Furnace Repair in Otsego, MN
Furnaces here run from September through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Wright County will get in touch.
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Nine months of heat, and nights near zero to push through
Your furnace in Otsego works from September through May. That is nine months of the year it has to come on, and on winter nights that average 8°F, it runs long and hard to keep up. Every cycle puts wear on the igniter and the blower motor, and that wear adds up faster here than it would somewhere with a shorter, milder winter.
Most homes in this area heat with gas, and a gas furnace needs power to run even though the flame does not. The area has seen 26 winter storms and 65 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and storms like that knock out power. When the lights come back on, most furnaces restart on their own, but if yours does not, or if it was struggling before the outage, that is when you notice it will not light at all.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 8°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 69%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 26 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $130 a year off heating for a typical Wright County home.
Estimates for a typical Wright County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Minnesota 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.
Minnesota has no state license for HVAC contractors.
Minnesota does not put HVAC contractors through a state licensing exam, and it does not keep a state registry of them either. There is no state record to check on the person coming to your house. Any oversight of a furnace repair here has to come from somewhere other than a state license, because that license does not exist.
Gas is the part of a furnace repair that has to be done right. A loose connection or a bad seal on a gas line is a real hazard, not a minor one. In Wright County, close to seven in ten homes heat with gas, so this is the piece of the job that matters most when there is no license standing behind the person doing the work.
Source: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- The most common reason is the thermostat isn't calling for heat, or the furnace isn't getting power. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature. Check the furnace switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit, and check the breaker. If those are fine, the igniter or flame sensor may have failed, and a contractor will need to test them.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Usually this means the blower is running but the burners haven't lit. That can happen if the igniter is worn out, the flame sensor is dirty, or the gas valve isn't opening. It can also mean the thermostat fan setting is stuck on "on" instead of "auto", which pushes air through even when the furnace isn't heating. Nine months of the year here the furnace needs to work, so this isn't something to leave alone.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit almost always points to the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is burning. When it wears out or sits out of place, the valve shuts the gas off as a safety measure even though the pilot was lit a second ago. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same thing. Either way, a contractor needs to look at it, since a pilot that won't hold is the furnace's way of protecting against a gas leak.