Furnace Repair in Wahoo, NE
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Saunders County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat puts real wear on a furnace
From October through May your furnace is what stands between you and a 17°F night. That is eight months of the burner cycling on and off, and every start puts load on the igniter and the flame sensor. Those are usually the first parts to give out, and when one does, the furnace either won't light or shuts itself off partway through the cycle.
Saunders County has seen 17 winter storms and 67 damaging wind events over the last ten years, and storms like that knock out power. In Nebraska, a quarter of households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024. A furnace that runs on electric ignition won't restart on its own if a part failed while the power was out, so a furnace that seemed fine before a storm can need a service call after one.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 17°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 17 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Nebraska requires contractors to register with the state.
Registration puts a contractor's business on file with the Nebraska Department of Labor. It confirms the business is on record to operate in the state. There is no trade exam behind it, and no state check of the contractor's furnace work before their name is added to that list.
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 test or inspect that work. It tells you the business is on file with the state. It does not tell you who checked the gas line.
Source: Nebraska Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and that the batteries aren't dead. If that's fine, check your breaker panel, since a tripped breaker will kill power to the furnace with no other warning. Furnaces also won't fire if the air filter is clogged enough to trip a safety switch, so check that too. If power and airflow both check out and it still won't start, a contractor needs to look at the igniter, the control board, or the flame sensor.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often this means the blower is running but the burners haven't lit. That can come from a dirty flame sensor, a bad igniter, or a clogged filter starving the system of air. It can also just be the furnace starting a cycle, since a few seconds of cool air before the burners catch is normal. If cold air keeps blowing for the whole cycle, the furnace isn't heating at all and needs a contractor to find out why, especially with winter nights here averaging 17°F.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- The usual cause is a worn thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the pilot is lit. When it wears out, it reads the flame as out even when it isn't, so the valve shuts the gas off. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same thing. This is a gas component, so if relighting it doesn't hold, have a contractor check the thermocouple rather than keep relighting it yourself.