Furnace Repair in Farmington, NM
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers San Juan County will get in touch.
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Farmington asks a lot of a furnace
Your furnace runs from October through May here, eight months of the year. On winter nights averaging 20°F from December through February, the burner is lighting and shutting off over and over to hold the house steady. Each start puts a load on the igniter and the burner, and over enough winters that wear catches up with them.
San Juan County has also logged 30 winter storms and 42 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and outages tend to follow storms like these. Most furnaces need power to run the blower and controls even though they burn gas, so when the power drops, so does your heat. If your house has gone cold during an outage before, or the furnace struggles to keep up on the coldest nights, that is the strain talking.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 20°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 63%
- 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 $70 a year off heating for a typical San Juan County home.
Estimates for a typical San Juan County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, New Mexico 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.
New Mexico requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is issued to the contractor, not to the job. It does not expire or need renewing each time someone works on your furnace. The Construction Industries Division is the state office that licenses HVAC contractors in New Mexico.
Because the license covers the contractor and not the job, the same license applies whether the work is a furnace repair, an install, or anything else in the trade. Your furnace burns gas, and gas repairs carry real risk if the connection is not done right. In San Juan County, most homes heat with gas, which is the furnace this state's licensing rule was written to cover.
Source: New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the power switch on the furnace itself, since a dead battery or a flipped switch stops everything before it starts. If those check out, the filter could be clogged enough to trip a safety switch, since a furnace that can't pull air through won't run. Some furnaces also stop if the pilot light or igniter isn't lighting, which needs a contractor to look at directly.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the furnace is running the fan without the burners lit, so air is moving but nothing is heating it. Check the thermostat fan setting first. If it's set to "on" instead of "auto", the blower runs constantly and pushes cold air between heating cycles. If it's already set to "auto" and you're still getting cold air, something is preventing ignition, and that needs a contractor to check.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot light that won't stay lit is usually a sign the thermocouple has worn out or shifted out of position. The thermocouple senses the flame and keeps the gas valve open. If it can't sense the pilot properly, it shuts the gas off, even when the flame is right there. This is a common repair, but it needs a contractor to test and replace the part.