No two heating systems break the same way, and in Charleston homes the first question on any no-heat call is what kind of equipment we are dealing with. Furnaces most often stall on an oxidized flame sensor. The burners fire, the sensor fails to confirm the flame, and after three attempts the control board closes the gas valve and locks the system out. Cracked hot surface igniters, sticking pressure switches, plugged condensate traps on high-efficiency units, and tired blower motors round out the usual list. Heat pumps have their own failure patterns. A defrost cycle that underperforms lets ice build up on the outdoor coil, a bad reversing valve traps the system in cooling mode, and a dead outdoor unit hands the whole load to the electric backup strips, which cost several times as much to run.
Our most requested repair is Furnace Repair. Start there if your system isn't running right.
Warning Signs for Heating Repair
Spotting the early warning signs lets you act before the problem gets expensive. Watch for these telltale signs:
- Strange smells from the vents, especially rotten egg or burning
- No warm air at the registers even with the heat turned up
- An outdoor heat pump coil that stays iced over
- Higher heating bills with less comfort to show for them
- Short cycling every few minutes while the house stays cold
- A loud boom when the burners light, which points to delayed ignition
- Clicking and failed ignition attempts before the furnace gives up
- Uneven heat, with certain rooms that never warm up
Act Before It Gets Worse
What seems like a minor issue today can take out a compressor or heat exchanger tomorrow. Call (304) 200-1677 at the first sign of trouble.
