Your heater—whether it’s a gas furnace, heat pump, or another kind—needs to perform correctly for you to stay warm throughout the winter. Sadly, a variety of major and minor problems can lead to a furnace emergency breakdown.
A dead blower capacitor
You won’t have any heat if your furnace’s capacitor dies since it prevents the blower from starting. A faulty capacitor can occasionally cause the furnace to simply not turn on. Other times, it might cause the blower to run at abnormally low RPMs, which can result in a failure, necessitating emergency furnace repair.
HVAC professionals check capacitor tolerances during yearly routine maintenance calls because this is a cause of heater breakdowns that occur rather frequently. If they find a problem, you can take preventative measures to remedy it.
Draft inducer motor burnout
The inducer motor expels gas produced during combustion and purges the heat exchanger of any remaining gas. This fan motor may begin drawing excessive amounts of current and may even burn out if dirt and grime accumulate on it. Alternatively, the furnace may shut off due to safety switches activating due to overheating.
Once more, specialists inspect this component during yearly furnace maintenance visits to make sure you don’t experience an unexpected malfunction in the dead of winter.
Broken thermostat
Over time, furnace thermometers can break or become misaligned, which might lead to your furnace not igniting at all or igniting too frequently. Even though it’s not necessarily a failure, using the furnace excessively or leaving it running all the time can easily wear it out and cause emergency problems to arise.
Heater exchanger crack
A damaged heat exchanger could be the cause of your heater’s malfunction. This issue usually lowers the energy efficiency of your appliance long before it causes a failure. However, depending on the kind of furnace, your home may leak fatal amounts of carbon monoxide (CO) gas due to a damaged heater exchanger.
You must always repair a damaged exchanger, which is easy to discover during a normal maintenance appointment. It is also important to have a well-functioning CO detector to protect your family.
Filters that are dirty or clogged
Although filters are meant to gather dirt over time, this does imply that they eventually wear out. Your furnace will have to operate harder to heat your home to the correct temperature if the air filters become overly clogged. This additional strain may cause your furnace to break and wear out more quickly. Routinely changing your air filters will help to maintain the efficiency of your furnace.
Excessive gas use
Gas furnaces must be calibrated properly to burn the exact amount of fuel; otherwise, they risk overheating and shutting off in the middle of the cycle. In addition to making sure the gas furnace is calibrated correctly during installation, an HVAC specialist should preferably do a combustion analysis once a year to ensure the furnace is still burning the right quantity of gas.
The takeaway
Furnaces frequently break down due to improper maintenance. By keeping up with maintenance, you can minimize dust accumulation in your HVAC system, which can hinder efficient component operation.