You should seek a furnace repair service when the furnace stops working. While this is an obvious sign it’s time to repair your appliance, sometimes the signs aren’t obvious, so you will hear new homeowners asking, how do you know if your furnace is broken?
Are you one of the people asking this? Here are signs your furnace is broken:
The carbon monoxide keeps going off.
Your carbon monoxide detector should never go off and you ignore it as it’s an indicator something is terribly wrong with your appliance. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is extremely deadly.
When your detector goes off, it means there are high carbon monoxide levels in the air, which puts your life and that of other family members at great risk.
Your carbon monoxide detector can accidentally go off, but if it keeps going off, you have a problem in your hands that you should address immediately. In most cases, the detector will go off when there are leakages in your unit, so if it keeps going off, it means you constantly have leakages that are a sign of a broken or failing appliance.
Your house doesn’t get warm enough.
The furnace is supposed to keep your house warm. If you have turned on the furnace and set it, but it’s not heating the house as well as you expected, it’s a clear sign you have a problem that you should address as soon as possible.
The furnace will fail to heat the house properly if you have worn out parts or the blower isn’t working properly. The furnace also won’t heat the house properly if you have a belt that is about to break.
If you are confident in your DIY skills, open up the appliance, and check the genesis of the problem. Begin with the air filter. Is it clogged and dirty? If it is, clean it.
Next, check the vents. Can you see all of them? Also, check whether the vents are blocked. If they are, unclog them.
The blower occasionally blows cold air.
The blower is supposed to blow warm air, so if your blower is blowing cold air, you have a problem. When the blower is blowing cold air, it means heat is backing up into the system, so somewhere along the line, the warmth isn’t circulating properly enough.
When this happens, the system’s inner working overheats, and the system sends a blast of cold air to regulate things out.
When this happens once, it might not be an issue, but if it happens many times, the stress from the sudden temperature swings can weaken and even crack the furnace components.
If you notice cold air coming through the vents, call a professional to fix the appliance as your furnace is at the blink of breaking down.
You are experiencing banging noises.
Banging noises are a sign something is broken or loose. Sometimes you will even hear a belt slapping against the inner parts of the furnace. Any scratching, banging, rattling, or squealing sounds are a sign something is wrong, and you should pay attention to it and find out the cause before things worsen.
Your appliance is giving off unusual smells.
Even if you are using a gas furnace, it shouldn’t give off a smelly gas, so if your appliance does it, chances are you have a gas leak that you need to pay attention to.
Your energy bills are going up every day.
It’s common for your energy bills to go up during summer as you are using your furnace the most at this time, but you should be wary when you have a sudden, sharp rise in your energy bills.
If the change in energy consumption coincides with weaker heating, your furnace is broken or is at the brink of breaking.
Your appliance keeps breaking down.
How many times do you have to repair your furnace in a month? Most appliances will run without any problem for even a year, so if you have the phone number of your heating service repair Long Island professional on speed dial, you are in deep problem as it means your appliance keeps on breaking down.