Furnace Repair in Buffalo, NY
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Erie County will get in touch.
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Eight months of winter wears a furnace down
From October through May your furnace is the only thing standing between your house and a Buffalo winter. That is eight months of runtime a year, with nights averaging 19°F from December through February. On those nights the burner is cycling on and off for hours at a time, and every one of those cycles puts wear on the igniter and the flame sensor.
Most furnaces need electricity to run the blower and ignition even though they burn gas, so a power outage takes the heat down with it. Erie County has logged 45 winter storms and 241 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and across New York, 11% of households went at least a day without power in 2024. A furnace that comes back on after an outage will show you fast if the igniter or flame sensor was already on its way out.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 19°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 87%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 45 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $180 a year off heating for a typical Erie County home.
Estimates for a typical Erie County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, New York fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed and the heat exchanger is sound.
Replacement makes sense when the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace keeps needing parts.
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it's set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, since a setting bumped by accident is the simplest fix. If that's not it, check the switch on the furnace itself, the one that looks like a light switch on the side of the unit, and check that the furnace door is latched all the way, since most furnaces won't run with the door open. Beyond that, it could be the igniter, a safety switch, or the power supply, and a contractor will need to test the unit to know which.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often this means the blower is running but the burners haven't lit. Check your air filter first, since a clogged one can choke off airflow and trip the furnace into a safety shutdown. If the filter's clean, the igniter or the flame sensor is a likely cause, since either one failing will stop the burners from lighting while the fan keeps blowing. A furnace blowing cold air all night in weather this cold needs attention fast, so it's worth calling a contractor out rather than waiting.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually comes down to the thermocouple, the small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to keep supplying gas. When it wears out or sits slightly out of position, it stops sensing the flame correctly and shuts the gas off even though the pilot is lit. A draft blowing out the pilot is the other common cause, so check for anything nearby that could be pushing air across it. Either way, this isn't something to keep relighting on your own since it involves the gas valve, so have a contractor take a look.