Furnace Repair in Mountain Lake Park, MD
Furnaces here run from September through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Garrett County will get in touch.
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Nine months of heat puts real wear on a furnace
In Mountain Lake Park, your furnace runs from September through May. That is nine months of the year it has to work, and on winter nights that average 21°F, it runs long and it runs often.
All that cycling wears on the parts that start the burner and keep it running. An igniter or flame sensor that has fired thousands of times can fail without warning, usually on one of the coldest nights, which is when you need it most. The county has also seen 63 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and storms like that can knock out the power a furnace needs to run at all.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 21°F
- the average winter night it heats against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Maryland requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Maryland Board of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Contractors is what stands behind that license. It covers the contractor, not the job, so the same license that qualifies someone to install a furnace is what qualifies them to repair one.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the person working on your gas line and burner assembly. A bad connection there is the dangerous part of the job, and in Maryland the same board that licensed the contractor is the one accountable for that work.
Sources: Maryland General Assembly · Maryland Department of Labor
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- The thermostat is the first place to look. Check that it's set to heat and set above room temperature, and that its batteries aren't dead. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace's power switch and the breaker for it, since a tripped breaker will shut the whole system down. Furnaces also have a door on the front that has to be seated correctly, and if it's loose or off, a safety switch will stop the furnace from starting at all.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the furnace hasn't actually started heating yet. A furnace runs the blower for a short stretch before the burners fire, so air can feel cool right when it kicks on. If the air stays cold well after that, the igniter or the flame sensor may be failing to light the burners at all, and the blower keeps running anyway. A clogged filter can also choke the airflow enough that the air feels cooler than it should by the time it reaches the vent.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A weak or dirty thermocouple is the usual cause. That's the small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve the flame is lit. If it's coated with soot or positioned wrong, it reads the flame as out and shuts the gas off even while the pilot is burning. A draft reaching the pilot, or a partly closed gas valve, can also keep it from staying lit, and a contractor can check which one it is.