Furnace Repair in Crete, NE
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Saline County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, and nights near 18 degrees
Your furnace works from October through May here. On the coldest nights, when the temperature outside drops to 18°F, it runs long and often, cycling on and off many times to keep the house warm. Every start puts a little more wear on the igniter and the parts that get the burner going. Over enough winters, that adds up to a furnace that struggles to light or won't start at all.
Saline County has seen 15 winter storms and 48 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Storms like that knock out power, and Nebraska households saw outages of 24 hours or more in a quarter of homes last year. A furnace with a standing pilot will keep running through that. One without it will sit cold until the power comes back, right when you need it most.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 18°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 15 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $90 a year off heating for a typical Saline County home.
Estimates for a typical Saline County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Nebraska fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed and the heat exchanger is sound.
Replacement makes sense when the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace keeps needing parts.
Nebraska requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration puts the business on file with the Department of Labor. Nebraska does not test the contractor's gas work before handing it out, so it tells you the business exists on paper, not that anyone checked its furnace repairs.
For a furnace repair, the part that matters most is the gas connection, since a poor one is what makes the job dangerous. Nebraska's registration does not cover that check, and the facts here do not say who does. Close to half the homes in Saline County heat with gas, so that connection is a real part of many furnace repairs done here.
Source: Nebraska Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat isn't calling for heat the way it should, or power to the furnace is interrupted. Check that the thermostat is set below room temperature and the furnace switch, it looks like a light switch near the unit, is on. A tripped breaker or a blown fuse will also stop it cold. If the furnace has a standing pilot, that pilot may have gone out. Past that, it's likely a failed igniter, a safety switch that's tripped, or a control board issue, and a contractor will need to check it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it's not warm, the furnace may be running the blower without the burners lighting. That points to an ignition problem, a bad flame sensor, or a safety switch shutting the burners down before they can heat the air. A dirty filter can also make this worse by starving the burners of the airflow they need. If the thermostat fan setting is set to "on" instead of "auto," the blower will run constantly between heating cycles and feel cold in between, which is normal. If the blower runs but the burners never fire, that's a repair a contractor needs to look at.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is usually a sign the thermocouple has weakened. That's the small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to keep the gas flowing. When it wears out, the valve shuts the gas off even though the pilot lit fine a moment before. A draft blowing across the pilot, or a dirty pilot orifice, can cause the same thing. With winter lows here averaging 18°F, a furnace that keeps losing its pilot needs attention soon, and a contractor can replace the thermocouple or clean the assembly.