Oh, no! Your furnace has totally stopped working! What the heck is going on? Do you need to call for emergency furnace repair? Wait a moment. While it would never be a safe or sensible choice to open up your furnace cabinet and start tinkering around, you might not need professional repairs just yet, either.
Before you do anything else, you should check on some basics. When your furnace simply isn’t running, or starts but immediately stops, follow this checklist to see if you can resolve the problem yourself.
Step 1: The Electrical Panel
Is it possible that a circuit breaker has been tripped? If so, simply reset it! Sometimes, a problem with a furnace can cause the circuit breaker to keep tripping. This could be an issue with the electrical wiring, the blower fan motor drawing too much power, or even an issue with your ducts or vents. So if it keeps happening, you will need furnace repair in Ensley, FL. But if it was a one-time occurrence, congratulations! The job is done.
Step 2: The Thermostat
It happens all too often: we’re called out to fix a furnace that won’t run at all, and it turns out that the thermostat has simply been set wrong. A bump from an elbow, some curiosity from a child, or perhaps even a pet may have adjusted the settings. You don’t want to pay a repair bill for that! If the thermostat has been switched to “off” or “cool” or a vacation programming has been activated, just switch it back.
Step 3: The Air Filter
Your furnace has an air filter which should be changed monthly during the stretch of winter when the furnace is seeing daily use. If it gets too clogged with dust, it can choke off the airflow that your furnace needs to keep running. This is most likely to cause a problem where the heat kicks on but immediately stops. Clean (if reusable) or replace (if disposable) the air filter and see if that does the trick.
Step 4: Professional Help
Now it really is time to ask a professional for some assistance with your heating system. But you can do it with the certain knowledge that you’ve done everything you can reasonably do yourself. What kind of problem might your heating technician discover?
It’s possible that the flame sensor is dirty or broken, causing the furnace to shut itself down in the belief that there’s no flame and the gas needs to be shut off for safety. It’s possible that a component is overheating and triggering the limit switch, or that the limit switch is malfunctioning and being triggered when there’s no need. It might just be that the thermostat needs to be recalibrated.
Whatever the issue is, our qualified heating professionals are ready and able to diagnose and repair it so you can go back to having a toasty-warm home.
Contact the team at Commander Air Inc. Your hometown heating and cooling specialist for three generations.