Furnace Repair near you

Some no-heat calls come down to a setting or a switch, and these checks involve no tools and no contact with gas parts. Stop there: don't remove burner covers, touch the gas valve, bypass a safety switch or keep resetting a furnace that locks itself out. Those steps belong to a licensed technician.

A furnace that burns fuel produces carbon monoxide, a gas with no smell, taste or colour that only a carbon monoxide alarm can detect. A cracked heat exchanger, a blocked vent or chimney, or poor combustion can let it into the house. Health Canada lists tiredness, headaches, flu-like symptoms and shortness of breath as signs of low-level exposure, and dizziness, chest pain, poor vision and difficulty thinking at higher levels.

If the alarm sounds, leave the home immediately without looking for the source, and call 9-1-1, your fire department or emergency services once you are outside. Don't restart the furnace until a qualified technician has found and fixed the cause. Health Canada considers hallways outside sleeping areas the most important place for a carbon monoxide alarm.

The technician starts by asking what you noticed and when, then reads any error code on the furnace's control board. They test the thermostat signal, the igniter, the flame sensor, the pressure switch and the inducer and blower motors, and inspect the filter, the condensate drain and the venting.

Once the faulty part is found, they explain the repair and whether the part is on the truck; parts for older or less common furnaces sometimes have to be ordered. After the repair, they run the furnace through complete heating cycles, check combustion and gas pressure where it applies, and confirm that exhaust is leaving the house as it should.

A single failed part on a furnace that is otherwise in good shape is usually worth fixing. The decision gets harder when breakdowns repeat, when the part is expensive or hard to find, or when the technician finds a problem with the heat exchanger.

Furnaces tend to fail when they work hardest, during long cold spells. A fall inspection gives a technician the chance to spot a weak igniter, a worn blower motor or a dirty flame sensor before it leaves you without heat. Keep a spare filter on hand and note the furnace's model and serial number, which speeds up ordering parts.

If the heat goes out while you wait for a technician, close the doors of unused rooms, let faucets on outside walls drip slightly to protect the pipes, and use only certified space heaters kept well away from curtains and bedding. Never try to heat the house with an oven, a barbecue or a fuel-powered generator, since they can fill it with carbon monoxide.