Furnace Repair in Poughkeepsie, NY
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Dutchess County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat puts real wear on your furnace
From October through May your furnace is the thing standing between your house and a 20°F night. That is eight months of the burner cycling on and off, night after night. Every start puts a little more wear on the igniter and the burner assembly.
A lot of homes in Dutchess County run on fuel oil. Oil furnaces have their own parts to watch. The nozzle can clog. Soot builds up in the heat exchanger over a long season. Dutchess County has seen 28 winter storms and 341 damaging wind events in the past ten years, and storms like that knock out power. An oil furnace will not restart on its own once power comes back. A furnace that stays quiet after the lights are back on is often waiting for a reset, not broken outright.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 20°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 28 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and swap the batteries if it uses them. If that's not it, look at the furnace switch, the one that looks like a light switch near the unit, and check the breaker for it too. Furnaces with a standing pilot need that flame lit before anything else will fire, and furnaces with an igniter will lock out after a few failed attempts, so if yours has tried and failed repeatedly, it may need a reset or a contractor to find out why it isn't catching.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the blower is running before the burners have caught up, which is normal for a minute or two after startup. If cold air keeps coming, check your filter first. A filter clogged enough restricts airflow across the heat exchanger and can trip a safety switch that shuts off the burners while the fan keeps running. If the filter is clean and you're still getting cold air, the igniter or flame sensor may be failing to light the burners at all, and that calls for a contractor to look at it.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple isn't sensing the flame well enough to keep the gas valve open. It's a small part that reads whether the pilot is actually burning, and once it wears out or gets coated with soot, it can't hold the valve open on its own even though the pilot lights fine at first. A draft blowing out the pilot is possible too, so check for any drafts near the unit before ruling that out. Either way, a furnace that won't hold a pilot needs a contractor's attention, since it's a gas safety component.