Furnace Repair in St. Cloud, MN
Furnaces here run from September through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Stearns County will get in touch.
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Nine months of heat, and nights near 6 below
Your furnace in Stearns County runs from September through May. That is nine months of the year it has to work, and on the coldest nights it is cycling on and off for hours at a stretch to hold the house against an average low of 6 degrees. Every one of those cycles puts a load on the igniter and the burner assembly, and over a winter that adds up to a lot of starts.
More than half the homes here heat with gas, so when the power goes out, the furnace goes down with it even though the fuel is still there. Stearns County has seen 30 winter storms and 86 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and across Minnesota last year 13 percent of households lost power for a full day or more. A furnace that was running fine can go cold the moment the lights do, and it needs a working control board and igniter to come back on once power returns.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 6°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 53%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 30 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 Stearns County home.
Estimates for a typical Stearns 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.
There is no state record of who does this work in Minnesota. No test, no license number, no state list to check a contractor against. A business can put a truck on the road and start repairing furnaces without the state ever having reviewed them.
The protection on a furnace repair here has to come from somewhere other than a license, because there is none. Gas is the part that matters most. A bad connection or a bad vent is what makes a furnace dangerous, not a bad thermostat wire. Minnesota does not track who checks that. In Stearns County, more than half of homes heat with gas, which is exactly the kind of repair where that connection is the thing to get right.
Source: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat is asking for heat but the furnace isn't getting the signal, or the power to the unit is cut off. Check the breaker first, and check that the switch on the furnace itself, the one that looks like a light switch on the side of the unit, hasn't been bumped off. A clogged filter can also cause the furnace to shut itself down before it starts. If those check out, a contractor will need to test the control board and the safety switches, since several of them can stop the furnace from firing and each points to a different fix.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it's not warm, the burners likely aren't lighting even though the blower is running. That can mean the igniter has failed, the flame sensor is dirty, or the gas valve isn't opening. It can also mean the thermostat fan is set to "on" instead of "auto", which pushes air through the ducts between heating cycles. With overnight lows around 6°F here, cold air from the vents is worth calling in fast rather than waiting to see if it clears up.
- 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 sits in the flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to stay open. When it wears out or sits out of position, the valve shuts the gas back off within seconds of you letting go of the knob. A draft blowing across the pilot can cause the same thing, so it's worth checking that the area around the burner compartment is clear. Either way, a furnace that won't hold a pilot needs a contractor's attention, since it's the safety system working as it should, not something to force past.