Your furnace keeps you warm from your nose to your toes all winter long, but you may experience a breakdown of two over the lifetime of your furnace. To keep your furnace in top shape you should perform maintenance tasks and care for your furnace throughout the season to help prevent these breakdowns and to lengthen the life of your furnace. Your furnace may act up from time to time, and there are some warning signs you should watch for that will tell you your furnace needs some work or even needs to be replaced. See below for some of those warning signs.
Cycling Over And Over
If your furnace is turning on and then off, then immediately turning back on again, you may have a problem. This over-cycling will cost you a great deal of money in the long run, and could cause your furnace to breakdown if left to run this way. Your furnace may have an air block somewhere. Check the air filter first to see if it is dirty. If you haven't replaced it in awhile, replace it with a new one and test your furnace. If this wasn't the problem, it could be a clog in the evaporator coil. Leave this work to a professional, call an HVAC technician out to inspect your coils and your furnace.
Carbon Monoxide Leak
If your system is leaking carbon monoxide, it can be extremely dangerous. The problem could be due to a cracked heat exchanger. In this case, your furnace should be turned off and the gas shut off as well. Call a professional technician out immediately to make this repair for you. Always be sure to have a working carbon monoxide detector in addition to smoke detectors in your home.
No Heat
If your furnace is running, but you don't have any heat at all, it could be due to a broken thermostat, or it could also be a blockage in air flow. Test your thermostat by turning it off and then back on again. Adjust the temperature and see if your furnace turns on and watch the thermostat to see if the temperature is reached and listen for the furnace to turn off. If the thermostat wasn't the issue, check the air filter and clean your furnace, then test your furnace again. If you are still experiencing a problem, call an HVAC contractor for help.
Your furnace helps to keep you warm, but if not taken care of properly you could end up in the cold.
A few years ago, I could tell that we were having serious furnace problems. In addition to dealing with a house that was constantly too cold or too warm, we were also plagued by a noisy, smelly furnace that seemed to have trouble on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I didn't know enough about furnaces at the time to spot the problems quickly. One day, the entire system died, and it was beyond repair. After having that experience, I learned a lot about HVAC systems, so that I could troubleshoot future systems. This website is all about teaching you what you need to know so that you don't end up in the same situation.