Furnace Repair in Lorain, OH
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Lorain County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat wears on a furnace
From October to May, your furnace is the thing standing between you and a 23°F night. That is eight months of the burner lighting and shutting off, over and over, on the coldest nights of the year. The igniter takes that wear first, and when it goes, the burner won't light at all.
Lorain County has logged 12 winter storms and 112 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Wind like that can knock out power, and across Ohio, 18% of households lost power for a full day or more in 2024. Most gas furnaces, and 76.6% of homes here heat with gas, still need electricity to run the blower and controls. No power means no heat, storm or no storm.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 23°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 77%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 12 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $160 a year off heating for a typical Lorain County home.
Estimates for a typical Lorain County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Ohio 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.
In Ohio, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the counties.
Ohio does not license HVAC contractors for home work at the state level. That question is left to the counties, so whether a license is required depends on where the house sits in Lorain County, not on any statewide rule. Ohio does define what a home contractor is, and that definition requires carrying at least $250,000 in liability insurance. That is a condition on the definition, not a license, and it does not mean the contractor was tested by the state.
For a furnace repair, the gas connection is the part that matters most, since that is where a bad repair turns dangerous. With no state license behind the work, what stands in its place here is that insurance minimum and whatever your county requires of contractors working on homes. In Lorain County, most homes, 76.6 percent, heat with gas, which is the connection a furnace repair has to get right.
Source: Ohio Legislative Service Commission
- 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 see if the display is blank, since dead batteries stop a furnace before anything else does. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker at your panel. A furnace that still won't respond after that has a problem inside the cabinet, often the igniter or a safety switch, and needs a contractor to open it up and test it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the blower is running before the burners have caught up, which is normal for the first minute or so after a cycle starts. If cold air keeps coming the whole time the furnace runs, the burners likely aren't lighting at all, and the blower is just moving unheated air through your ducts. A clogged filter can also cause this by starving the burners of airflow, so check the filter first. If it's clean and the air still isn't warming, the ignition system needs a contractor to look at it.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out. It's the small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve the flame is lit. When it fails, the valve shuts the gas off within seconds of you letting go of the pilot button, even though the flame was burning fine. A draft blowing out the pilot is the other common cause, so check whether the flame looks like it's being pushed sideways. Either way, a contractor can replace the thermocouple or find the draft source.