

 

It’s never easy, or convenient when something breaks down, but when it’s something as critical to your daily comfort as your furnace, things get serious. Not being able to stay warm during the colder months of the year can have an impact on home life or even your livelihood if the issue is at your place of work or business.

But while getting a furnace repaired is an important step to undertake, always check first to see if it’s the furnace that is actually the problem.

Check the Filter

 

Checking the filter is one of the most common causes of a malfunctioning furnace because many people simply forget about it. Under ordinary circumstances, a diligent owner will replace the filter of the furnace every three months, or, with every change of season, if you prefer. More fastidious property owners will do this every month. You change the filter because it is a physical barrier, accumulating dirt, dust, hair, fur, and other particulates.

So, given enough time, the filter will fill up. Forgetting to replace the screen will eventually block it completely, no longer allowing even air to pass through. In the worst cases, an obstruction can even cause a furnace to shut down. Heaters have this safeguard to avoid catastrophic overheating since the heat now has nowhere to go.

Check the Thermostat

You may have left the thermostat programmed just the way you wanted it to be, but has everyone respected that? Sometimes, especially in a family situation, your thermostat may have become a toy or an imaginary control panel for one of your children.

If the furnace isn’t firing up, make sure that no one has actually altered the settings on the thermostat or even inadvertently shut it off. In some cases, especially with modern thermostats, you may find the thermostat itself is off, and that’s because you need to replace the batteries.

Check the Breaker Box

 

Even though a natural gas burning furnace may require purely mechanical means to get the gas into your home, there may still be an electrical ignition process in order to start delivering heat. If you’ve had a short in your home, a black-out in the area, or any other electrical related activity, try going down to the breaker box and checking the switches.

If you find that the switch for the furnace has been tripped, flip it, and you should be back in business.

Make the Call for Professional Help

 

If you’ve tried the above and your furnace still isn’t working, now is definitely time to call in the experts, and that’s where we come in. Once the most straightforward possibilities have been eliminated, a more technical, knowledgeable approach is necessary. Don’t do anything that would have you tampering with your gas-line because this is delicate, specialized work. Instead, call us, and lets us handle the bigger jobs, so we can get your furnace up and running again.