Furnace
Furnace RepairAnd Replacement
The appliance that matters most in January, and the one most likely to fail on the coldest night of the year.
It Fails in the Cold Because the Cold Is the Test
There is no bad luck in a furnace failing at minus thirty. A furnace that runs intermittently in October is a furnace with a fault, and October simply does not ask enough of it for the fault to matter. When the temperature drops and the unit has to run near-continuously, a marginal igniter, a sticking valve or a flame sensor with a film on it stops being marginal.
Which is the case for paying attention to the small things in autumn. A noise that started last week, a cycle that seems shorter than it used to, a smell in the first hour of the season — those are cheap to look at in October and expensive to look at on a Sunday in January, when every heating company in Central Alberta is already committed.
Furnace Work We Do
No heat, or not enough
Ignition failures, flame sensors, gas valves, blowers, control boards and the safety switches doing exactly what they are meant to.
Short cycling
A furnace that starts and stops repeatedly is overheating, badly controlled or restricted. It is also wearing itself out faster than it should.
Noises and smells
Both are information. Some are ordinary for the first run of the season and some mean stop using it now, and it is worth knowing which yours is.
Replacement and sizing
Sized to the house rather than copied off the old data plate. Oversized furnaces short cycle, heat unevenly and cost more to run.
Seasonal servicing
Before the season, not during it. The autumn service is the one that stops the January call.
Thermostats and controls
Including the surprisingly common case where the furnace is fine and the thermostat or its wiring is the entire problem.
Do Not Wait for This to Get Worse
Some of this list is routine. Two items on it are not — if you smell gas or suspect combustion products in the house, stop reading and act.
- A smell of gas anywhere near the unit — leave, then call the utility's emergency line from outside
- A carbon monoxide alarm sounding, or headaches and nausea that ease when you leave the house
- Air from the vents that is cool when the furnace is clearly running
- Starting and stopping every few minutes instead of running a full cycle
- Banging, screeching or grinding that was not there last winter
- A burner flame that is yellow and lazy rather than steady and blue
- Rooms that were comfortable last year and are not this year
- A gas bill that rose noticeably with no change in the weather or the thermostat
What Decides the Cost
Repairs run from a part that takes an hour to something that makes replacement the better economic answer, and where a given fault lands depends almost entirely on the age of the unit it happened to. We price the repair once we know what failed, and we tell you how that compares with replacing when the two are close enough to be a real decision.
On replacement, the largest variable is rarely the furnace itself. It is what the installation requires — venting, gas line, ductwork and electrical — and whether the existing setup was right in the first place.
- What actually failed, and the age and condition of the rest of the unit
- Efficiency and output of the replacement, sized to the house rather than to the old label
- Venting, gas supply and electrical, and whether any of it has to change
- Whether the existing ductwork can carry the airflow the new unit expects
How We Approach It
Sized to the house
Bigger is not better and never has been. An oversized furnace short cycles, leaves cold corners, wears its components out early and costs more to run.
Safety findings are not upsells
If we find a cracked exchanger or a venting problem, we will show you what we are looking at and explain what it means, because that is a conversation you should be able to verify.
We check the ducts too
A house that heats unevenly often has a distribution problem, not an appliance problem. Replacing the furnace would leave the cold room exactly as cold.
How a Furnace Call Goes
- 01
Symptom, age, and how urgent
No heat in January is triaged differently from a noise you want looked at. Tell us which you have.
- 02
Diagnose, including the safety side
Combustion, venting and the heat exchanger get looked at alongside whatever you called about.
- 03
You see what we found
Shown on the unit where possible, photographed where it is not. Nothing gets priced before it is explained.
- 04
Repair, or plan a replacement
And if it is close, we say so plainly and let you decide rather than deciding for you.
- 05
Test under real load
Run up, checked, and the thermostat left doing what you expect it to do.
Furnace Questions
My furnace is blowing cold air. What is wrong?
Most often the burners are not staying lit — the unit calls for heat, the blower runs, but there is nothing warming the air. A dirty flame sensor is a very common and very cheap cause of exactly that. It can also be a thermostat set to run the fan continuously, which is not a fault at all. Worth having someone look before you assume the worst.
How long does a furnace last here?
Long enough that the more useful question is how well yours has been maintained and what has already failed on it, rather than what year it was made. A well-serviced unit outlives a neglected one comfortably. When a major component goes on an old furnace, that is usually the moment the arithmetic changes.
Is an annual service actually worth it?
For a gas appliance, yes, and not mainly for efficiency. Combustion and venting are the parts nobody can check by looking, and they are the parts that matter for safety. The efficiency and the avoided breakdown are real, but they are the secondary argument.
What should I do if I smell gas?
Do not touch switches, do not use your phone inside, and do not try to find it yourself. Get everyone out of the building, then call the utility's emergency line from outside. That call takes priority over calling us — once it is made safe, we can deal with the appliance.
Our Other Services
No Heat, or a Furnace You Are Not Sure About?
Tell us what it is doing and how old it is. If the heat is off in winter, call rather than emailing — those get moved up the list.