Furnace Repair in Show Low, AZ
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Navajo County will get in touch.
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Show Low asks a lot of a furnace
October through May, your furnace is what stands between you and a 21°F night. That is eight months of the year it has to run, not just the coldest week of winter. It cycles on and off all night to hold the house at temperature, and every one of those starts puts wear on the igniter and the switches that control the burner.
About a third of homes here heat with wood, which says something about how much ground a furnace alone has to cover the rest of the year. Navajo County has also logged 137 winter storms and 162 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and outages happen with them. Most furnaces come back on their own once power returns. If the igniter or a switch was already failing before the outage, that is when it shows.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 21°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 137 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Arizona requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
That license is issued to the contractor by the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, and it stays with them, not with any single job. It covers the contractor as a whole, so the same license stands behind every job they take on, this furnace repair included.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the work. A gas furnace has a connection that has to be right, and in Arizona the contractor making that connection is the one the state licenses. The license is the accountability that exists here.
Sources: Arizona State Legislature · Arizona Registrar of Contractors
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- The most common reason is the thermostat isn't sending a signal, or the furnace isn't getting power at all. Check that the thermostat has fresh batteries and is set to heat, and check the breaker and the furnace's own power switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit. If those are fine, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, or the pressure switch isn't detecting the inducer motor running. With winter nights averaging 21°F here, a furnace that won't start needs attention fast, so it's worth having a licensed contractor look at it the same day.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is blowing but it isn't warm, the furnace may be running its fan without the burners lighting. That points to an ignition problem, a closed gas valve, or a safety switch that's stopped the burners from firing. It can also happen right when the system first turns on, since the blower can start before the heat exchanger warms up. If cold air keeps coming after a few minutes, the burners aren't lighting and a contractor needs to find out why.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is usually a bad thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is burning. When it fails, it reads no flame even when one is there and shuts the gas off. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same thing. Relighting it yourself following the furnace's instructions is fine to try once, but if it goes out again, have a licensed contractor replace the part rather than keep relighting it.