Furnace Repair in Mansfield, OH
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Richland County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat puts real wear on a Mansfield 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 lighting, running, and shutting off, over and over, every single day. Each cycle puts a little more wear on the igniter and the parts that control the flame.
Mansfield has seen 7 winter storms and 86 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and storms like that bring power flickers and outages with them. Most furnaces need electricity to run even if they burn gas, so a power blip can shut yours down mid-cycle. When the power comes back, it should come back on its own. If it does not relight, or if it runs rough afterward, that is worth a look.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 20°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 62%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 7 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $170 a year off heating for a typical Richland County home.
Estimates for a typical Richland 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.
That leaves Richland County to set its own rule, if it has one, since Ohio does not run a state licensing board for this trade. Ohio's definition of a home contractor calls for at least $250,000 in liability insurance, but that is a definition of the business, not a test anyone has to pass.
So on a furnace repair here, there is no state license standing behind the work. What checks a gas connection is whoever Richland County has do that, if the county requires an inspection, since a loose fitting on a gas line is the part of the job that can hurt someone. With most homes in this county heating with gas, that connection is the part worth knowing is checked.
Source: Ohio Legislative Service Commission
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and a few degrees above room temperature, and check the batteries if it uses them. If the thermostat looks right, check the breaker for the furnace and the switch that looks like a light switch near the unit, sometimes it gets bumped off. If those are all fine, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and a contractor will need to test them.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the furnace is running the blower but hasn't fired up the burners yet. Check the thermostat fan setting, if it's set to "on" instead of "auto" the fan runs even when no heat is being made. If it's on auto and you're still getting cold air, the igniter or flame sensor is a common cause, or the gas valve isn't opening. A clogged filter can also cause the furnace to shut off its burners while the fan keeps blowing, so check that first since it's the easiest thing to rule out.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out. That's the small metal rod the pilot flame touches, and its job is to prove to the gas valve that the pilot is actually burning. Once it wears out or sits slightly out of position, the gas valve shuts the pilot off within a minute or so, even though you just relit it. A draft blowing out the pilot is the other common cause, so check that the area around it isn't exposed to airflow. Most water heaters and older furnaces with standing pilots don't need power to keep the pilot lit, so this isn't related to an outage. A contractor can test the thermocouple and replace it if it's worn.