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Commander Air Inc. Blog

How to Know if Your Furnace Needs Repair

tools-laid-out-for-repairs

You’re probably pretty good at spotting when a person needs to see a doctor. Years of experience have finely honed your skills at recognizing signs of illness or injury in others.

Maybe you have some related skills in a different area, such as noticing when your car isn’t behaving normally and it’s time to take it to the mechanic.

But what about your furnace? How do you develop the skill set that will help you recognize furnace problems so you can get furnace repair promptly when it’s needed?

It’s a matter of knowing the signs and paying attention. Only time and practice will make this come easily, but we can get you started in the right direction.

Pay attention to these clues, and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a finely-tuned instrument for assessing furnace health.

Unknown Noises

When your furnace is behaving normally, start listening to the sounds it makes.

Nothing should be loud, sudden, or surprising. Once you’re accustomed to which sounds indicate furnace wellness, like the hum of the heating cycle and the whoosh of the fan, you’ll notice right away when there’s a troubling sound.

Bangs, rattles, groans, screeches, and clicks are not normal. Allowing your furnace to struggle means decreased efficiency and bigger repairs when you finally call for a technician. When you hear a strange noise, schedule repairs.

Short Cycling

This is another problem that’s easier to catch once you’ve been paying attention to the regular noises of your furnace.

When you’re listening, you’ll hear the heating cycle start with a hum and, fifteen minutes later or so, it will stop.

However, some furnace issues can cause short cycling: when the heating cycle only lasts a couple of minutes and then starts up again almost immediately.

Not only is this a sign of something wrong, perhaps with the thermostat or the flame sensor, but it causes more problems to develop.

It puts strain on your system, and since startup is the time when the furnace uses the most energy, constant cycle startup means fuel waste and an increased energy spend.

Odd Smells

At the start of the heating season, you might have developed a decent layer of dust in your furnace. This means when you turn it on for the first time, there may be a temporary smell of scorched dust.

This is not a sign of a problem. Just let it burn off and open a window, and it will dissipate within an hour.

However, a lasting burning smell or one that occurs at other times during the year is a sign that your furnace needs help.

And if you have a gas furnace, a sulfur smell like rotten eggs is a sign that you should evacuate your home and call for emergency repairs.

Unsatisfying Heat

Maybe you can never quite get the house warm enough during the coldest weather. Maybe it gets perfectly cozy, but then gets too chilly before the heat turns on again.

Or maybe some parts of your home are warm enough, or even too hot, while others stay chilly.

Any of these problems can be addressed with furnace repair in Ferry Pass, FL, so that you can have the comfortable haven you deserve during the winter.

Contact the team at Commander Air Inc. Your hometown heating and cooling specialist for three generations.

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