Frequently Asked Questions

Your furnace motor could possibly have seized. As with everything else mechanical, your motor has reached the end of its life. You can increase the life of your furnace with regular maintenance and cleaning.

If you have good air flow coming from the vents, but it is cold, your furnace burners may not be igniting. Depending on the age of your furnace, it is possible that your thermocouple may be defective. Most furnaces built since 2000 are either electronic spark ignition, or hot surface ignition.

You could try:

• Rebooting your furnace: Try to turn the furnace power switch off for 1 minute. The power switch can often be found, just above or beside the furnace. Sometimes the main control board becomes locked out and will not properly send the right electric signals to the main components.

• Checking your filter! Furnaces built since 2000 are most prone to shutting off when a furnace filter becomes too dirty. This impedes air-flow. Simply remove the filter, clean it or replace with a new one, and then re-boot your unit.

During times of continuous fan use, you should clean or replace your filters every 30 days. Keep in mind that there are several different types of filters. If your filter states that it removes fine dust particles you need to be sure that it is cleaned and replaced more frequently. Most standard filters are the basic minimum and will help to keep the larger dust partials from getting in the fan. There are also electronic filters that have cells inside that can be cleaned and reinserted.

What you are hearing may be the belt or the bearings on the blower wheel. The wheel may have come loose and is rubbing against the blower housing. We suggest that you do not use your furnace until it gets serviced by a certified HVAC technician.

Funny smells coming from your furnace could be from debris or dust on the heat exchanger in the furnace. Dust that builds up during inactivity will start to burn during the beginning of the colder months, when you first turn your furnace on. Having your furnace cleaned by a professional will help reduce this funny smell issue.

Sometimes your ducts will expand and contract. When they heat up and expands, they can make a banging sound. When it cools off, it will do the reverse and bang again when it contracts. Sometimes you can find the general area that the banging is coming from, and try to put a dent in the duct work, to give it a bit of a kink. This has been known to stop the banging, IF that is what is causing the banging.

If you cannot get the air conditioning system to activate at all, then the most common causes could be a blown circuit breaker or fuse, improperly set or faulty thermostat or an internal switch set to off. First, make sure that your thermostat is set to cool, and the temperature is set for below room temperature. Make sure that it is not set at off or heat. (This does happen a lot!)

If that doesn’t change anything, check and make sure that all breakers are in the ON position. If a circuit breaker has popped or a fuse is blown, you may need to reset the breaker or replace the fuse box. Check that all switches in and around the air conditioner are set to the ON position including the external safety switch which is usually located on an outside wall next to the condensing unit.

If your unit has one, check the condensate tray to see if there is an excessive amount of water in it. Sometimes this tray is installed in remote air handlers using condensate collection instead of a condensate drain. There may be a sensor switch that shuts off your unit when too much water is collected.

The most common reasons for poor airflow are because of dirty filters or blocked, dirty/ disconnected duct work.

Just like your furnace filter, your air filter needs to be cleaned and checked regularly. If your heating and cooling units are separate, so are your filters. If you heat and cool from the same unit, then they are the same. Make sure you visually inspect your duct work to make sure there are no crimps or disconnects. You should also check that your register dampers on your vents are open.

There are several common reasons as to why your air conditioner is frozen. Things like insufficient air flow, low refrigerant and even the
temperature outside are huge possibilities.

Things such as dirty air filters, undersized ducts, damaged blower motors and dirt build up can seriously impede air flow. This can cause the
evaporator coil to drop below freezing. Humidity in the air and dirt can collect on the coil causing ice to build up and hinder the systems cooling ability. Refrigerant leaks or low levels of refrigerant can also cause pressure drops in the air conditioners evaporator coil, which will allow moisture in the air to freeze and accumulate on the coil.

Almost all outdoor units do not function well in temperatures below 60*F. When the temperature at night drops, the system may not be able to operate properly causing it to freeze up.

Should your unit ever become frozen, the first thing you should do is shut it off and let it defrost. Once it has defrosted, you will need to check airflow, clean or replace dirty filters or remove any visible dirt or obstructions.