Furnace Repair in Hagerstown, MD
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Washington County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of work in the cold
Your furnace runs from October through April here, seven months of the year. On nights averaging 25°F, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch to hold the house steady. Every one of those starts puts a load on the igniter and the flame sensor, and over a winter that adds up fast.
More than half the homes in the area heat with electricity, and Maryland households saw real outages last year, with 11% going at least a day without power. Washington County has logged 21 winter storms and 148 damaging wind events over the past ten years. When the power drops on a cold night, an electric furnace stops cold, and when it comes back on, a furnace that was already struggling can fail to relight at all.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 25°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 21 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Maryland requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Maryland tested this contractor before handing out the license, and the Maryland Board of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Contractors keeps a record of who holds one. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same license that covers a furnace repair in Washington County covers the next one somewhere else.
For a furnace repair, the license is what stands behind the work. A gas furnace has a gas line and a burner, and a bad connection there is the dangerous part of the job. The person making that connection is the one the state tested and licensed.
Sources: Maryland General Assembly · Maryland Department of Labor
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and the setting is above room temperature, and make sure it has power if it runs on batteries. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, usually mounted on or near the unit, and the breaker for it in your panel. When none of that fixes it, the problem is likely inside the furnace itself, in the ignition system or a safety switch that's stopping it from starting, and that calls for a contractor to open it up and test it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the blower is running before the heat exchanger has warmed up, and that air feels cold for a minute or two before it turns warm. If it stays cold, check your air filter. A clogged filter blocks airflow and can trip a safety limit that shuts off the burner while the fan keeps running. If the filter is clean and you're still getting cold air, something in the ignition or gas supply has failed and a contractor needs 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. Once it wears out, it can't hold that signal, so the gas valve shuts off and the pilot goes out even though you just relit it. A draft blowing out the flame or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same thing, so a contractor needs to check which one it is before replacing anything.