HVAC Repair in Spring Valley, NY
Homes here need heat from October through May and cooling from June through August. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Rockland County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eleven months of work, most years
Spring Valley only gets a break from its heating and cooling system for about a month a year. Furnaces run October through May, and on the coldest nights, when it drops toward 23°F, the burner is cycling on and off most of the night to keep up. That is a lot of ignitions for one winter, and the igniter or the flame sensor is usually what gives out first. When it does, the furnace either won't start or shuts off a few minutes in.
Summer is shorter but the air conditioner still has to work through afternoons near 82°F, and most of Rockland County's homes lean on gas heat, which means two separate systems that can each fail in their own way. Storms add to it. This area has had 14 winter storms and 42 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and with 11% of New York households losing power for a full day or more in 2024, a system that loses power and doesn't restart cleanly is a common complaint, especially with older furnaces that need a reset after an outage.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 23°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 82°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace and air conditioner would cut about $170 a year off heating and cooling for a typical Rockland County home.
Estimates for a typical Rockland 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.
Replacement makes sense when the furnace's heat exchanger is cracked, the air conditioner's compressor has failed, or repairs keep coming.
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it's set to heat and the temperature is set above room temperature, since a setting bumped by accident is common. If that's fine, check your breaker panel, since a tripped breaker will cut power to the furnace without any other sign. Gas furnaces also have a flame sensor that dirties over time and shuts the burner down as a safety measure, which is worth mentioning to whoever comes to look at it. If you smell gas at any point, leave the house and call the gas company before anyone touches the furnace.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- The blower is moving air, but something between the coil and your rooms isn't working. Check the filter first. A filter clogged with dust blocks airflow across the coil, and the coil can ice over as a result, so the air coming out feels weak or even warm. If the filter is clean, look at the outdoor unit. The condenser coil outside needs open air around it, so leaves, grass clippings or anything stacked against it will cut cooling fast. If both look fine and the house still isn't cooling on an 82°F afternoon, the system likely needs refrigerant or a part checked, and that's a job for a contractor with gauges.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat settings and batteries first, since a dead battery or a setting left on the wrong mode gets mistaken for a bigger problem all the time. Next, check the breaker panel and any furnace switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit and gets bumped off more often than people expect. Check the filter and pull it if it's gray with dust, since a blocked filter affects both heating and cooling. If your system runs on gas, check that the gas valve is open. Telling the contractor what you found, even if it's nothing, helps them get to the actual problem faster.