How to Troubleshoot a Natural Gas Furnace

Before you start, review your furnace’s owners manual to be familiar with the major parts of your furnace. Moreover, there might also be a need to secure a screwdriver and flashlight when implementing the following furnace troubleshooting suggestions.

Inspect all the Furnace Essentials

Make sure that your gas service is working. Inspect the gas valve meter of your local gas company. And then, inspect your face’s shutoff valve.

This one is pretty obvious. Ensure that the setting of your thermostat is on the heat mode. When the temperature of the room us much lower in contrast to the setting on your thermostat, you can make the temperature go higher by a number of degrees and wait for your home’s furnace to turn on.

Also, make sure that the power switch on your furnace is turned on.

Likewise, inspect the ignition source or the pilot light. By now, you’ll be grateful to have your owner’s manual with you. Many older furnaces come equipped with a pilot light that you need to light up every now and then. Meanwhile, modern furnaces have flame adjustment screws.

Now, check its circuit breaker. A tripped breaker can be addressed by resetting it. You can do this measure by turning off the circuit and then turning it back on once more.

Press your furnace’s reset button. If it doesn’t work, wait for another thirty minutes before pressing the button once again

furnace troubleshooting

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Furnace Troubleshooting for Furnaces that do not Heat Up

Take off your furnace’s filter and then hold it somewhere against a light source. If no light passes through the filter, it is time to have it replaced. A filter full of dirt and dust can significantly affect the efficiency of your furnace making it overheat and forcibly shut it down.

As you continue with your DIY furnace troubleshooting, further inspect your home’s registers to ensure they remain open and never blocked by certain window treatments, other objects and furniture.

Furnace Troubleshooting for a Noisy Furnace

Rattling noises result from loose cover panels. Just simply tighten the screws in case the cover is loose.

On the other hand, high-pitched squealing sounds can come from a belt connecting the fan and the motor. All you need to do is to realign this particular belt. A frayed or worn-out belt requires replacement but must be done by an expert furnace technician.

Expect for trouble once you start hearing grinding noises. It simply means your furnace have motor bearings issues. Shut off the furnace and seek the assistance of an HVAC expert when facing such furnace problems.

Furnace Troubleshooting on a Furnace that Constantly Turns On and Off

There can be a lot of reasons as to why your furnace constantly turns on and off. It can be a thermostat that requires recalibration or a replacement of unit’s actual size. For example, a unit too big for your home can be expected to turn off shortly since the furnace can easily generate heat that’ll match your thermostat’s setting. Do away with these likelihoods by regularly inspecting your unit’s fan setting. Make sure you put its setting on auto so that its fan runs as long it can keep up with your thermostat’s setting.

Seek the Help of an HVAC Expert

If all your furnace troubleshooting measures did not work and you’re still left with a faulty or broken furnace, your last recourse is to call an HVAC service technician. Bear in mind that your unit probably needs a long overdue and equally important yearly maintenance.

Usual yearly furnace maintenance involves your entire heating system’s inspection, all the way from your thermostat up to the unit’s heat exchanger. Then, there’s cleaning and oiling of your furnace’s crucial moving components, setting the correct combustion and ignition setting of your burners, tightening the various electrical connections, inspecting the condensate drain, chimney and flue, testing the fan belt’s condition, and lastly, conducting a carbon monoxide test.

In the end, it never hurts to try certain furnace troubleshooting measures before eventually calling for an expert to intervene since you’ll never know if your simple and inexpensive measures might actually work.