Top 5 Signs Your Furnace Needs Repair This Winter
Winter’s here and that means your furnace works hard to keep you warm. Waking up or coming home to an icy cold house is never pleasant. Before that happens, learn about the top five signs that your furnace needs repairs. Preventative TLC saves a lot of money and frustration during the coldest days of the year. It also keeps your household safe.
Keep Your System in Working Order
Before we cover the warning signs, Air Blue’s team wants to start with the most important tip. Make sure you are maintaining your system. Three easy DIY steps help you avoid many problems with your home heating system.
Change your filter.
Inside your furnace is an air filter. Make sure you change it as often as directed by your HVAC professional. For some people, a monthly change may be necessary. You might be able to go a few months between changes.
Check your filter each month and look for a lot of dust, hair, and particles. If the filter is dirty, change it. Pay attention to how long it takes before it’s dirty and must be replaced.
Clean your duct openings.
When you vacuum, sweep, or mop your floors, take time to dust or vacuum all your HVAC grilles, registers, and vents. Keep them free of dust bunnies from your puts, clothing lint, and hair. You need the airflow to be as near perfect as possible.
Avoid blocking openings with furniture.
Don’t block openings. An efficient system needs to easily expel hot air from and pull the cold air into the ducts. Any struggles to do those tasks affect your heating. If you have a floor register that’s covered by a sofa, it makes it hard for your HVAC system to work effectively. If you’re blocking wall registers with bookshelves, it blocks airflow.
You’ll end up with warm air trapped against a wall or under furniture. The cooler air in your room has no way to exit, so you have a cooler room. Turning up the thermostat won’t help much, but you will pay much higher heating bills.
Know These Five Warning Signs
Those are the things you should do to keep your furnace in working order, but some issues are impossible to avoid. These are five warning signs to keep in mind. At the first signs of any of them, call an HVAC specialist.
Frequent Cycling
Is your HVAC system turning on and off too rapidly? Short cycling is a problem where a furnace turns on and turns off a short while later. Short cycling indicates one of several things, and it’s a problem because your furnace isn’t running long enough to heat your rooms.
Short cycling occurs when a thermostat is failing. It can also indicate that your ducts or registers are blocked, that your air filter is too dirty, or a limit switch is failing. On a gas system, it can also be that your flame sensor is corroded or dirty.
On the other end, you might have a furnace that turns on and keeps running. It doesn’t cycle off, so your home is too warm. This is another issue that you must address quickly as excessive heating fuel consumption is costly.
Check your air filter to ensure it’s not dirty. If that isn’t the problem, it could be that your ducts leak, your blower motor is failing, or your limit switch is faulty. One more potential issue is that your thermostat has loose wiring or is set too high.
Inadequate Room Temperature
You might have a dirty filter, but issues involving the thermostat, zone valves, or limit switches are just as common. Also, take the time to look at all registers and ensure you don’t have furniture blocking them or a lot of dust, hair, and fur clogging the airflow. It could also be as simple as a pet lying on the registers because they love the feel of the heat.
New Noises
New noises are a big sign that something is changing. If you notice new squeals, clanks, bangs, or whistles that you’ve never heard, call a technician. It might be something simple, but it’s also a good sign that something needs repairs or replacement. Here are some of the most common unusual HVAC noises and what they indicate.
Banging – Gas is building up before ignition and may be caused by a gas line blockage or low gas pressure.
Clicking – The ignition system isn’t working properly.
Rattling – Loose components like a motor mount.
Rumbling – Dirty burner in an oil furnace or failing pilot light.
Squealing – The blower motor is failing.
Whistles – Problem with the air intake vent.
Unusual Odors
Have you noticed your house smells different? Unusual odors can be an indicator that something’s wrong.
You might notice that the air smells like burnt dust, metal, or plastic. Smells indicate your fan motor is about to go. Your blower motor may be having issues with overheating. It could be a simpler problem, such as a clogged air filter. Burning metal or plastic can indicate that wires or a motor are problematic.
Musty mold or mildew odors indicate there’s an issue with mold or mildew growth in your ducts. Your home’s humidity levels may be too high. As mold can lead to health issues, have it addressed ASAP.
Foul odors can also be an indicator that a mouse or rat managed to get into the ducts and died. You need to have the ducts cleaned. While that issue won’t affect the temperature within your home, it does make your living situation unpleasant.
Worse, a foul odor like rotten eggs indicates a gas leak. This is an emergency that can cause severe issues with fire or possible explosion. Get a gas leak addressed immediately and exit the house until you’re given an all-clear.
Visible Damage
Check your furnace and ducts for visible damage. If you notice cracks or holes in the ductwork, make sure you have them fixed to prevent hot air from escaping into your crawl space, basement, or attic.
If you’re seeing any rust on the furnace’s components or casing, there is too much moisture and humidity affecting your heating system. A crack in the heat exchanger is also a problem that you must address as soon as possible. Loose or fraying wires are problems. You want to have any damage fixed to avoid having your system fail.
It’s also important to have your furnace fixed because a damaged vent or gas leak puts you at risk of harm. If a damaged furnace isn’t properly venting carbon monoxide, it’s a toxic gas that you cannot see or smell. The only way to prevent harm is by keeping your furnace in good shape and using carbon monoxide detectors in every bedroom and on every floor of your home.
Find an Expert in Emergency HVAC Repairs
Do you have a trusted HVAC partner you can call for emergency repairs? Take time to establish a business relationship with an HVAC professional who has expertise in your heating system’s make and model. Use that same company or technician for both repairs and maintenance. Familiarity helps a technician understand changes in a system’s performance. Air Blue handles emergency repairs and regular maintenance. We’re here to help you.
If you notice any of the above signs, schedule service. It’s often less expensive to fix a component now than to wait and have the failed component cause damage. Have a warm, comfortable home all winter with the help of Air Blue Heating and Cooling’s expert technicians, contact us today!
