The simple answer to this question is no. Repairing a furnace requires special training and equipment only available to licensed professionals. Attempting to tamper with a furnace without the proper tools and knowledge can damage the furnace and create serious safety hazards.
This doesn’t mean you’re without options if you have a faulty furnace! There’s a difference between a professional furnace repair in West Chester, OH and going through troubleshooting steps. In fact, we encourage you to try troubleshooting your furnace before giving us a call for repairs. You may find out a simple solution to the problem. Just don’t do anything requiring opening up the furnace and using tools on it!
Let’s go through the basic steps of troubleshooting a faulty furnace.
Make sure the power to the house is on
If your furnace shuts down in the middle of the day, it may be due to a general power outage in the house that you haven’t noticed yet. Try other devices and lights to see if this is the case. (Yes, gas furnaces require electricity to run as well!)
See that the furnace’s switch is on
If you haven’t used your furnace yet during the season and it won’t turn on, check on the furnace switch, which is a separate circuit breaker for the furnace located near it. This is the switch you turn off at the end of heating season. Make sure that it’s set to the “on” position.
Check the thermostat
The thermostat may have incorrect settings on it. Someone else in the house could have changed them, or you made an error with the programming so the thermostat isn’t signaling to the furnace it needs heat. The thermostat may also need new batteries.
Check the electrical panel for a tripped breaker
This is a common cause of a furnace that isn’t coming on. The furnace has several electrical components, most notably the blower motor, that might overload the circuit and trip its breaker. Reset the breaker and try the furnace again. If the problem persists, you’ll need to call for repairs: there’s likely an electrical fault in the furnace.
Change out a clogged furnace filter
The furnace filter may have become dirty over the previous months (in most HVAC systems, the AC uses the same filter) and is creating an airflow problem. This can lead to the blower motor overheating and tripping the circuit breaker. It can also cause the heat exchanger to overheat, triggering a limit switch that shuts down the furnace. Put in a fresh filter to see if this helps … and make a point of regularly changing the filter every 1 to 3 months afterward.
Relight the pilot light
If you have an older furnace, it might still use a pilot light to ignite the burners. If the pilot light is out, the burners won’t come on. Attempt to relight the pilot. If it won’t light, there’s likely an issue with gas flow that will require experts to repair.
If you still have a faulty furnace, you can trust our team to take care of you. We offer 24-hour emergency service.
Call Bartels Heating & Cooling “For a Comfortable Way of Life”!