Furnace Troubleshooting: What to Do Before Calling for Furnace Repair

October 07, 2015

The shifting weather in Marshalltown can mean a variety of things, from the changing color of leaves to turning on your furnace for the cooler months. Of course, whole home comfort is your year-round goal, but sometimes our heating and cooling equipment doesn’t feel like cooperating. That doesn’t mean that you’re predestined for furnace repair though.

When your furnace quits working or you notice it operating oddly, there are a couple things you can check on before calling in the pros at Kapaun & Brown Inc. for furnace repair. Here are a couple troubleshooting tips to try before giving us a shout. 

1) Check your thermostat

This is one of the simplest checks that homeowners can do independently, and might solve the issue more than they’d like to admit. Make sure your thermostat is: 

  • Set to “heat”
  • Turned up higher than the room temperature
  • Using a new battery

2) Look at the furnace filter 

Dirty filters can cause furnaces to act weirdly, making them shut down without notice and without making a sound. Furnace filters have been the cause for a lot of furnace repair calls in the past, but there’s no reason to pick up the phone when you can swap it out yourself. Not to mention that a dirty furnace filter decreases your system’s efficiency and reduces airflow.

3) Find and inspect your furnace’s switches

Nearly all of the time, switches to your furnace are found:

  • Near the furnace and normally look like your stereotypical light switch.
  • At your circuit breaker panel. Find the breaker that controls your furnace and determine if it is in the middle position or the Off position. If it is, cycle the breaker to Off and then flip it back to the On position. 

4) Open all of your vents

A typical blunder among homeowners is to close vents in unused rooms, but this could actually lead to a need for furnace repair. Closing these vents may potentially cause your system to be less efficient and turn off because of added airflow pressure.

If you’ve tried these four troubleshooting tips and still aren’t having any luck getting your system back operating, it’s probably time to give us a shout. The pros at Kapaun & Brown Inc. in Marshalltown are here to make sure all of your furnace repair needs are met, so give us a call at 641-812-2028.