Furnace Repair in Mentor, OH
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Lake County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of Mentor winters wear a furnace down
Your furnace runs from October through May here, eight months of the year. On nights that average 23°F, it cycles on and off for hours to hold the house steady, and most Mentor homes do that heating with gas. Every one of those cycles puts a load on the igniter and the burner.
Lake County has logged 10 winter storms and 82 damaging wind events over the past ten years. When the power drops, a gas furnace stops running even though the gas is still there, because the blower and control board both need electricity. In Ohio, 18% of households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024. If your furnace will not start again once the lights come back on, that is usually the first thing worth checking.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 23°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 10 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 Lake County home.
Estimates for a typical Lake 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.
Lake County sets its own rule for who can do HVAC work on a home, since Ohio leaves that decision to counties rather than running a state license itself. Ohio does define what a home contractor is, and that definition includes carrying at least $250,000 in liability insurance. That is not a license and nothing is tested against it. It is a floor the business is supposed to meet.
For a furnace repair, the part that matters most is the gas connection, since that is where a mistake turns dangerous. Whether someone inspects that connection here depends on the county's own permitting rather than any state board, and the facts on hand do not name a county inspector for this job. Most homes in Lake County heat with gas, 80.3 percent of them, so this is the repair county rules here are built around.
Source: Ohio Legislative Service Commission
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most of the time it's the thermostat, the power to the unit, or a safety switch that's tripped. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and a few degrees above room temperature, and check the breaker. Furnaces also have a switch that looks like a light switch near the unit, sometimes in the basement, and it needs to be on. If those are fine, the igniter or a flame sensor may have failed, and that's a job for a contractor to check.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Usually this means the blower is running but the burners haven't lit yet, or the furnace is set to fan instead of heat. Set the thermostat fan setting to auto, not on, so it only blows while the burners are heating. If it's set right and you're still getting cold air, the igniter or gas valve may not be working, and the furnace needs a contractor to look at it. With 23°F average lows here, this isn't something to leave for long.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out and can't sense the pilot flame anymore, so it shuts the gas off. It can also mean a draft is blowing the flame out, or the pilot orifice is dirty. Relighting it yourself will only work until the same problem happens again, so it needs a contractor to replace the part. Most newer furnaces don't have a standing pilot at all, they use an electronic igniter instead.