A furnace is an important household device that ensures comfort in extreme cold, especially in the US. In winter, you cannot think of a single day without a heating unit like a furnace. And you need regular maintenance in order to have a fully functioning furnace in your house. However, sometimes the furnace stops working even after regular maintenance. At that time, you can do some easy troubleshooting and fix those furnace-related problems by yourself. If you know these easy troubleshooting methods, you don’t have to call an HVAC professional to your house, especially when there’s a lockdown in the country or in the outbreak of COVID-19. In this article, I’ll talk about these easy furnace troubleshooting guides that will help you to solve furnace problems by yourself.
Furnace Troubleshooting Guide
1. Check the Furnace Filter
When your furnace isn’t working, the first thing you’ll need to check is the furnace filter. The furnace filter blocks all the dust particles from entering your house. As a result, your furnace filter gets dirty quickly. When your furnace filter is dirty, it’ll block the airflow. Also, a dirty furnace filter can worsen the indoor air quality of your house, and it can prevent your furnace from turning on. In a worst-case scenario, your furnace can become a fire hazard, and it can permanently shut down because of excessive dirt and debris.
Turn off your thermostat and flip the switch off before doing any work in your furnace. Hold the furnace air filter to a light source. If light passes through the furnace filter, your filter isn’t dirty. Otherwise, you should change the furnace air filter as soon as possible. Generally, you need to change the air filter every 60 to 90 days. You can mark the dates on your calendar so that you don’t forget to change the furnace air filter When you’re installing a new furnace air filter, make sure that the arrow of the furnace filter points towards the airflow of the furnace.
2. Check the Thermostat Batteries
Many homeowners in the US use battery-powered thermostats. Most of the time, homeowners forget to change the batteries when they’re dead. As a result, they start finding other problems and end up nowhere. Also, while finding the problem, homeowners waste a lot of time because the main problem is in the batteries. So, if you have a battery-powered furnace and the furnace isn’t working, check the batteries of your furnace. If the batteries are dead, replace the batteries with new ones.
3. Check the Fuel Source of the Furnace
Furnace valves can sometimes be turned off accidentally. So, check the furnace valve, whether it’s turned on or off. If you see the furnace valves are turned off, then switch it to on. Also, if you smell any gas around the furnace, you should call an HVAC professional as soon as possible, or you can stop using the furnace if there’s no HVAC professional around you due to some national emergency or pandemic. Gas leaks can be very dangerous for your house and for your health. Gas leaks can set your house on fire within a second. So, you shouldn’t neglect when you smell the presence of gas.
4. Check All the Vents and Registers
This problem is very common among the users of the furnace that the airflow is blocked by foreign objects. In this case, your furnace will be functioning properly, but all the rooms in your house won’t get the same heating. The main reason behind this is that the air vents and registers are blocked by foreign objects or the furniture of your house. As a result, the airflow will be blocked, and all the corners and rooms of your house won’t get the same heating. Also, when the airflow is blocked, it can create excessive pressure in the ducts, and because of the excessive pressure, you will see leakage in the air ducts. When there’s leakage in the air ducts, you have to change the ducts as soon as possible.
To solve this problem, you need to check the vents and registers and remove those objects that are blocking the airflow of the furnace.
See the infographic summary here – Furnace Troubleshooting Guide [Infographic]
By the way, are you looking for an HVAC system for your home?
Check out Green Leaf Air Store where we have a wide range of residential & commercial HVAC system including: –
Complete Goodman HVAC System – Heat Pumps – Trane HVAC system – Air Handlers – Gas Furnaces
